Churchill Downs to Pay $2.7 Million For Water Pollution Releases

Churchill Downs Louisiana Horseracing Co. LLC will pay $2.7 million to settle claims that it discharged wastewater from a New Orleans facility in violation of its water pollution permit, according to a filing Tuesday in a Louisiana federal court.

Storm water contaminated with manure, food, and waste bedding flowed from Fair Grounds Race Course into outfalls that direct flows into Lake Pontchartrain or the Mississippi River, the federal government said in its complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana.

Environmental Protection Agency inspectors visited the facility in 2013 and found it was discharging those ...