Clean Water Advocacy - Newsroom - AMSA in the News
Wastewater Plan Causes Local Stink
Jan 3, 2005 News-Press.com (Florida)
About 660,000 gallons of wastewater, including raw sewage, spilled into Lee County waterways and soils this year. More than 1 million gallons leaked into Collier County's environment.
Much of that wastewater was untreated or partially treated, potentially
letting some nasty bacteria and viruses into the very waters in which people
swim and fish.
Right now, such discharges are illegal in Florida, but a federal proposal under
consideration would legalize many of those spills during wet weather, say
environmentalists and state officials.
Environmentalists are alarmed and the state has flatly told EPA it is against
this new policy.
Under Florida law, wastewater must be treated and disinfected before allowing
any of it into the environment.
When a spill occurs, Florida Department of Environmental Protection officers
investigate and determine fines based on various factors, including whether it
was preventable or not.
The U. S. Environmental Protection Agency is mulling a proposal that would allow
wastewater discharges in wet times if it is mixed with treated wastewater, said
EPA spokeswoman Cathy Milbourn.
Proponents say the EPA policy does not violate the Clean Water Act but merely
clarifies and gives guidelines to a practice that''s environment.
Much of that wastewater was untreated or partially treated, potentially letting
some nasty bacteria and viruses into the very waters in which people swim and
fish.
Right now, such discharges are illegal in Florida, but a federal proposal under
consideration would legalize many of those spills during wet weather, say
environmentalists and state officials.
Environmentalists are alarmed and the state has flatly told EPA it is against
this new policy.
Under Florida law, wastewater must be treated and disinfected before allowing
any of it into the environment.
When a spill occurs, Florida Department of Environmental Protection officers
investigate and determine fines based on various factors, including whether it
was preventable or not.
The U. S. Environmental Protection Agency is mulling a proposal that would allow
wastewater discharges in wet times if it is mixed with treated wastewater, said
EPA spokeswoman Cathy Milbourn.
Proponents say the EPA policy does not violate the Clean Water Act but merely
clarifies and gives guidelines to a practice that''s environment.
Much of that wastewater was untreated or partially treated, potentially letting
some nasty bacteria and viruses into the very waters in which people swim and
fish.
Right now, such discharges are illegal in Florida, but a federal proposal under
consideration would legalize many of those spills during wet weather, say
environmentalists and state officials.
Environmentalists are alarmed and the state has flatly told EPA it is against
this new policy.
Under Florida law, wastewater must be treated and disinfected before allowing
any of it into the environment.
When a spill occurs, Florida Department of Environmental Protection officers
investigate and determine fines based on various factors, including whether it
was preventable or not.
The U. S. Environmental Protection Agency is mulling a proposal that would allow
wastewater discharges in wet times if it is mixed with treated wastewater, said
EPA spokeswoman Cathy Milbourn.
Proponents say the EPA policy does not violate the Clean Water Act but merely
clarifies and gives guidelines to a practice that''s environment.
Much of that wastewater was untreated or partially treated, potentially letting
some nasty bacteria and viruses into the very waters in which people swim and
fish.
Right now, such discharges are illegal in Florida, but a federal proposal under
consideration would legalize many of those spills during wet weather, say
environmentalists and state officials.
Environmentalists are alarmed and the state has flatly told EPA it is against
this new policy.
Under Florida law, wastewater must be treated and disinfected before allowing
any of it into the environment.
When a spill occurs, Florida Department of Environmental Protection officers
investigate and determine fines based on various factors, including whether it
was preventable or not.
The U. S. Environmental Protection Agency is mulling a proposal that would allow
wastewater discharges in wet times if it is mixed with treated wastewater, said
EPA spokeswoman Cathy Milbourn.
Proponents say the EPA policy does not violate the Clean Water Act but merely
clarifies and gives guidelines to a practice that's been happening the last 30
years. Plus, they say the policy applies only to storm water, not raw sewage.
The policy was first published in the Federal Register more than a year ago and
has resurfaced recently as EPA looks at possibly finalizing it. The state is
concerned that water quality will be harmed here and that the policy would
discourage utilities from recycling wastewater into reuse water, wrote Mimi A.
Drew, director of the state's Division of Water Resource Management in a letter
to the EPA. Reuse is a vital resource that helps Southwest Florida rely less on
pristine drinking water for irrigation.
"(The federal policy) ultimately rewards utilities where sanitary sewer systems
have not been maintained to remove wet weather flows," Drew wrote in the
December 2003 letter. "Once treatment infrastructure is in place allowing
blending, it is not likely to be removed and better alternatives are not likely
to be explored in the future. "
DEP spokeswoman Dee Ann Miller recently confirmed the state''s Division of Water
Resource Management in a letter to the EPA. Reuse is a vital resource that helps
Southwest Florida rely less on pristine drinking water for irrigation.
"(The federal policy) ultimately rewards utilities where sanitary sewer systems
have not been maintained to remove wet weather flows," Drew wrote in the
December 2003 letter. "Once treatment infrastructure is in place allowing
blending, it is not likely to be removed and better alternatives are not likely
to be explored in the future. "
DEP spokeswoman Dee Ann Miller recently confirmed the state's opposition. "We
require utilities to provide complete treatment, adequate storage, and overall
wastewater system management to handle storm-related surges of water," Miller
said. About 57 million gallons of wastewater was reported spilled to the state
from Jan. 1 to Dec. 5, 2004. That's less than . 01 percent of the 621 billion
gallons treated at wastewater plants in the state every year.
The Clean Water Network, a national alliance of public interest groups, has
renewed opposition to the federal policy.
"This is a major rollback to the Clean Water Act," said Linda Young, the
network''s less than . 01 percent of the 621 billion gallons treated at
wastewater plants in the state every year.
The Clean Water Network, a national alliance of public interest groups, has
renewed opposition to the federal policy.
"This is a major rollback to the Clean Water Act," said Linda Young, the
network's southeast regional coordinator based in Tallahassee. The Clean Water
Act requires primary and secondary treatment of sewage, the latter a
disinfection process. The federal proposal would allow utilities to skip
secondary treatment, the stage that gets the germs out, Young said. Young said
she fears the proposed policy will not only harm Florida waters and possibly
make people sick but also fuel more red tide outbreaks. Red tide is a boom of
Karenia brevis algae, which thrive on nutrients found in sewage. "With all the
red tide and everything that's going on in the Gulf, it's really crazy," Young
said. "We're just trying to get the word out as much as we can to the public
that this is about to happen and maybe the current administration won't do it. "
Environmentalists are mischaracterizing the policy and if it fails, taxpayers
will suffer, said Ken Kirk, executive director of the Association of
Metropolitan Sewerage Agencies, based in Washington, D. C. Take Miami, for
example, he said. "If this policy fails, they'll have to spend an additional $4
billion and it's not going to solve the problem. " Miami would need 680 acres of
storage tanks to accommodate the extra storm water from a storm so big that it
happens only once every two years, Kirk said. "You can't protect yourself from
the worst conditions. " "We're talking about rain events," Kirk said. "That is
not sewage. " He added that the blended wastewater would still require
disinfection before being released into the environment. "Nothing's finalized
and we're still reviewing the comments," Milbourn said. The 98,000 comments
received on the issue may influence changes in the policy, Milbourn said. But,
of course, nothing is final yet. Local utility managers could not be reached
late last week for comment.