Eliminating Combined Sewer Overlows

April 29, 2008

Commentary 

Pennsylvania’s back is now to the wall. Like many other cities and states in the region, we will be forced to deal with the issue of eliminating combined sewer overflows (CSOs). Combined sewer systems are sewers that are designed to collect rainwater runoff, domestic sewage, and industrial wastewater in the same pipe.

The problem is significant. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently completed its “Clean Watersheds Needs Survey.” The EPA reported that CSOs continue to be a major water pollution concern for cities and that it would cost $54.8 billion to control all the CSOs in the nation. The estimate for Pennsylvania alone is $4.6 billion.

Cities, such as Wilkes-Barre, Scranton, and Hazleton, are spending millions of dollars to address their CSO problems and improve water quality. Many cities and municipalities across Pennsylvania are in a similar position.

Finding the correct financial mix and fiscal means between federal, state and local funding sources will be difficult, yet necessary. Doing nothing, however, will likely have costly implications for future generations.

The structural solutions and best management practices that are needed to correct CSOs are well known. Yet, by any measure, the biggest impediment to eliminating the CSO problem is money—and lots of it. Who’s responsible for paying for it, and how we can generate enough to do the job are the real questions.

While it may be politically palatable to point fingers at local ratepayers for fiscal salvation to the CSO problem since they are—after all—local sewers and locally owned, the truth is that this is totally unrealistic and unreasonable. The total cost of fixing this problem is way too big and should not lie exclusively with local ratepayers.

State and federal dollars must be available to help fix CSOs. On the federal side, more of an effort must be made to ensure that federal resources are available. Crumbling infrastructure—as we saw with bridge collapse in Minnesota and the recent flooding from sewer system overflows from torrential rains in the Midwest—is a problem national in scope.

The state, however, also has a role to play in solving the problem. That’s why I have introduced legislation (SB 1341) that would invest significant funding for the improvement of Pennsylvania’s water infrastructure.

The subject and the legislation will be featured in May’s edition of Capitol Connection—a statewide cable news program scheduled for broadcast on Pennsylvania Cable Network (PCN) May 4 and 18 at 2:30 p.m. (The segment can also be viewed at my website at www.senatormusto.com)

This legislation provides for a voter referendum to authorize a $1 billion bond for the construction, rehabilitation, and improvement of our drinking water supplies and sewage treatment systems. It includes funds for CSO abatement and for projects that are necessary for complying with the Chesapeake Bay Tributary Strategy.

This investment in our clean water infrastructure is desperately needed if we are to rid our rivers of CSO outfalls, improve water quality, and stave off higher sewer bills. If approved by the voters, the bond money would be administered through the Pennsylvania Infrastructure Investment Authority (Pennvest). Financial assistance would be in the form of grants and low-interest loans.

This is an investment we must make. It’s an investment the federal government must make as well. Without it, our clean water infrastructure, which is so important to Pennsylvania’s environment and economy, will suffer.

Senator Ray Musto

D- 14  Luzerne, Carbon, Monroe

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