BY EMILY BATTLE

Fredericksburg faces a fine of $96,000 as a result of water-quality violations at its wastewater treatment plant.

Some of those violations stem from a problem the city had back in July, when a rock lodged in an intake valve on a pump and stopped it from moving sewage from the city plant to Spotsylvania's downstream treatment plant.

Because of the problem, the city plant was treating a lot more waste than it usually does.

The higher volume meant the water that was going back into the Rappahannock River was being treated at a lower level than usual, so officials issued river warnings.

But the state Department of Environmental Quality cited a long list of other issues at the plant that date back to February of this year.

Most of them are violations of the strict rules that dictate what percentage of solids and various chemicals can be in the water that the plant puts back into the Rappahannock River after treating it.

Others are observations of bad maintenance practices.

For example, in June, DEQ inspectors found that various pieces of equipment were not working, animals had apparently burrowed under a holding tank and "solids"--the stuff the plant removes from the water we all use--had accumulated on the floors of one of the plant buildings.

Because of these problems, the city is preparing to enter into a "consent agreement" with DEQ that lays out steps Fredericksburg must take to correct its problems.

Public Works Director Doug Fawcett said yesterday that the city began working to correct the problems at the plant--which has not had a major upgrade in 13 years--as it became aware of them.

"We have by no means been waiting to be told in a consent order what to do before we started the process," he said.

Since August of 2006, it has made more than $500,000 in repairs to the plant.

The city also fired its former wastewater superintendent in March, and hired a new one in June. The City Council in August agreed to spend $57,000 to hire a third mechanic at the plant.

In addition, Fredericksburg is preparing to spend $8 million to upgrade its sanitary and stormwater sewer systems.