Sewage Right-to-Know Bill Gains Momentum

The Bush administration has lent weight, however cautiously, to legislation that would force wastewater operators to keep the public informed of hazardous sewage releases into rivers and streams.

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Assistant Administrator for Water, Benjamin Grumbles, told House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee lawmakers that he supports the spirit of the "Raw Sewage Overflow Community Right-to-Know Act," or H.R. 2452. The bill, introduced by Reps. Tim Bishop (D-N.Y.) and Frank LoBiondo (R-N.J.), would require sewage operators to monitor their systems for overflows and notify residents of pollution spills within 24 hours of detection.

The EPA opposes using a popular federal low-interest wastewater loan program, the Clean Water State Revolving Fund (SRF), to pay for such activities. "The SRF can only be used for capital projects and not for operations and maintenance," Grumbles said. "To do so would reduce the capital available for water infrastructure construction while providing no additional environmental benefit."

The issue at hand is combined sewer systems that collect raw seage, industrial wastewater and storm water in a single piping network. Such systems are typically found in older cities and tend to overflow during intense storm events, spilling waste into area waters. The EPA estimates that approximately 850 billion gallons of untreated storm water and wastewater are released annually as combined sewer overflow.

More modern systems, on the other hand, collect various wastes in separate pipes for transfer to treatment plants. Blocked sewer pipes cause most overflows, allowing waste to backup into homes, spill out manholes or break pipes. Between 23,000 and 75,000 sanitary sewer overflow events occur annually, releasing from 3 billion to 10 billion gallons of wastewater, according to a 2004 EPA report to Congress.

Some systems notify the public of spills, but no uniform national federal public noficiation standard exists. This is one reason 3.5 million Americans get sick each year after coming into contact with released sewage, said Katherine Baer of American Rivers.

Utilities have argued that legislators must clarify some of the bill's provisions to spell out what the monitoring systems would entail beyond current environments and how much communities would be expected to spend. Kevin Shafer, executive director for the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewage District, warned lawmakers against taking a one-size-fits-all approach to overflows. "No matter what we do or how much money we spend, overflows will happen, often resulting in circumstances beyond our control," he said, speaking on behalf of the National Association of Clean Water Agencies. "We support notifying the public, we just need to make sure that more definition is added."

The right-to-know bill does not address the key sewer overflow problem, a funding shortage. The Clean Water SRF faces monetary problems, as federal assistance for wastewater infrastructure has dropped more than 70 percent since 1991, according to Shafer. The EPA estimates it will take more than $300 billion to meet the nation's wastewater needs over the next two decades.

Public spill notifications serve as educational tools, said the Maryland Department of Environment's Robert Summers. Maryland adopted reporting requirements in 2000. "None of the improvements can be made without payments by the local government, which generally comes from rate increases," he said. "Notification helps justify the costs to the public."

Source: Earth News