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NPR: All Things Considered
Copyright 2002 National Public Radio, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Monday, October 21, 2002
Profile: Raw sewage spills threaten nation's waterways due to aging sewage
treatment plants and reduced funding
JACKI LYDEN, host: This is ALL THINGS
CONSIDERED from NPR News. I'm
Jacki Lyden.
ROBERT SIEGEL, host:
And I'm Robert Siegel.
There are 40,000 sewage spills each year in this country, according
to the Environmental Protection Agency. Many sewage treatment plants
are outdated and in disrepair. Towns are struggling to upgrade their
equipment. North Country Public Radio's Brian Mann reports the price
tag nationwide could top $600 billion.
BRIAN MANN reporting:
In the 1970s Congress spent tens of billions of dollars building
sewage treatment plants like this one in Lake Placid, New York. Chief
operator Stuart Baird leans against a rusted metal rail looking down at
one of the outdoor sluiceways.
Mr. STUART BAIRD (Plant Operator): Here's the stuff coming in. As
you see it, you can see it's quite turbid and grayish green in color.
You can see remnants of a salad bar from a restaurant--it looks
like--flowing through here.
MANN: Sewage streams into cracked cement mixing tanks. Much of the
equipment here is jury-rigged, Baird says. After 30 years of running
non-stop, the plant is falling apart.
Mr. BAIRD: Age deterioration of the plant is really showing itself.
The concrete corrosion and the steel corrosion is really getting
aggressive.
MANN: This summer the massive sewage digester tank malfunctioned.
For three days raw waste flowed into the Ausable River. Bacteria
levels spiked, and 10 miles downstream, the town of Wilmington was
forced to close the swimming beach. At a recent public meeting people
were furious.
Ms. JEANNIE ASHWORTH (Town Supervisor): It's devastating. It's
absolutely devastating.
MANN: Town supervisor Jeannie Ashworth says the sewage spill damaged
the river and the local tourism economy.
Ms. ASHWORTH: To be on the shores of the one of the world-renown
trout streams and then to have something like this happen--it was quite
a blow.
MANN: Spills like this one are increasingly common. Across the
country hundreds of wastewater plants are outdated. Many collection
pipes are a century old and literally coming apart at the seams. Ken
Kirk with the Association of Metropolitan Sewerage Agencies says a
generation of environmental progress is at risk.
Mr. KEN KIRK (Association of Metropolitan Sewerage Agencies): We
will have squandered a huge investment in clean-water infrastructure
and be at the same place that we were 30 years ago, you know, with
major rivers, tributaries around the country in significant decline.
And we don't want to do that.
MANN: A quarter century ago Congress spent $7 billion a year on
wastewater infrastructure. This year federal funding will barely top
$1 billion. Local communities are left to pick up the costs. Lake
Placid agreed to build a new, $10 million plant, but officials here are
still working to secure a low-interest loan. They've already doubled
utility rates, and now the town has announced that new businesses won't
be allowed to connect with the sewer system until the upgraded plant
comes online, probably in 2004. That forced developer Joe Burill(ph)
to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars redesigning his new hotel.
Sitting in his office with a meditation waterfall trickling behind his
desk, Burill says the sewage bottleneck threatens the town's
prosperity.
Mr. JOE BURILL (Hotel Owner): We have momentum right now in
rebuilding our community. This will certainly stop a lot of that
positive growth. It's going to affect local jobs--electricians,
plumbers, hardware stores, lumber yards--everything that is needed to
build is going to be affected by this.
MANN: Ken Kirk with the Association of Metropolitan Sewerage
Agencies says towns across the country are making the same painful
choice: delaying construction of new schools and new housing
developments.
Mr. KIRK: The bottom line is if you do not have the capacity to
treat the sewerage, then it's rather unwise to allow additional growth
to occur.
MANN: Recently, the Environmental Protection Agency released a study
assessing the country's total water infrastructure. The report put the
gap in funding at just under $600 billion. Industry groups put the
figure at a trillion dollars. Tracy Meehan, assistant administrator
for water with the EPA, says the crisis is real, but the answer, he
says, won't be a big-ticket grant program like the one in the '70s.
Mr. TRACY MEEHAN (EPA): Any new funding would have to come with
congressional appropriations and there is no new appropriations right
now.
MANN: Meehan says local governments will have to be creative,
seeking loans from state governments and from private investors.
Looking out at Lake Placid's network of crumbling tanks, Stuart Baird
says more spills are certain until money is found for the new plant.
Mr. BAIRD: Once or twice a year, it seems like, we're having issues
like this come up at least. We're pretty vulnerable in a lot of areas.
MANN: The EPA's report predicts that by 2016 nearly half the
country's sewer pipes will be broken or in poor condition. For NPR
News, I'm Brian Mann in Lake Placid, New York.