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EPA Backs Off Sewage Policy Change
Friday, May 20, 2005
By Don Hopey, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has backed away from but not
abandoned a policy change that would have allowed sewage treatment facilities to
legally discharge partially treated sewage into rivers during rain storms or
snow melts.
The decision was hailed by environmental groups as a victory for continuing
water quality improvement, but could also end up increasing the cost of ongoing
treatment facility improvements in Allegheny County and more than 1,000 other
treatment systems nationwide that must reduce illegal sewage overflows.
In a short announcement yesterday, and after receiving more than 98,000 public
comments, the EPA said it will not finalize the policy change proposed in
November 2003. Instead it will continue to review regulatory alternatives to
address sewage pollution overflows during wet weather conditions.
"Blending is not a long-term solution," said Benjamin Grumbles, assistant
administrator for EPA's water office. "Our goal is to reduce overflows and
increase treatment of wastewater to protect human health and the environment."
Under the federal Clean Water Act, intentionally bypassing steps in the
wastewater treatment process is prohibited, except under strictly limited
conditions involving essential maintenance or emergencies.
The wet weather blending policy that most observers expected the Bush
administration to finalize yesterday would have allowed sewage treatment
facilities to routinely apply only primary treatment -- that is removal of
solids -- to a portion of incoming wastewater and divert that flow around
secondary, biological treatment. That partially treated water would then be
"blended" with fully treated wastewater before it was discharged into a river or
stream.
David Masur, director of PennEnvironment, said the EPA decision is "a victory
for the millions of Americans who become sick each year from sewage dumping."
And the Pennsylvania Campaign for Clean Water, an umbrella organization for more
than 30 environmental, outdoors and citizen groups in the state, has lobbied for
federal legislation to ban blending.
Researchers at Michigan State University found that blended sewage has
significantly greater health risks when compared to fully treated sewage,
according to PennEnvironment. Because the blended sewage has not undergone
secondary treatment, it contains bacteria, viruses and parasites that carry
diseases such as cholera, hepatitis, gastroenteritis and dysentery.
But the Allegheny County Sanitary Authority, which serves Pittsburgh and 82
municipalities, and the Association of Metropolitan Sewerage Agencies say sewage
blending is a cost-effective and safe strategy to address wet weather treatment
problems.
"We believe blending can be a beneficial practice that helps maximize the use of
our existing facility and provides treatment to discharges that are not now
getting any treatment," said Nancy Barylak, Alcosan spokeswoman. "It reduces our
need to build excess capacity into our facility that only gets used during wet
weather."
Alcosan and 1,100 other sewerage systems in the Northeast and Great Lakes
regions are facing federal orders to stop wet weather overflows from their
sanitary sewer systems and significantly reduce combined sewer overflows. Many
of those systems, including the Alcosan system, were designed to overflow during
storms to prevent damage to treatment facilities. Subsequent changes in federal
law have made those overflows illegal, and in 1997 the EPA threatened to fine
Alcosan and its member municipalities $275 million if they continued.
There are 250 combined sewer overflows and 50 sanitary sewer overflows in the
Alcosan system. Eliminating the sanitary sewer overflows and limiting the
combined sewer overflows will cost an estimated $3 billion.
Barylak said Alcosan and the EPA are engaged in weekly negotiations on a consent
order to stop the sewage overflows, and sewage blending was among the strategies
under consideration.
"Alcosan wants to use it to maximize our economic resources and we believe it
can work if done right," Barylak said. "By our reading of the EPA release today
we feel it's still on the table."
Eryn Witcher, an EPA spokeswoman, said that while the agency won't finalize the
blending policy proposed in November 2003, some form of blending could still
become acceptable policy.
"We want less blending, not more," Witcher said, but added that it could be used
"as a last resort."
That last resort might be denied if Congress approves an amendment to the EPA
and Interior funding package that prohibits blending. The measure has bipartisan
support. The funding bill was scheduled for a vote last night.
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(Don Hopey can be reached at dhopey@post-gazette.com or at 412-263-1983.)