Fort Morgan, Ala. — (GSN) — The Alabama Department of Environmental Management (ADEM) has proposed a Consent Order and an $18,000 civil penalty against Baldwin County Sewer Service (BCSS), LLC, for multiple environmental violations at its Fort Morgan Treatment Plant.

According to the proposed Consent Order, the violations at the facility—located at 16763 AL Hwy 180 in Gulf Shores—include exceedances in flow volumes and Biological Oxygen Demand limits. ADEM also cited BCSS for unpermitted discharges in the form of Sanitary Sewer Overflows (SSOs) and a failure to report these SSOs to the Department within 24 hours of becoming aware of them.

If issued, the Consent Order will require BCSS to submit a detailed Engineering Report outlining corrective actions and a schedule-based Compliance Plan. The company must also submit a complete Underground Injection Control (UIC) permit modification application and a report exploring the feasibility of alternative wastewater discharge options. Members of the public have 30 days from the publication of the notice to submit comments or request a hearing.

A History of Conflict: The Fort Morgan Plant and Local Residents

The proposed penalty marks the latest chapter in the checkered history of the Fort Morgan plant, which has long been a focal point of intense legal and environmental disputes between BCSS, local residents, and the City of Gulf Shores.

The plant was originally constructed in 1986 in what was then an unzoned, unincorporated area of Baldwin County. Over the subsequent decades, residential neighborhoods grew directly around the facility. BCSS officials have argued that "the residential development has come to the facility," which was in operation long before the surrounding homes existed.

However, local residents and watchdog groups, notably the Little Lagoon Preservation Society (LLPS), have raised serious environmental and quality-of-life concerns. Tensions escalated dramatically in late 2021 when BCSS constructed a 1-million-gallon sludge processing pond on the property without obtaining a permit from the City of Gulf Shores.

The sludge pond was built less than 100 feet from a subdivision, subjecting neighboring residents in the Little Lagoon Mobile Home Park to severe odors and swarms of insects. In response, the City of Gulf Shores issued a cease-and-desist order in May 2022 to halt the use of the sludge pond, classification of which as an illegal expansion of a nonconforming use in a residential zone was upheld by the city's Zoning Board of Adjustment.

As ADEM's proposed Consent Order moves through its 30-day public comment period, the fate of the Fort Morgan plant continues to hang in the balance, caught between the utility's expansion goals and the determined resistance of local residents and municipal watchdogs.