ALERT:: EPA to ease sewage treatment rules

[Guest guest]

PAY ATTENTION TO THIS AS WELL AS THE AIR QUALITY WE ARE NOW LOSING, WE ARE

LOSING CLEAN WATER QUALITY...

-

: Tuesday, November 04, 2003 4:25 AM

EPA to ease sewage treatment rules

 

 

>

> EPA to ease sewage treatment rules

> Mon Nov 3, 6:47 AM ET

> By Peter Eisler, USA TODAY

>

> The Bush administration is shifting policy so cities and towns can skip a

> required treatment procedure for sewage they pump into rivers, lakes and

> coastal waters during high rains.

>

>

> The change aims to settle years of disputes over how municipal sewage

> plants handle the increased flow of waste mainly storm runoff that comes

> during wet weather. At issue is whether local governments should have to

> spend billions of tax dollars upgrading those plants so peak flows of

> sewage can get all the sanitary treatment that federal law demands in

> normal conditions.

>

> The administration's plan would let hundreds of communities big and small

> escape that expense by partially treating sewage surges in big storms.

> Environmental groups and some federal regulators say those flows should be

> treated completely to keep disease-carrying microbes out of recreational

> waters.

>

> The Environmental Protection Agency

>

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> sites) plans to propose the policy change this week, and there will be 60

> days for public comment before it can be finalized. USA TODAY obtained a

> copy of the initiative.

>

> " We've been pushing hard for a national policy on this, " says Ken Kirk of

> the Association of Metropolitan Sewerage Agencies, which represents public

> treatment plants. There has been " a lot of confusion " over how much

> treatment is required for sewage surges in wet weather, he says. If the

EPA

> required full treatment, " it would have been very costly for a lot of

> communities. "

>

> Federal law normally requires that sewage treatment plants send waste

> through a series of cleaning steps. First, solids are separated and

> removed. The sewage then goes through " biological treatment, " where living

> organisms break down remaining solids and kill bacteria. Typically, the

> waste also is treated with disinfectants to meet sanitary standards before

> it is discharged, usually into waterways.

>

> But the heavy flows of wastewater that come in wet weather often exceed

the

> capacity of plants' biological treatment. Many plants divert peak flows

> around the second treatment step. After some disinfection, the diverted

> waste is blended with fully treated sewage before it is released.

>

> The EPA's new policy would permit blending and say that blended waste

still

> must meet normal discharge standards, including limits on bacterial

content

> and clarity.

>

> But " those standards don't cover viruses or parasites ... and those are

the

> contaminants that don't get removed if you skip biological treatment, "

says

> Nancy Stoner of the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental

> group that wants more federal aid to help communities increase sewage

plant

> capacity. Blending " will put more of those contaminants in water

supplies. "

>

> Industry surveys suggest 20%-50% of the nation's 19,000 public sewage

> plants blend waste in wet weather. Some of the EPA's 10 regional offices

> allow blending, but several have fined communities for doing it.

>

>

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