The City of Havre de Grace and the Environmental Protection Agency have been involved in negotiations in recent weeks regarding a potential fine for stormwater violations, according to city and EPA officials."We can confirm that we have been in discussions with the City of Havre de Grace and that those discussions remain ongoing," EPA spokesperson David Sternberg wrote in an email Wednesday.The original fine is $187,500, based on deficiencies found during an EPA inspection of the city's stormwater facilities and its stormwater management program in early 2014, but both parties are negotiating what the final fine will be, according to Tim Whittie, the city's director of public works."We have made headway in that arena in addressing those shortcomings from the [EPA] report," Whittie.Whittie, the Harford County government's former public works director, was hired by the city in January.EPA inspectors cited Havre de Grace for not having an ordinance to regulate illicit discharge or a program to monitor discharges, not having an inspector for stormwater issues, not following up on other stormwater inspection reports and not having accurate mapping of the locations of all stormwater outfalls, according to Whittie.The city has taken strides to correct those deficiencies, Whittie noted – the city has hired a stormwater inspector, and an illicit discharge ordinance has been approved. There is also an ongoing project to put together electronic GIS maps of all stormwater outfalls in the city limits, and four projects to improve water quality are in the engineering stages.The city has also submitted two additional projects for EPA approval. The projects include retrofitting a city-owned pond and the ongoing Lilly Run stream restoration project, Whittie said.He said negotiations with EPA are expected to continue through January 2017, and the process has been cordial so far."I think they've been very reasonable," he said. "They were impressed that we had made gains from their initial report."Aberdeen City Manager Randy Robertson recently cited the pending EPA action against Havre de Grace – and a prior fine against the Town of Bel Air – in warning the mayor and city council that Aberdeen could be facing similar sanctions.Robertson urged the city's elected officials to begin discussing potential future infrastructure upgrades and placed the subject on the agenda for an upcoming retreat in November.In an Aug. 22 memo to the mayor and council, Robertson wrote: "I think it's fair to say that Aberdeen has no concerted municipal separate storm sewer system (MS4) program nor specifically dedicated resources as mandated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency."Bel Air officials agreed to pay a $35,000 fine for stormwater violations found during a 2014 EPA inspection of town facilities and its programs to educate the public about preventing runoff pollution.The town commissioners voted in July to pay the fine, which had been reduced from $49,500 through negotiations between the town and EPA.