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Pub­lic Util­i­ties Min­is­ter Bar­ry Padarath has an­nounced that the Wa­ter and Sew­er­age Au­thor­i­ty (WASA) has been grant­ed a one-year mora­to­ri­um by the En­vi­ron­men­tal Man­age­ment Au­thor­i­ty (EMA), tem­porar­i­ly avert­ing a po­ten­tial $35 mil­lion an­nu­al fine for non-com­pli­ance at the Beetham Waste­water Treat­ment Plant.

The mora­to­ri­um gives WASA a crit­i­cal win­dow to up­grade the age­ing fa­cil­i­ty and meet en­vi­ron­men­tal stan­dards, avoid­ing the cost­ly penal­ties tied to per­sis­tent vi­o­la­tions re­lat­ed to ef­flu­ent dis­charge.

Padarath made the dis­clo­sure dur­ing an in­ter­view with Guardian Me­dia yes­ter­day. He was re­spond­ing to ques­tions about the pend­ing fines stem­ming from the plant’s ef­flu­ent is­sues.