The public has until Jan. 9 to comment on a Bush Administration plan to routinely allow sewage that's been only partially treated to be released into public waterways during storms.
The proposal by the Environmental Protection Agency would exempt sewage treatment plants during heavy rains and snowmelts from having to put sewage through the standard biological treatment process to remove pathogenic organisms and other pollutants. Municipal treatment plants would be allowed to divert sewage around biological treatment units and then "blend" the largely untreated sewage with treated wastewater prior to discharge.
This would put more viruses and parasites into the water Americans drink and swim in, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council. NRDC says the proposal violates the Clean Water Act.[1]
Under current policy, storm overflows can only be released into rivers, streams and coastal waters without treatment when it is necessary to prevent personal injury or severe property damage, such as during a hurricane. The Bush Administration is proposing to allow sewage plants to bypass the process to kill viruses and pathogens anytime they experience high water flow.[2]
The EPA has found that discharges of inadequately treated sewage spread pathogens and disease in rivers and coastal waters and that "municipal sewage treatment plants remain the fourth most common source of pollution in rivers."[3]
Infectious waterborne diseases strike millions of Americans annually.
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SOURCES:
[1] NRDC press release, Nov. 3, 2003, http://www.nrdc.org/media/pressreleases/031103.asp
[2] Ibid.
[3] EPA's "National Water Quality Inventory: 1998 Report to Congress, http://www.epa.gov/305b/98report/chap3.pdf
