EPA Proposing Weaker Sewer Treatment Standards - Scripps Howard

[hatrack]

"The Environmental Protection Agency is expected to make a final decision next month on whether cities should be allowed to release partially treated sewage during heavy rainfalls despite concerns the policy would increase the incidence of waterborne disease. The policy change, called "sewage blending," was proposed by EPA more than a year ago and has attracted nearly 100,000 written comments from industry, state and local officials, interest groups and the public.

Local sewerage agencies have lobbied heavily for the change, saying they need an affordable solution to the problem of treatment plants that become overwhelmed by heavy flows during rainstorms and snowmelts. The alternatives, sewage treatment operators say, is to either release the excess sewage entirely untreated or spend billions of dollars upgrading treatment plants and sewerage systems across the country.

"What we are fighting for is to preserve what we view as a management practice to (achieve) as much treatment as possible in an extreme wet weather event," said Alexandra Dunn, general counsel for the Association of Metropolitan Sewerage Agencies. The policy change is also expected to benefit builders and developers, allowing local governments in fast growing areas to lower impact fees or to lift moratoriums on new sewer hookups.

However, environmentalists, scientists and some states have criticized the proposal as a rollback of environmental and public health protections. "We think EPA should enforce the law to protect public health, not change the law to protect the poor practices that are threatening public health," said Nancy Stoner, an expert on water policy with the Natural Resources Defense Council. "If this policy is finalized, more Americans will get sick from waterborne diseases, which are life threatening for small children, the elderly, cancer patients, and others who are already weakened by illness," Stoner said. The Washington State Department of Ecology called the proposed policy change "environmental backsliding" in comments filed with EPA. The Florida Department of Environmental Protection said the policy will undermine the state's efforts to get waste treatment operators to upgrade their facilities and may not provide "sufficient protection against discharges of pathogenic organisms."

EDIT

http://www.knoxstudio.com/shns/story.cfm?pk=SEWAGE-12-01-04&cat=WW

[NVMojo]

1. well, I know the foreign gold mining companies in our area

aren't happy with the current waste water treatment rules/standards. Our city found high levels of arsenic in our waste water that was being treated and reused on our golf course and to water alfalfa on farmer's fields.

Turns out the arsenic was coming from the drainage systems of car washes where the mining trucks, filthy with caked on mud and dirt from the mines was draining into the waste water system ...and being recycled back in to the food chain, the gold course and possibly into the water table below the city where we get our drinking water. So the state epa said they had to wash the trucks off at the mines before coming back into town. Gee, thanks.

[whistle]

2. Here is the summation in the last two paragraphs . . .

<snip>

EPA has estimated the cost of fixing sewage systems to eliminate most sewer overflows and the need for blending at about $130 billion. EPA has not made a separate estimate on the cost of addressing blending alone, but it would probably be considerably lower, Stoner said.

Earlier this year, Bush proposed cutting nearly $500 million from the government fund that makes low interest loans to improve sewer systems. About half the money was restored by the Senate.

<end>


So, Bush is against it and discourages all spending to improve sewage water treatment across the country. That $130 billion will go a long way to helping get yet another large tax cut for the very wealthy.

[amandabeech]

4. An increase in population means that sewage treatment plants

must be expanded. Of course, it might be possible to build additional holding tanks and commence separating storm and sanitary sewers to help alleviate the extra pressure with downpours and quick snow melt. Water saving home devices could also help.

As the earth heats up, more precipitation is expected to come in storms and heavy downpours, thus increasing the need for updating our sewage treatment plants.

[Massacure]

3. Yup, let the infrastructure rot instead of upgrading it. Great idea.

</sarcasm>

http://www.asce.org/reportcard/index.cfm?reaction=full&page=6

1.6 trillion dollars to upgrade the infrastructure in the United States.

[thecrow]

5. Hey we undermined the water system in Iraq..

Let's do it here too! Wheeeee!

See what our money could be used for instead of this eternal **Bu$h war? And hey, the Iraqis wouldn't be so messed up.
We could have taken Saddam out anytime, but no.
He had to have this war.
And by the way... where's Osama?

And we're not even to the coronation day yet.