From: Steven Trovato <strovato@optonline.net>
> This is interesting, because New York City's system is still
> combined. A heavy rain routinely overloads the system and discharges
> raw sewage into the environment.
>
> http://riverkeeper.org/campaign.php/pollution/the_facts/986
Yes, this is what Saint Paul was doing before we separating our sewers. Sewage
crossed dams called "regulators" or "diversions" from combined sewers to storm
sewers when the sewers were overcharged in a rain event. Also, the treatment
plant itself became overwhelmed and was forced to divert combined flow directly
to the river. A suit was brought in Federal Court by communities downstream on
the Mississippi River. The Court ordered the Cities of Saint Paul,
Minneapolis, and South Saint Paul to cease and desist. Our solution was
separation. It took about a decade. One fly in the ointment was that
thousands of houses and buildings had reainleaders connected to their sewer
lines. They were directed, first by carrot and then by stick, to disconnect
these rainleaders and dump rainwater either to ground or to storm sewers.
Having to run a downspout extension across a private sidewalk was not accepted
as an excuse unless there was a handicapped person in the home, and then they
were required to pay an annual water-treatment charge. This was interesting
when I would come up against a person who was alive when his father built the
house in the 1930s and we REQUIRED him to connect rainleaders to sewer. All I
could say was that the folks in charge then had no crystal ball, and there was
no grandfather clause.
It worked well. With our efforts and that of others in Minnesota, the river is
now cleaner here than it had been in generations. The fish are back and the
eagles are back to eat the fish. I have seen eagles over my own neighborhood.
(There are also peregrine falcons which nest on tall buildings and eat pigeons,
but we can't take credit for them.)
Apparently, New York is planning on following the "store and treat" scheme so
they don't have to rip up streets to lay new sewer pipe. I am told that
Milwaukee does this, storing all the city combined sewage in underground
caverns, then pumping it up to the treatment plant when possible. This is
hearsay, as I have not seen Milwaukee's system.
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