I blogged recently about the first national sewage treatment standard in Canada. Every year about 150 billion litres of untreated sewage are dumped into Canadian surface waters. The Environment Minister and Minister of Transport, Infrastructure and Communities have announced that the Wastewater Systems Effluent Regulations are now in force. The Regulations are established under the Fisheries Act and include mandatory minimum effluent quality standards that can be achieved through secondary wastewater treatment. The regulations are intended to prevent untreated and under-treated sewage from being dumped into surface waters.
Victoria's untreated sewage outfall
Greater Victoria, British Columbia, produces about129 million litres of raw sewage each year. Currently the Capital Regional District (CRD) of Greater Victoria, which is reponsible for the local water and sewage system, screens and dumps the waste without treatment into the Strait of Juan de Fuca through underwater outfall pipes.
Victoria's Core Area Wastewater Treatment Program
The governments of Canada and British Columbia and the Capital Regional District (Greater Victoria. comprised of 13 municipalities) recently announced $800 million in joint funding for the construction of a new wastewater treatment system for the CRD to improve treatment of wastewater discharged into the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Called the Core Area Wastewater Treatment Program (CAWTP), it will be funded by $253.4 million from the federal government, up to a maximum of $248 million from the Province, and about $281.3 million from the CRD. The program includes three projects, a wastewater treatment plant and marine outfall, a Biosolids Energy Centre and conveyance system upgrades. The new facilities will be designed to satify the new federal Wastewater Systems Effluent Regulations.
Public-private partnership (P3)
The Biosolids Energy Centre will be delivered through a public-private partnership, via the P3 Canada Fund. The facility will consist of
The P3 Canada fund will provide $83.40 Million in funding. The private sector partner will be responsible for designing, building, financing, operating and maintaining the facility for a total concession period of 25 years. The CRD of Victoria will own the facility and will be accountable for the project to ensure performance objectives are met and taxpayer investment is protected.
I have blogged previously about the issues facing water/wastewater systems in the U.S. and the challenge of funding replacement of aging infrastructure and upgrading to meet the requirements of the Clean Water Act. According to the ASCE, 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 would be a $6-billion gap between current annual capital expenditures for wastewater treatment ($13 billion annually) and projected spending needs. The AWWA has estimated that the cost of repairing and expanding U.S. drinking water infrastructure will exceed $1 trillion in the next 25 years and $1.7 trillion over 40 years.
One of the most important funding mechanisms are state revolving funds which provide low interest loans for water and wastewater infrastructure. The House Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior, Environment and Related Agencies of the U.S. House of Representatives has approved a FY2013 funding bill that will cut state revolving funds for water and wastewater.
A bill has been introduced in Congress that will provide a protected source of revenue for water infrastructure similar to the Highway Trust Fund, which is funded by a tax on gasoline. The Water Protection and Reinvestment Act proposes to raise revenue by assessing small fees on a broad base of those who use water and contribute to water pollution inlcuding
The proposed revenue base has been analyzed by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) report and it is estimated that this would raise around $6.5 billion a year. The funds would provide grants and loans through the existing Clean Water State Revolving Loan Fund (CWSRF), as well as grants for energy and water efficiency; sewer overflow control; research, development, and technology demonstration; and workforce development.
It is reported that the bill is supported by the American Society of Civil Engineers, the Association of General Contractors, Sierra Club, Water Infrastructure Network, American Rivers, and others.
Every year about 150 billion litres of untreated sewage are dumped into Canadian surface waters. In 2010 I blogged about then Environment Minister JIm Prentice releasing a draft of proposed municipal wastewater systems effluent regulations, which are designed to set standards for the discharge from all 4,000 wastewater facilities in Canada. This was part of implementing the Canada-wide Strategy for the Management of Municipal Wastewater that was endorsed by the Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment (CCME) in 2009.
The Environment Minister and Minister of Transport, Infrastructure and Communities have announced that the Wastewater Systems Effluent Regulations are now in force. The Regulations are established under the Fisheries Act and include mandatory minimum effluent quality standards that can be achieved through secondary wastewater treatment. The Wastewater System Effluent Regulations are Canada's first national standards for sewage treatment. The regulations are intended to prevent untreated and under-treated sewage from being dumped into surface waters. The Government of Canada, which said it worked with provinces, territories and municipalities, to finalize these regulations, expects that about 75 percent of existing wastewater systems already meet the minimum secondary wastewater treatment standards in the Regulations. Communities and municipalities that meet the standards will not need to make upgrades to their systems. The other 25 percent, about 850 individual communities or treatment areas, will have to upgrade to at least secondary wastewater treatment.
Environment Canada has classified towns and cities into three categories of risk when it comes to their wastewater systems. High, medium and low categories would be given until 2020, 2030 and 2040, respectively, to comply with the regulations. The Federation of Canadian Municipalities has estimated that the regulations could cost municipalities over $30 billion and has urged a national funding plan involving all levels of government to pay for the wastewater upgrades.
Owners and operators of the systems will also need to consistently monitor and submit reports on their effluent releases. According to Environment Canada, the new effluent standards align Canada with both the United States and the European Union.
Every year about 150 billion litres of untreated sewage are dumped into Canadian surface waters. In 2010 I blogged about then Environment Minister JIm Prentice releasing a draft of proposed municipal wastewater systems effluent regulations, which are designed to set standards for the discharge from all 4,000 wastewater facilities in Canada. Fundamentally it would no longer be permitted to directly release raw sewage into waterways. This is part of implementing the Canada-wide Strategy for the Management of Municipal Wastewater that was endorsed by the Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment (CCME) in 2009. Since then the target for introducing legislation to make these propsed regulations law has been pushed back. According to the Ottawa Citizen, Environment Canada is going ahead with plans to table the proposed legislation.
The Wastewater Systems Effluent Regulations were designed by Environment Canada in close consultation the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM). Environment Canada wants to put towns and cities into three categories of risk when it comes to their wastewater systems. High, medium and low categories would be given until 2020, 2030 and 2040, respectively, to comply with the regulations.
According to the Ottawa Citizen, in 2006 Environment Canada estimated that cities would need up to $20 billion over two decades to bring municiple wastewater systems up to the proposed standard. How this is to be funded is still under discussion. The Transport, Infrastructure and Communities Minister has said he is continuing to work with municipalities on delivering a long-term funding plan to help them maintain and upgrade aging roads, bridges, water systems and other local infrastructure. It is expected that any funding solution will need to involve the provinces and the municipalities.
I have blogged previously about the issues facing water/wastewater systems in the U.S. and the challenge of funding replacement of aging infrastructure and upgrading to meet the requirements of the Clean Water Act. One of the most important funding mechanisms are state revolving funds which provide low interest loans for water and wastewater infrastructure.
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.
The AWWA has estimated that the cost of repairing and expanding U.S. drinking water infrastructure will exceed $1 trillion in the next 25 years and $1.7 trillion over 40 years.
According to Forbes, this week the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior, Environment and Related Agencies of the U.S. House of Representatives approved a FY2013 funding bill that will cut state revolving funds for water and wastewater. The Clean Water State Revolving Fund (CWSRF) provides loans for water quality improvement projects including municipal wastewater facilities, estuary protection projects, and nonpoint source pollution control. The Drinking Water State Revolving Fund (DWSRF) supports loans to improve drinking water quality, The cuts are significant
According to American Rivers, the bill also removes dedicated funding for green infrastructure, water efficiency, and environmentally innovative projects that communities used to implement forward-thinking water management solutions that protect clean water and save them money.
There are alternative suggestions for paying for water/wastewater infrastructure including
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.
A shale-gas boom is expected in northeastern Ohio as energy companies begin to exploit the Marcellus and Utica shale deposits. But there are concerns about the effect of hydraulic fracturing on aquifers and on seismic activity.
The Ohio legislature has passed a bill (SB 315) setting new rules for hydraulic fracturing in Ohio. The bill requires limited disclosure of the chemicals used in hydraulic frracturing. The bill also requires water sampling within 1,500 feet of proposed wells. It mandates that oil and gas wells be tracked between the time they are drilled and the time they are capped. Waste fluids from other states must be disclosed before they can be injected into wells in Ohio. The legislation requires increased inspection of wells, and requires well owners to hold liability insurance coverage.
With regards to injected chemicals the bill requires that (emphasis mine)
(10)(b) If applicable, the trade name and the total volume of all products, fluids, and substances, and the supplier of each product, fluid, or substance used to stimulate the well. The owner shall identify each additive used, provide a brief description of the purpose for which the additive is used, and include the maximum concentration of the additive used. In addition, the owner shall include a list of all chemicals, not including any information that is designated as a trade secret pursuant to division (I)(1) of this section, intentionally added to all products, fluids, or substances and include each chemical's corresponding chemical abstracts service number and the maximum concentration of each chemical. The owner shall obtain the chemical information, not including any information that is designated as a trade secret pursuant to division (I)(1) of this section, from the company that stimulated the well or supplied the chemicals. If the company that stimulated the well or supplied the chemicals provides incomplete or inaccurate chemical information, the owner shall make reasonable efforts to obtain the required information from the company or supplier.
and it goes on to say that if the chemical involved has not been disclosed because it is a trade secret, a medical professional can request the exact chemical composition, which he or she must keep confidential.
H)(1) If a medical professional, in order to assist in the diagnosis or treatment of an individual who was affected by an incident associated with the production operations of a well, requests the exact chemical composition of each product, fluid, or substance and of each chemical component in a product, fluid, or substance that is designated as a trade secret pursuant to division (I) of this section, the person claiming the trade secret protection pursuant to that division shall provide to the medical professional the exact chemical composition of the product, fluid, or substance and of the chemical component in a product, fluid, or substance that is requested.
According to the Marietta Times, the bill allows people to sue to learn what chemicals energy companies use in their hydraulic fracturing operations, but people who believe a chemical sickened them or polluted their land, would have to prove that a specific chemical compound, many of which are typically not divulged by drillers because they are claimed to be trade secrets, made them sick or polluted their land.
According to the New York Times, between 2006 and 2009 more than 9,400 of the US’s 25,000 sewage systems have violated the law by dumping untreated or partly treated human waste, chemicals and other hazardous materials into rivers and lakes and elsewhere, according to data from state environmental agencies and the EPA. In New York 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 announced a $3.8 billion agreement over 18 years to reduce combined sewer overflows. $2.4 billion has been allocated for green Infrastructure projects. These include blue roofs and green roofs, which use mechanical devices or vegetation to slow down drainage from roofs, porous pavement for parking lots, tree pits and streetside swales for roadways, wetlands and swales for parks, and rain barrels in some residential areas. $1.4 billion has been allocated for gray infrastructure such as holding tanks for CSO overflows in wet weather and treatment plant expansions.
The agreement resolves all outstanding compliance issues associated with the Consent Order mandating the City to reduce CSOs. The state has agreed to defer decisions on more gray infrastructure projects in certain parts of New York until completion of the green infrastructure demonstration projects. The modified Consent Order puts into place the elements of a green infrastructure adaptive management approach. Over the next 18 years, the City will control the first inch of rain from 10 percent of the City's impervious surface with green infrastructure. The Consent Order requires five-year incremental milestones to meet that goal, and annual reporting on progress. The City will invest $187 million in public funds toward the achievement of the first five-year target. The remainder of the funding will be a combination of public and private.
The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) released a second report in the series called Failure to Act. In the U.S. 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 ASCE estimated that unreliable water and wastewater infrastructure cost American households and business $21 billion/year.
In Ottawa a significant part of the sewer system is a combined system which means sanitary and storm water goes into the same pipe. Normally all of this is treated at some level. But when snow melt or rain volume is high, the treatment plants cannot keep up and the overflow is routed directly into the Rideau Canal or the Ottawa River.
Last year 445,803 m3 of combined sewer overflows (SSOs) and sanitary sewer overflows (SSOs) were reported. This is higher than in 2010, but under half of the total sewer overflow volume reported five years ago.
The City of Ottawa 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.
Over the next decade the average household water and sewer bill is expected to rise from $636 a year now to $1,045. The rate increases and borrowing of additional $460 million will raise $2.1 billion for maintaining the system. But this is short of the estimated $2.7 billion that is required, leaving a $600-million gap.
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