Sewage spills still threaten

Sewer systems throughout the United States are spilling enough raw sewage and waste into ocean waters and streams to fill more than one million Olympic-sized swimming pools every year, according to a federal report released Thursday.

Despite three decades of costly improvements driven by the Clean Water Act, the Environmental Protection Agency concluded that outdated and poorly maintained sewer systems still pose a serious public health threat.

In its report to Congress, the EPA said that sewer overflows are commonplace throughout the United States and responsible for sickening thousands of swimmers every year. Sewage contains an array of bacteria, viruses and parasites capable of causing human illnesses, as well as pollutants that harm fish and other wild-life.

The EPA called further control of sewage “vital to reducing risks to public health and protection of the environment” and recommended improved maintenance of the nation’s sewer systems, many of which are aging and in need of overhaul.

Every year, 850 billion gallons of untreated sewage and waste spill from combined sewer systems, which mix sewage with storm-water runoff, according to the report.

These systems, most of which were built in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, are located in 32 states, mostly in the Northeast and around the Great Lakes. They are designed to spill waste directly into waterways, mostly rivers and streams, when the amounts of sewage combined with storm water exceed the system’s capacity.

Another 3 billion to 10 billion gallons of raw sewage flows from the more-modern sanitary sewer systems, which handle sewage but not storm water. From 23,000 to 75,000 spills occur each year in these systems, the majority of them small ones of less than 10,000 gallons, the EPA report says. Blockages and breaks in sewer lines cause most of the overflows. However, when it comes to volumes spilled, rainy weather was responsible for the worst accidents. Rainwater seeps into aging, faulty sewer lines.

The EPA estimates that 3,500 to 5,500 swimmers in coastal and Great Lakes states are stricken with gastrointestinal illnesses every year because of sewage overflows. A nationwide estimate was unavailable because the EPA had insufficient data from other states.

Environmental groups on Thursday said the EPA under the Bush administration deserves some of the blame for the problem, because it has proposed to cut funding for communities updating their sewage systems and decided against implementing proposed requirements for sewer maintenance and public warnings.

“Instead of working with localities to prevent sewage overflows and to warn the public when they occur, the Bush administration is turning a blind eye to the problem, cutting necessary funding for updating and maintaining sewage systems,” said Ed Hopkins, director of the Sierra Club’s Environmental Quality Program.

EPA officials said, however, that reducing the overflows is a top priority, noting that they have taken action against 40 areas since 1998. Enforcement actions against seven cities – including Los Angeles, Baltimore and Cincinnati – have eliminated about 14 billion gallons of sewage overflows per year, the EPA said.

Congress required the report evaluating the extent of sewage overflows when it amended the Clean Water Act four years ago.