The Elizabeth Township Sanitary Authority will pay a $20,000 civil fine for allowing tens of millions of gallons of untreated sewage to flow into the Youghiogheny River, and will eventually shut down its malfunctioning treatment plant and pump its sewage to a planned new treatment facility in McKeesport.

The consent order, announced yesterday by the Allegheny County Health Department, addresses the continuing sewage overflow problems that have plagued the township authority's Buena Vista sewage treatment plant since at least August 2006.

The order requires the sanitary authority to assess sewer system problems and make needed repairs by October 2010 and pump its flow to the McKeesport Municipal Authority's sewage treatment plant when it becomes operational. The Buena Vista treatment facility, built in the 1970s, will then close.

"McKeesport is in the design phase for that new treatment facility and had to make it bigger to accommodate the flow from Elizabeth," said Guillermo Cole, a Health Department spokesman. "It will probably come on line sometime in 2012."

Because of sewer line infiltration and treatment plant design problems, sewage overflows from the Buena Vista facility in the southwest corner of Allegheny County have been occurring in both wet and dry weather, violating regulations that prohibit the release of untreated sewage from sanitary sewer systems.

The overflows were recorded on more than 70 days in 2007. Mr. Cole said the overflows have been reduced in recent months but still occur regularly.