US Congress Must Stop the Dumping of Raw Sewage Into Our Waters!

  • by: Susan V
  • recipient: US Congress and EPA

Last year the Clean Water Act (CWA) celebrated 40 years working to clean up America’s waterways, still falling far short of its original goal. But how can the goal ever be reached if cities still dump billions of tons of raw sewage into rivers, lakes and streams?

Even the small city of Thomasville, North Carolina dumped nearly 20 million gallons of raw sewage in the Yadkin River in the last four years. Nearby Salisbury added nearly a fifth that amount in just the last weeks!

Caused mostly by aging sewage systems, this problem is not isolated - it’s nationwide. A group of six upstate New York cities just pledged to stop the trashing of the Hudson River, which has borne the brunt of a billion gallons of raw sewage annually. Seattle agreed to fix a system that spilled 154 million gallons in 2012. But even the billions New England has paid to fix its systems hasn’t stopped massive discharges there.

Although the dumping is illegal, states often don't comply - maybe because when the CWA first began, the EPA paid for the bulk of sewage treatment improvements, but now helps out only with low-interest loans - just enough to bandaid the problems instead of providing long-term solutions.

Along with making millions ill, raw sewage in waters causes algae that chokes aquatic life. We can’t allow lax regulation or quick fixes to reverse progress the CWA has made. A real solution to raw sewage is needed. Tell Congress to help states stop dumping raw sewage into our waters!

We, the undersigned, say Congress and the EPA must do a better job of protecting our waterways from raw sewage.

Even though EPA’s Biosolids webpage says dumping raw sewage in waterways is a thing of the past, it recently identified nearly 800 communities that still do it routinely.  
It’s bad enough that the Halliburton loophole has given the fracking industry a free pass on chemicals injected underground without the EPA letting municipalities all across the US get away with dumping raw sewage in rivers.

The problem is that many of these sewage systems are nearly a century old, and they’re falling apart, and states won't or can't properly repair them.

From Thomasville, NC to Albany and Boston in the East to Chicago in the Midwest and Seattle in the Northwest, cities and towns are dumping billions of tons of toxic raw human waste into their water systems. Even after New England spent billions of dollars on repairs, a report last year  by the New England Center for Investigative Reporting still found that “Billions of gallons of raw sewage and contaminated stormwater surge every year into the waterways and onto the streets of New England.”

The law requires all states to routinely monitor bacterial levels in their waterways. But the EPA, itself, doesn’t record where and how much sewage flows into those waters, according to NECIR’s inquiry. And even though states should record the information, their data is pretty sloppy - sometimes handwritten and often incomplete, inaccessible or based on guesswork.

How can the Clean Water Act resolve pollution problems from the past if we allow cities to continue adding to that problem now?

There’s got to be a better solution to this problem. Perhaps organizations like India’s National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI) could help the US find better ways to handle wastewater as Water 4 Crops is doing in India.

Clearly Congress and/or the EPA needs to step in and make sure states are able to do what is necessary to stop this needless and dangerous pollution of our waterways.

Thanks for your time.



Update #19 years ago
North Carolina's Yadkin Riverkeeper announced yesterday they have reached a settlement with Thomasville in a Clean Water Act lawsuit over the city's "numerous, sizeable discharges" of raw sewage into tributaries of the Yadkin River and High Rock Lake. The settlement involves a long-term improvement plan that is a disappointment to some, but a step in the right direction.
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