Environmental▼News PERSPECTIVE during the next two decades to fix the entire sewage system. If the city doesn’t meet the schedule for reIf you happen to visit Washington, But an honest account of how pairs, there will be penalties, says D.C., on a rainy day and take a bathsewage overflows affect humans is Tracy J. Egoscue, the executive diroom break during your tour of the difficult to come by, in part because rector of Santa Monica Baykeeper, Smithsonian or Lincoln Memorial, sewage authorities are not required an environmental group that led there’s a good chance that whatever to report overflows to EPA. the lawsuit. “I think the city finally you flush down the toilet will flow “There really isn’t good research means it, and they are going to start directly into the nearby Anacostia out there in what overflows might making changes,” she says. The River. With a system designed at the mean to drinking water,” warns problem had become so bad that turn of the 20th century, the District Alan Roberson, director of regulatoLos Angeles was forced to form an of Columbia’s sewers regularly overry affairs for the American Water odor advisory task force because flow into nearby waters if as little as Works Association. In the waning some neighborhoods smelled of half an inch of rain hits the raw sewage after backups. pavement. But the District is However, Egoscue says not the only metropolis batthat the problem remains in tling poorly working sewers. surrounding cities. The same A U.S. EPA report sent to week the agreement was pubCongress in August finds licly announced, sewers in that more than 772 comthe nearby oceanside city of bined sewer systems annuHuntington Beach overflowed ally discharge around 850 and shut down beaches durbillion gallons of untreated ing tourist-heavy Labor Day wastewater into nearby waweekend. terways. The agency estiOther cities are finding the These sewer outfalls on the east side of Washington, D.C., road to repair to be tortuous. mates that these sewage overflow into the Anacostia River more than 50 times a overflows degrade water In 2002, Washington, D.C., year. The Anacostia is also polluted by leaking sewer quality, shut down numerproposed a $1.265 billion lines further upstream and is now ranked as one of the ous beaches, and lead to plan to fix its sewers. most polluted rivers in the United States. about 3500–5500 gastroinHowever, the U.S. Departtestinal illnesses every year. days of the Clinton Administration, ment of Justice sued the district, Combined sewer systems, like regulations were proposed to reand the case is now tied up in court. the ones in D.C., contain pipes that quire sewage operators to report “There’s some contention over the carry both sewage and storm water. overflows to EPA and local health schedule of the plan,” says John During heavy rain, the pipes overauthorities, but the Bush White Hemphill, a spokesperson for the flow into rivers and onto beaches. House placed the proposal on hold. D.C. Water and Sewer Authority Newark, N.J.’s sewers, which date “We’ll be considering whether to (WASA). “WASA wanted a 40-year back to 1852, are so old that they focus on a requirement for reportplan with a rate hike.” The federal now grace the rolls of the National ing,” says John Hanlon, director of government wanted a faster fix. Register of Historic Places. EPA’s Office for Wastewater ManHemphill says that WASA does But the data on sanitary sewers, agement. The problem, he says, is plan to invest $150 million in D.C. which serve only a single purpose, “miserable infrastructure”. sewers over the next four years, are equally dismal. An EPA report in “It’s a sewer underground, and which will cut the volume of over2001 found about 40,000 sewage people just assume it’s okay,” says flow into nearby rivers by 40%. overflows into waterways and Nancy Stoner, director of the Clean Every year, over a billion gallons of 400,000 backups into basements. Water Project at the Natural Rewastewater flows into the Potomac Each overflow is a violation of the sources Defense Council. River and Rock Creek. But twice that Clean Water Act. EPA estimates it Recently, EPA has begun forcing amount runs out of D.C. sewers into will take $139.4 billion to fix all the cities to invest more money in their the Anacostia River, one of the 10 nation’s leaky sewers. sewers. EPA settlements in Baltimost polluted rivers in the country. In 2001, a report from Johns more, Md., Washington, D.C., and Roberson says that the money Hopkins researchers linked sewage Atlanta, Ga., each came with price for improvements will be borne by overflows with diseases such as giartags of more than $1 billion for recustomers paying higher sewer bills. diasis, cryptosporidiosis, and hepapairs. The largest case was against He adds that most of the problems titis A. The study found that 68% of Los Angeles, Calif. are in metropolitan areas, which waterborne disease outbreaks over For decades, Los Angeles had will require federal funding. “I don’t a 47-year period were preceded by been spewing raw sewage into coassee that happening in this budget high precipitation events (Am. J. tal waters. Now, after a lawsuit, the and political environment,” RoberPublic Health 2001, 91, 1194–1199). city has agreed to spend $2 billion son says. —PAUL D. THACKER ANACOSTIA WATERSHED SOCIETY
Americans are swimming in sewage
DECEMBER 15, 2004 / ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY ■ 483A
