Editor’s note: This commentary is by Juliana Dixon, who is program director at Lake Champlain International. She has a bachelor’s degree in environmental science and a master’s in agricultural development.
[F]eb. 22 was Clean Water Day at the Statehouse, an event advocating for the prioritization of swimmable, drinkable, fishable waters in Vermont. More than 150 people participated, representing a dozen organizations. Fittingly, while lawmakers were hearing testimony on the need for action to protect our water resources, untreated sewage was being dumped into the Winooski River less than a quarter mile away. For those new to the conversation, this is far from an unusual occurrence. Only two months into 2018, the Lake Champlain basin has already experienced 35 spills of combined sewage overflow and/or partially disinfected effluent, totaling 4.6 million gallons. Of this, 1.5 million gallons were from the city of Rutland.
When combined sewage overflow enters the public waters, it brings with it pathogens including hepatitis, giardia, rotavirus and parasitic worms – some of which can live several months in the right conditions. Combined sewage overflows also carry a cocktail of pharmaceuticals, automotive pollutants and physical pollutants into our rivers, and subsequently into Lake Champlain – the source of drinking water for 200,000 people. Despite this, earlier this month, Rutland Public Works Commissioner Jeff Wennberg wrote an opinion piece in defense of the combined sewer system.
Wennberg is correct in stating that the only way to completely eliminate sewage overflows is to switch current combined sewer systems to separated sewer systems. However, he incorrectly presents that we have only two choices for water quality, both of which are losing situations for our waters: continue to regularly pollute our rivers and lakes by dumping combined sewage overflow into them, or separate combined systems and then pollute our waters with untreated stormwater containing petrochemicals, fertilizers and phosphorus-laden sediments. There are several other options, not least of which is already modeled in our state: a separated sewer system of an appropriate capacity that treats both effluent streams before dispersal.
We find it counterintuitive at best that Wennberg states in his article “Sixty years ago wastewater treatment did not exist,” while also acknowledging, “We’ve got 130-year-old pipes that are failing, we’ve got 80- to 90-year-old pipes that are failing, and we’ve got 40- to 50-year-old pipes that are failing” [1]. Given the deeply outdated nature of Rutland’s infrastructure, and the fact that Rutland has averaged 34 percent of the combined sewage overflow problem in the last two years, we encourage Wennberg to join with us in our call for increased investment and prioritization of water infrastructure in Vermont.
The serious health impacts that can occur as the result of sewage overflows are also neglected in Wennberg’s opinion piece. Researchers from the University of Illinois School of Public Health, the EPA, Cedars Sinai Medical Center and the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health have all demonstrated a significant relationship between sewage overflows and an increase in ER visits for gastrointestinal infections from sewage contaminated water. [2] In a 2016 article in the Rutland Herald concerning new Agency of Natural Resources sewage regulations, Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation environmental analyst Julia Butzler stated that the state of Vermont and local municipalities are “bound by the Clean Water Act to meet the water quality standards put forth, which requires that these CSOs are abated.” She continued by saying that “Wennberg’s argument that water quality could significantly be lessened by a separated system was debatable, and it ignored the public health aspect. The pollutant load in storm water is not as significant as the public health risk factor that the combined sewer creates (when there is an overflow).” [3] Combined sewage overflows are known to contain both enteric viruses, which cause gastrointestinal infections, as well as adenoviruses, which can cause respiratory illnesses. [4]
Lastly, Wennberg incorrectly equates the environmental impact from sewage overflows to that of stormwater overflows, stating that they are “essentially the same.” However, according to the EPA, phosphorus is 22 times higher, nitrogen is 20 times higher, copper is four times higher, zinc is 14 times higher in urban runoff as compared to untreated domestic wastewater. Only lead is typically higher in stormwater than is wastewater, by about 1.8 times. However, fecal coliform can be between 20 to a whopping 250,000 times higher in wastewater than stormwater.
Lake Champlain International has contributed significantly to the effort to inform the public about the environmental and health hazards posed by combined sewage overflows. LCI supported the notification of the public when combined sewage overflows occur, which was finally passed into law in 2016 through the passage of Act 86, and has consistently advocated for investment in appropriate treatment systems. The status quo is not tenable — we strongly agree with Wennberg that “CSOs remain a challenge and need to be addressed [and] we will make the right decisions only if we understand the whole picture.” But just how accurate of a picture is Wennberg painting?
NOTES
[1] Dobbs, Taylor “Vermont’s ‘Crumbling’ Underground Water Infrastructure Demands Expensive Repairs” Vermont Public Radio, 9.1.2015
[2] Jagai, Jyotsna S., et al. “Extreme Precipitation and Emergency Room Visits for Gastrointestinal Illness in Areas with and without Combined Sewer Systems: An Analysis of Massachusetts Data, 2003-2007.” Environmental Health Perspectives, Sept. 2015, doi:10.1289/ehp.1408971.
[3] Duffort, Lola. “New ANR Sewage Regulations Anger Local Officials.” Rutland Herald, 17 Mar. 2016.
[4] Fong, T.-T., et al. “Quantitative Detection of Human Adenoviruses in Wastewater and Combined Sewer Overflows Influencing a Michigan River.” Applied and Environmental Microbiology, vol. 76, no. 3, 2009, pp. 715–723., doi:10.1128/aem.01316-09.
