Clean Water Advocacy - Newsroom - NACWA in the News
EPA Rethinks Sewage Dumping
By David Steinkraus
When the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency proposed that wastewater plants
could dump untreated sewage if it was diluted with treated effluent, there was
an outcry from environmental groups and businesses such as shellfish companies.
And the House of Representatives voted in May to nix the idea.
On Monday there was a new policy.
This one is based largely on work by the Natural Resources Defense Council, an
environmental advocacy organization, and the National Association of Clean Water
Agencies, which represents many of the operators of wastewater treatment plants.
The new policy, said EPA and organization representatives, recognizes that
releasing untreated wastewater should be a last resort, and requires that
someone asking to do so first show that there are no other feasible
alternatives. There will be no excuses for poorly maintained systems, they said,
and public involvement will be encouraged so that what is expected is thought
out early and clearly stated in the water pollution permit which wastewater
plants need for operation.
"No longer will there be sewage discharged without full treatment every time it
rains," said Nancy Stoner, clean water director for the Natural Resources
Defense Council. "Leaky, out-of-date sewer systems will be fixed."
It's an agreement by historic adversaries, and it will maximize the treatment of
dirty water, said Alexandra Dapolito Dunn, general counsel for the National
Association of Clean Water Agencies.
However, this new plan does not apply to every wastewater treatment plant but
only to those which treat just sanitary waste, like Racine. It doesn't apply to
"combined" systems in which treatment plants are taking in not only sanitary
wastewater but also water from storm sewers, as does the Milwaukee Metropolitan
Sewerage District.
There are about 15,000 sanitary sewer systems in the nation, serving about 150
million people, said Benjamin Grumbles, EPA's assistant administrator for water,
in a teleconference with reporters. About 750 communities have combined systems.
Federal reach "I guess we're not thrilled about (the proposed policy), but we're
not in the same boat everybody is in in this deal," said Tom Bunker, general
manager of the Racine Water and Wastewater Utility. "But it will require us to
do a bunch of paperwork." Much of the work which the policy will demand has
already been done recently by the utility as it sought to provide extra capacity
for the large volumes of water that follow heavy rains, he said.
If you look at the issue holistically, Bunker said, you can also question
whether it makes sense to invest more of the public's finite supply of money in
wastewater plant improvements while doing nothing about, for example, all the
smaller sources of pollution which are reducing the water quality of the Root
River.
Although it's not subject to the EPA's proposed policy, MMSD is engaged in
several projects to improve its capacity, said spokesman Bill Graffin. "We're
working on $900 million in projects and programs."
Some of those follow a 2002 court settlement and include two more deep tunnels
to store water during heavy storms. One will be online soon. As part of its
20-year plan, MMSD is also considering a European technology which deals with
heavy storm flows by adding a chemical coagulator. The chemical makes pieces of
waste stick together and settle out of the water so they don't flow into Lake
Michigan.
Sanitary lawsuit In a related matter, on Monday the office of Wisconsin Attorney
General Peg Lautenschlager announced that it had settled with 29 municipalities
sued by the state because of untreated sewage discharged by MMSD. Among those is
the Village of Caledonia, which controls the Caddy Vista sanitary system that is
tied into MMSD.
The settlement requires the municipalities to correct defects in their sewer
systems and set up a program to regularly inspect all their manhole covers.
Leaky covers can allow water to flow into sewers and contribute to overloads at
wastewater plants.
With approval of the settlement, all the 29 municipalities are off the legal
hook. That leaves MMSD as the sole defendant in the attorney general's
environmental lawsuit.
Graffin, the MMSD spokesman, said the district had been engaged in settlement
talks with the state, but on Monday he was not sure of their status.