Lake Ozark admits dumping waste in lake

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) -- The city of Lake Ozark pleads guilty in federal court to illegally dumping sewage into the popular Lake of the Ozarks.

Mayor Johnnie Franzeskas signed a plea agreement Monday in which the city admitted to repeatedly discharging untreated sewage into the Lake of the Ozarks.

In September 2007, the Missouri Department of National Resources staff observed that a lift station experiencing a bypass caused up to 15,000 gallons of raw sewage to flow into the lake.

The city also agreed to upgrade its wastewater treatment system and report all bypasses.

The city's former public works director, Richard L. Sturgeon, pleaded guilty in late July to failing to report the discharge of raw sewage into the lake.