U.S. Water News Online
DETROIT -- The Environmental Protection Agency is considering whether to allow new federal standards that would let communities dump partially treated sewage into local waterways during heavy rainfalls.
Policies allowing "sewage blending," a practice in which cities mix untreated sewage with fully treated wastewater during storms, could save the region millions of dollars and ease basement flooding.
But the idea also raises health and ecological concerns.
Environmental activists say the new rules could send more potentially harmful contaminants into the Detroit River or Lake St. Clair, the source of drinking water for much of southeast Michigan.
The debate is spurred in part by huge repair bills expected to result from aging infrastructure, The Detroit News reported.
Southeast Michigan alone faces $16 billion to $24 billion in sewage upgrades in the next 25 years, according to the Southeast Michigan Council of Governments. And the costs would multiply if sewage blending isn't allowed, SEMCOG environmental chief Chuck Hersey said.
SEMCOG and groups such as the Michigan Municipal League view diluted sewage as an inexpensive solution to problems that arise when rainfall overwhelms treatment plants. The alternative to blending is expensive upgrades or dumping untreated sewage into waterways.
In older cities, all wastewater, rainwater and sewage flow in the same sewers. If there's too much rain, the water must go somewhere, and often ends up in streams, lakes or basements.
"This is a policy that would help us minimize costs, but not wreak havoc on the environment," Hersey said.
Hersey argued that discharges of blended sewage would be infrequent and unlikely to add to pollution.
Water quality is an issue near and dear to Great Lakes residents. Several times a year, untreated sewage closes beaches along Lake St. Clair, and a decade-long effort and millions of dollars slowly are nursing the Rouge River back to health.
A report by the National Resources Defense Council last year gave Detroit failing marks for protecting drinking water sources from contaminants.
Environmentalists are outraged at the EPA's sewage proposal, noting the goal of the 1970 Clean Water Act was to eliminate the discharge of sewage into waterways by 2010.
"There's no doubt about it: If we back off, we will absolutely see more raw and partially treated sewage in our drinking water sources," said Cyndi Roper, Great Lakes policy director for Clean Water Action, a nationwide environmental group.
The policy change likely would lead to less dumping of untreated sewage, which in turn would lead to fewer basement floods during extreme rainfalls, said Hersey of SEMCOG.
The EPA has collected more than 98,000 public comments about the proposal since February, said Cynthia Bergman, an EPA spokeswoman. Officials expect to make a decision by February 2005.
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