News release from Connecticut Fund for the Environment, from their website (italics mine):

Connecticut Fund for the Environment May Drop Lawsuit Against Bridgeport
Is Reviewing Consent Order Between DEP and City

New Haven – Connecticut Fund for the Environment, a New Haven-based environmental group, was cautiously optimistic that a Consent Order between the Department of Environmental Protection and the City of Bridgeport entered into on March 20 will begin to address the numerous violations of the Clean Water Act that have been committed over the past five years by the Bridgeport Water Pollution Control Authority (WPCA), the City’s sewage treatment plant.

Since 2004, the Bridgeport WPCA has dumped 1.6 billion gallons of untreated sewage into Long Island Sound, creating a public health hazard for swimmers and so thoroughly contaminating shellfish beds for every one out of two days they were ordered closed. Continued mismanagement and violations at the plant have also resulted in sewage being pushed into neighborhood basements and onto city streets. In January, in response to this pattern of pollution, Connecticut Fund for the Environment, its program Save the Sound, and Earthjustice issued a 60-Day Notice of Intent to Sue.

“We applaud Mayor Finch and the DEP for beginning a process to reverse the decades of mismanagement and non-enforcement that have had such a profound negative impact on the Park City and Long Island Sound,” said Roger Reynolds, Senior Staff Attorney for CFE. “The Consent Order constitutes a substantial first step toward dealing with the longstanding illegal discharge of sewage engaged in by Bridgeport. The DEP and the City have acknowledged and admitted to the almost 1,000 violations we identified and have agreed to take the first and necessary steps to address them.”

The Consent Order requires the City to retain an independent contractor to prepare a study that would identify the causes of the WPCA plant violations by February 2010 and perform remedial actions to address the violations by July 2010.

CFE alleged and the Consent Order acknowledges and admits that the Bridgeport WPCA:

(1) Periodically dumped raw sewage into Long Island Sound;
(2) Periodically bypassed their treatment system before the plant reached capacity;
(3) Discharged pollutants in violation of their permit;
(4) Failed to employ qualified personnel to operate the plant;
(5) Failed to properly maintain and operate the plant;
(6) Failed to submit timely monitoring and bypass reports.

“This order requires that Bridgeport set a firm plan for dealing with a whole array of problems and deficiencies that are resulting in serious pollution to Long Island Sound and blocking the right of every Bridgeport citizen to clean water. We will carefully review that plan. And we will bring legal action if it is not adequate,” commented Reynolds.

A separate unilateral order, issued by DEP after CFE/Save the Sound began its investigation into the Bridgeport matter, requires the City to prepare a Long Term Control Plan to address their combined sewage overflows by September 30, 2010.