A new agreement between Gloucester, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the state will allow the city to perform work more efficiently and save approximately $3 million as it continues to upgrade its water and sewer facilities.

The agreement modifies a 2005 consent decree that called for the city to separate its waste water and storm water, which often flowed into the harbor during heavy storms. Until 2005, the city had one pipe that carried storm water and sewage to its waste-water treatment plant. During heavy storms, the pipe reached capacity and in order to keep the system from backing up, a release trigger opened automatically, causing untreated waste to spill from designated spouts into the ocean harbor on a regular basis.