Clean Water Advocacy - Newsroom - AMSA in the News
WSSC Pipes Spewed Sewage
Sep 13, 2004 Washington Post
Page B01
Washington Post Staff Writer
More than 130 million gallons of raw or partially treated sewage have
illegally overflowed from Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission pipes into the
waterways, streets and basements of suburban Maryland over the past two years,
according to agency records.
The sewage pollutes the Anacostia and Patuxent rivers with human waste and puts
nearby residents at increased risk of such life-threatening diseases as cholera
and infectious hepatitis, according to the federal government and environmental
groups. They said better maintenance of aging pipes could have prevented
overflows at the water and sewage utility, which serves 1. 6 million residents
of Montgomery and Prince George's counties.
WSSC officials blamed the volume of overflows on unusually severe storms, such
as Hurricane Isabel last year, and said they are taking steps to address the
situation.
"This is a large problem," said Jon Capacasa, the Environmental Protection
Agency's director of water protection for mid-Atlantic states. WSSC, he said, is
"running into failure mode. "
Overflows are a problem for utilities across the country. Between 23,000 and
75,000 occur nationwide every year, resulting in the release of 3 billion to 10
billion gallons of untreated wastewater, according to EPA estimates.
EPA officials and several outside experts declined to characterize the severity
of overflows at WSSC in comparison with problems at other utilities, citing
scant national data and the unique environmental and structural factors in each
system.
Nevertheless, EPA Assistant Administrator Benjamin Grumbles said, "130 million
gallons discharged is 130 million gallons too much. It's a violation of the
Clean Water Act and EPA policy. "
For the past two years, the EPA has been negotiating an enforcement agreement to
legally require the utility to improve its 5,300-mile system of pipes. Capacasa
said he expects it to be finalized within the next few months.
Three environmental groups -- the Natural Resources Defense Council, Anacostia
Watershed Society and Audubon Naturalist Society -- said they plan to file a
lawsuit against WSSC by the end of the month to force the utility to stop the
overflows.
WSSC spokesman Chuck Brown said the utility is implementing measures to prevent
the problem. The agency plans to spend $85. 8 million over the next six years to
replace old pipes and analyze overflow patterns, he said, more than twice the
$40 million spent on those programs from 1996 to 2001. The utility also formed a
group last year to maintain sewer lines, Brown said.
"We are working to prevent and minimize [overflows] wherever possible," he said.
"But we can do more, and we will do more. "
Environmental groups, however, said the utility has inadequately addressed the
problem.
"I think every sewage system in the country is saying, 'Sure, we're working on
it. ' But the question is, are they doing enough? " asked Nancy Stoner, director
of the Natural Resources Defense Council's Clean Water Project. "As far as we've
seen, WSSC does not have the critical pieces in place to solve the problem. "
Brown said the volume of overflows is due mainly to weather patterns over the
past two years.
Of the 126. 4 million gallons of sewage that overflowed last year, 106 million
occurred during Hurricane Isabel, according to utility records.
EPA officials said heavy storms are usually when the most severe overflows
happen. Rainwater seeps into the sewer pipes, causing raw sewage from the
overloaded system to gush into such waterways as the Anacostia and Patuxent
rivers; back up into basements of businesses and homes; and spill out of
manholes into streets.
Older systems, called combined sewer systems, convey stormwater and untreated
sewage together and are designed to dump the mix into waterways during heavy
rain. WSSC has a more modern sanitary system in which wastewater and sewage are
carried in separate pipes.
"Those type of sewer systems are not designed to overflow," Capacasa said. "If
they are adequately maintained, operated and invested in, they should not
overflow with any frequency. "
This year, 4. 4 million gallons have overflowed on 97 occasions, according to
utility records. During heavy rain over the Fourth of July weekend, 3 million
gallons of sewage entered the Anacostia and tributaries.
The Anacostia Watershed Society said WSSC overflows are responsible for much of
the pollution in the Anacostia. Fecal coliform bacteria levels are much higher
in the Maryland portion of the river than in the District, according to sampling
data from the group. Robert E. Boone, president of the Anacostia Watershed
Society, said those high levels strongly suggest that WSSC pipes are polluting
the waterway.
"This is the 21st century," he said. "It's time we stop putting human sewage in
the river. "
The EPA's enforcement action against WSSC is the most recent of a dozen similar
high-profile settlements with utilities across the country. In 2002, Baltimore
agreed to pay a $600,000 fine and make more than $900 million in sewer repairs
as part of a settlement with the EPA. Last year, the D. C. Water and Sewer
Authority said it would pay a $250,000 fine and make $150 million in
improvements.
But environmental groups said legal actions, such as the one against WSSC, are
necessary only because the Bush administration has not strengthened measures to
curb sanitary sewer overflows. During the final days of the Clinton
administration, the EPA proposed a rule that would have tightened regulations of
sanitary systems. But the Bush administration shelved the proposal after taking
office.
Environmentalists said the withdrawal of the rule left the nation's 19,000
sanitary sewer systems without a guide to end the overflows.
"This situation with WSSC is a good example of why we need regulations that were
shelved by the Bush administration," Stoner said. The withdrawn proposal would
have required utilities to implement plans to reduce overflows and monitor
sewage discharges. It would also have required utilities to notify the public
and health authorities whenever sewage overflowed into streets or waterways.
"There should be a sign that says 'There is sewage flowing in this street. You
might want to avoid it,' " Stoner said. "It's common sense. "
Utility industry officials objected to the proposed rule because of its
estimated annual cost of $93. 5 million to $126. 5 million. They also said it is
impossible to eliminate sanitary sewer overflows.
"The rule was impractical," said Adam Krantz, a spokesman for the Association of
Metropolitan Sewerage Agencies. "There has to be more flexibility, because there
are limited funds to deal with this problem. "
Grumbles said the EPA might eventually propose a modified version of the rule,
although he said it is considering whether a focus on enforcement might be more
effective than further regulation. He also said that the agency is "strongly
encouraging" all utilities to address the overflows.
Stoner said enforcement is a significantly slower way to combat the problem than
comprehensive regulation. The EPA can do only "half a dozen cases a year now to
bring communities into compliance," she said. "Take that versus the thousands
that would have been affected by this rule.