Clean Water Advocacy - Newsroom - AMSA in the News
EPA Policy Proposal Could Affect MSD
By PHIL SUTIN
Post-Dispatch
11/10/2003
The federal Environmental Protection Agency last week proposed a policy
change that may give the Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District another option
when it expands sewer treatment plants.
The new policy clearly would allow "blending" of some untreated storm water and
treated sewage in heavy rainstorms as long as the discharge from the sewage
treatment plant meets federal requirements. The policy mainly would affect
plants that process sewage from combined sanitary and storm sewers, such as
those in St. Louis and nearby suburbs.
Jeffery Theerman, acting executive director of the sewer district, on Friday
said the policy change would not allow the district to remove projects from the
district's three-year, $647.1 million program for sewage treatment construction
and sewer installation. Voters on Feb. 3 will consider a $500 million revenue
bond issue to help pay for the program. Engineers have yet to design many of the
plant expansions.
Often in heavy storms, water that contains sewage would rush through a sewage
treatment plant and remove microbes that eat organic materials in the plant's
second treatment phase. In blending, sewer plant owners could build a pipe that
would take some of the storm water around second-phase facilities and return it
to the plant's main flow before the plant discharges it into a river.
The Bissell Point sewage treatment plant that handles material from combined
sewers has a blending system. The Lemay plant, which also takes material from
such sewers, does not contain such a system because the district can hold storm
water in River des Peres.
Other approaches to dealing with storm water in heavy rainstorms are building
larger treatment plants or facilities that can hold storm water for treatment
later.
Jim Hanlon, director of the federal Office of Waste Water Management, said the
change would provide a standard policy across the country. He said it would not
change requirements for discharges from sewage treatment plants or for upgrading
combined sewer collection systems.
People have until Jan. 9 to comment on the policy change. Hanlon said the
complexity of the comments would determine when the agency would put the new
policy into effect.
State officials hope to complete their review of the proposal by Dec. 1. They
are not certain of its relationship to state regulations, said Richard Kuntz, an
environmental engineer with the Natural Resources Department.
The Association of Metropolitan Sewerage Agencies said its members would have to
spend up to $190 billion if the federal government required them to fully treat
all storm water.
The Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental group, said the policy
change would carry a risk of spreading more viruses and parasites into drinking
and swimming water. Nancy Stoner of the group said the federal government should
require an upgrade of aging sewer systems.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Reporter Phil Sutin:
E-mail: psutin@post-dispatch.com
Phone: 314-863-2812