Clean Water Advocacy - Newsroom - AMSA in the News
Proposed rule on sewage comes under scrutiny
By CATHY ZOLLO,
crzollo@naplesnews.com
January 10, 2005
Clean water activist Linda Young usually goes head to head with the state of
Florida and its Department of Environmental Protection over water issues.
She regularly sues them on behalf of the state's citizens and often wins, but
this time she agrees with them entirely.
Sewage treatment plants shouldn't be allowed to dump raw sewage routinely into
the environment in times of heavy rains.
Young, executive director of the Clean Water Network of Florida, said a proposed
EPA guidance allowing the practice and that could be issued soon is more ominous
for Florida than other states.
That's not only because Florida is among the wettest of the 50 states but also
because dumped sewage would end up in the state's waters and coastal areas that
are critical to its economy.
According to Mort Winsberg, professor emeritus at Florida State University's
Department of Geography, Florida doesn't just get more rain. The skies often
open up.
About a third of the time when it rains in Florida, there are accumulations of a
half-inch or more. Compare that to Ohio, where such accumulations occur only 15
to 25 percent of the time.
Such heavy Florida rains are exactly the situation EPA had in mind for its
blending policy.
Called blending, the proposed guidance would allow sewage treatment plants to
route the overflow amounts of sewage around parts of the plant where the sewage
is treated using a biological process that removes pathogens, viruses and
bacteria. It would then be blended with treated sewage before being released
into the environment, hence its name.
Nutrients also contained in the blended sewage would eventually reach the Gulf
of Mexico and the Atlantic. A recent Stanford University study found that
nutrients in coastal waters are linked to harmful algal blooms such as red tide.
"We are desperately trying to talk the Bush Administration out of moving forward
with this," Young said. "This is really bad for Florida. It'll be bad for the
whole country. We cannot afford such a major weakening of the Clean Water Act,
especially when it comes to sewage."
EPA floated the guidance in November 2003, and asked from comments early last
year. Officials at the agency say they are still pouring through some 98,000 of
them.
"We have to review all the documents," EPA spokeswoman Cathy Milbourn said.
"When you get 98,000, you do have to look at them. Nothing final has been done
with (the blending guidance)."
Among the comments is one from Florida's Department of Environmental Protection.
DEP said blending isn't a proper management practice and that allowing it would
discourage wastewater treatment facilities from putting in reuse systems.
On a more worrisome note, the state said the lack of requirements under the rule
for minimum disinfection might not be enough protection against pathogens.
Only in certain instances, such as when the discharged water is going into a
drinking water supply, is disinfection required.
Environmental groups say the larger particles in blended sewage would resist
disinfection since bacteria, viruses and pathogens are protected inside
particles. Over-disinfecting water can release carcinogens into the environment,
so that isn't the answer, they say.
For similar reasons, the Interstate Shellfish Sanitation Conference said
blending would reverse years of water quality improvements and potentially harm
a growing aquaculture industry.
DEP spokesman Russell Schweiss said the department stands by its comments made
early last year. He said Florida doesn't and will not allow the practice, but
that EPA condoning it might weaken the state's position.
"It would just give leverage to utilities that want to do blending," he said.
And DEP doesn't buy the claim by proponents of the guidance that blended sewage
will meet minimum water quality standards, as the policy requires.
"We don't see any reason to believe that facilities could discharge water that
meets water quality standards," Schweiss said. "If they reach a point where
they've got to blend and discharge, they are going to discharge whatever it is."
EPA's Milbourn said the policy would give sewage treatment plants a way to deal
with suddenly increased flows and would protect people by preventing sewage from
backing up into homes and businesses.
And supporters of the proposed policy such as AMSA, the Association of
Metropolitan Sewerage Agencies, also say the practice would be infrequent and
not pre-empt needed improvements to pipes and plants.
Pipes that leak allow rain to mix with sewage on its way to treatment plants.
The added water can be more than the plant's biological treatment center can
handle.
"The infrastructure and investments will still be made and plants that are
needed to be made much bigger to accommodate growth, that work will be done,"
said Alexandra Dunne, general counsel for AMSA. "Same with the pipes. The
blending is only needed when the flow greatly exceeds the capacity. It's meant
to be an infrequent occurrence."
Nancy Stoner, director of the Natural Resource Defense Council's Clean Water
Project, countered that there is nothing in the guidance to limit how often
plants can use blending. She worries about a free-for-all.
"This has no minimum limit, so if it's raining or snowing or there's any size
storm and the capacity of the treatment plant is overwhelmed due to the water
then they can discharge," Stoner said. "What this does of course is encourage
undercapitalization."
That's been going on for decades nationwide, and there is an annual $20 billion
shortfall on sewage treatment infrastructure, Stoner said.
According to the EPA's own data, without substantially increasing investment in
sewage treatment efficiency, sewage loads discharged in U.S. waters will by 2025
again reach the same levels as those in 1968, the highest in the nation's
history.
In Florida, areas that have seen sewage spills in recent years would be the most
affected by the proposed change, Young said.
In 2004, the City of Tampa alone reported spilling more than 6 million gallons
of raw sewage.
Closer to home, Collier and Lee counties have spilled their share.
Using EPA data, the Natural Resources Defense Council listed Collier County as
having spilled a total of 4.2 million gallons of raw sewage in 2002 and 2003.
Lee County's spillage over the same time period reached 8.9 million gallons.
"They all need to upgrade their facilities," Young said. "The answer is not the
weakening of the law. The answer is to help these utilities and these
municipalities with funding if needed."
AMSA estimates bringing all aging sewage treatment plants and pipes up to speed
would cost $200 billion. EPA's estimate is $130 billion.
Young said the human cost in potential waterborne disease affecting the state's
most vulnerable residents is greater and that the money is available to pay for
needed improvements through low-cost loans from the State Revolving Fund if
utilities seek them.
Last year, Florida loaned $120 million to local governments, an amount that has
increased yearly due to income from past loans.