In 2009 I blogged about a New York Times article that said that in the past three years more than 9,400 of the US’s 25,000 sewage systems had violated the Clean Water act by dumping untreated or partly treated human waste, chemicals and other hazardous materials into rivers and lakes and elsewhere. This was based on data from state environmental agencies and the EPA. According to the analysis more than a third of all U.S. sewer systems including San Diego, Houston, Phoenix, San Antonio, Philadelphia, San Jose and San Francisco have violated environmental laws since 2006. The EPA estimated in August 2004 that the volume of combined sewer overflows (CSOs) discharged nationwide is 850 billion gallons per year. Sanitary sewer overflows (SSOs) result in the release of as much as 10 billion gallons of raw sewage yearly. The EPA estimates that there are at least 23,000 - 75,000 SSOs per year. According to the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) in 2008 there were about 14,780 wastewater treatment facilities and 19,739 sewer systems in the U.S. and aging pipes and inadequate capacity (SSOs and CSOs) result in the discharge of an estimated 900 billion gallons of untreated sewage into surface waters each year.
The New York Times article goes on to say that In New York City the sewer system overflows just about every other time it rains. According to the New York Riverkeeper, more than 27 billion gallons of raw sewage and polluted stormwater discharge from 460 combined sewer overflows (CSOs) into New York Harbor each year. The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) and New York City Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) have recently announced a $3.8 billion modified consent decree that over 18 years will reduce combined sewer overflows.
According to the ASCE, the problem is that most jurisdictions are spending between 1 and 1.5 percent on infrastructure, which is down from 5 to 6 percent spent in the 1960s and '70s. In September 2002, an EPA Gap Analysis concluded that if there is no increase in investment, there will be a $6-billion gap between current annual capital expenditures for wastewater treatment ($13 billion annually) and projected spending needs. The EPA CY2004 clean water needs survey estimated an investment of $202.5 billion over 20 years. In the CY2008 needs survey the investment has risen to an estimated $344.8 billion, primarily as the result of age, deferred maintenance, and population growth.
In Ottawa where I live in 2006 a sewage leak resulted in the equivalent of 350 Olympic pools of untreated sewage being discharged into the Ottawa River. This leakage only became public knowledge some time after it occurred. The public also became more generally aware that Ottawa's combined sewer system routinely discharges untreated sewage into the Rideau Canal and Ottawa River. There is now a City of Ottawa web site that reports CSOs. The City of Ottawa also has a plan to mitigate the impact of combined sewer overflows into the Ottawa River including real time monitoring and control, building storage capacity to hold overflows until there is capacity to treat the sewage, and continuing sewer separation projects. With the current funding framework, it is expected that the planned separation work will be completed in approximately 25 years.
Many U.S. cities including Cleveland, Akron, Chicago, Atlanta, Pittsburgh, and others have agreed to very expensive consent decrees for violation of the Clean Water Act.
Unlike some other states such as Maryland, New York statutes currently do not require public notification when raw or partially treated sewage is discharged into waterways. A bill is before the New York state legislature to amend the environmental conservation law to establish the sewage pollution right to know act. The bill would ensure that the public would be notified of raw sewage overflows (CSOs and SSOs). The objective is to protect public health.
Public notification of sewage overflows would be required to include the volume and treated state of the sewage spill, the date and time of the sewage spill, the expected duration of the sewage spill, the location and whether it is contained, all chemicals and agents applied to absorb the sewage spill, the material safety data sheet, any health/safety/welfare/environmental concerns related to exposure, information to residents as to safety precautions, method of containment, website addresses and any other information deemed relevant by the department of environmental conservation or the New York state department of health.
In addition the department of environmental conservation will be required to produce an annual report on violations in the prior calendar year. The report is to include total number of violations or exceedances and the details of each including actions taken to mitigate impacts and avoid further violations.
As Theodore Roosevelt said, "civilized people should be able dispose of sewage in a better way than putting it into the drinking water". The point of the sewage pollution right to know initiative is that the first step in addressing the problem is increasing public awareness that putting sewage in the drinking water is exactly what we are currently doing.
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