The US state of Maryland's Department of the Environment, a shellfish company and several conservation groups have succeeded in forcing a utility that provides water and sewer services in a particular county to upgrade its facilities.

The lawsuit, first brought in the Circuit Court for St. Mary's County, Maryland, in 2022, had charged St. Mary's Metropolitan Commission (MetCom) with dumping untreated sewage into the Potomac River and local streams, leading to negative ramifications for local shellfish farmers, as reported by the state government news service Maryland Matters. 

Despite MetCom's previous attempts to fix the problem, over 76,000 gallons of sewage ended up in the environment between December 2022 and June 2023. The utility also allegedly let too much phosphorous and nitrogen into the water at the end of 2022.

As part of the consent decree signed July 22, MetCom must immediately improve the stations where leaks happened and work on its testing methods. It must also continuously check its whole system for issues for at least nine years and devise a plan for responding to and reporting any future leaks. 

The agreement includes a $250,500 penalty to be paid by MetCom, half of which will go to the state's Department of the Environment while the other half will be directed to the Potomac River Fisheries Commission to help fund oyster restoration projects.

The case was brought by the Maryland agency but was joined by Shore Thing Shellfish, and the Potomac Riverkeeper as plaintiff intervenors.