Clean Water Advocacy - Newsroom - AMSA in the News
Region's Sewers Stressed by Growing Population
ABC-7 WJLA-TV
August 20, 2001
Across Maryland, Virginia and Washington, from the newest suburbs to
remote rural areas, millions of gallons of human waste spill from pipes
and seep through manholes, down residential streets and into creeks and
rivers.
Thousands of miles of pipeline carrying the region's waste are routinely
cracked by tree roots or clogged by grease or vandals. And a burgeoning
population is stressing some systems as never before.
In May 2000, 10 million gallons spilled after a treatment plant in Upper
Marlboro lost power for almost 12 hours during a storm. This spring, raw
sewage backed up into the kitchen of a Fairfax County elementary school,
forcing cooks to throw away the lunch they were preparing.
Maryland and Northern Virginia reported 1,492 spills totaling 345
million gallons between 1998 and 2000, according to a Washington Post
analysis of sewage records.
Each year, the District has about 75 spills that dump about 3 billion
gallons of storm water contaminated wit! h ! raw sewage.
The region's underground infrastructure has received scant attention
until recently, some politicians and industry officials say. Now local
jurisdictions are trying to figure out how to update their systems and
how to pay for it.
In Maryland alone, the price tag is expected to be as high as $1
billion.
"We are sitting on a potential crisis in water and wastewater, and no
one is focusing on it because these pipes are underground - out of sight
and out of mind," said Ken Kirk, executive director of the Association
of Metropolitan Sewerage Agencies. "People assume that they turn on the
tap and the water that comes out is going to be good; they flush the
toilet and assume it's going away. But these pipes are old - very, very
old."
In Northern Virginia, there were 842 spills between 1997 and May of this
year totaling more than 241 million gallons, according to the Virginia
Department of Environmental Quality. Maryland has had at least 2,340
spills since ! 19! 96, totaling almost 418 million gallons, according to
records at the Maryland Department of the Environment.
Spills are so routine in Cumberland, Md., that officials were surprised
when the state told them last fall that they had to start notifying the
public.
"Everyone was saying, ‘Oh my God, there were 55 million gallons spilled
into the north branch of the Potomac last year by the city of
Cumberland,’" said Jeff Repp, the city administrator. "But that has been
going on for years. I guess people didn't think that in this day and age
this would happen. But it does."
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