The county’s control of its sewer system was moved to Young, the court-appointed receiver, in September 2010.

Earlier this year, he proposed hiking rates about 25% a year to make the debt payments and for system operations and maintenance.

The bankruptcy is a “catastrophic mistake” that will be “devastating” to customers, Young said in a statement. “We are required to move forward with increases that will be significantly higher” than the rates negotiated in the settlement, he said.

But Young “made additional demands inconsistent with the (settlement) that the Commission was unwilling to accept,” according to a commission statement. He could not be reached for further comment.

The sewer debt problem dates to a 1997 consent decree with the EPA that involved an overhaul of the sewer system, including large trunk lines and smaller lines in the county’s 33 municipalities.

However, there was no plan developed, no priorities set, no design and no budget, Young said in a report issued in June.

That led “to substantial and wasteful cost overruns and a failure to eliminate all problems related to sewer system overflows,” he said.

The bribery and corruption extended to the financial side as well, with JP Morgan Chase agreeing to pay $75 million in penalties to the Securities and Exchange Commission and to forfeit $647 million in fees after two of its bankers paid more than $8 million for interest rate swaps.

Four county commissioners, six county employees, a lobbyist, a banker, five contractors and nine officers or employees were fined and made restitution of about $48 million and got sentences ranging from probation to 15 years.

The current county commissioners took office in November 2010.

Kenneth Klee, partner in Klee, Tuchin, Bogdanoff & Stern LLP of Los Angeles, and Patrick Darby, of Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP of Birmingham are representing the county in U.S. Bankruptcy Court.