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NEW
YORK STATE SEWER SCORECARD:
A SNAPSHOT OF NEW YORK STATE'S SEWAGE TREATMENT PLANTS
This
report was published by Citizens Campaign for the Environment
in December 2005.
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Executive
Summary
Whether
we find our favorite beaches closed in the summer,
our drinking water contaminated, or sewage flooding
our basements after rain events, it is clear that
sewage pollution adversely impacts our quality
of life. In New York, sewage pollution is especially
problematic due to our aging infrastructure and
scarce funding resources. To assess the state
of New York State’s sewage treatment plants,
Citizens Campaign for the Environment, in collaboration
with Scenic Hudson and the Clean Water Network,
embarked on a project to evaluate numerous sewage
treatment plants throughout New York State. |
While
our results revealed a few bright stars, overwhelmingly
New York’s sewage treatment facilities performed
poorly. Sewage treatment plants were evaluated based
on several criteria, including: no multiple raw sewage
overflows, public notification of sewage overflows or
bypasses, and sewage utility commitment to a compliance
schedule or best management practices. The 22 sewage
treatment plants reviewed earned an average grade of
“D-”.
The
failure of many of our sewage treatment plants, while
alarming, is not unsubstantiated. In the Clean Watershed
Needs Survey 2000 Report to Congress, the United States
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) told Congress
in August of 2003 that New York State needs over $20
billion to improve our state’s water quality to
benefit public health, local economies, and our environment.
The following year, in its Report to Congress on the
Impacts and Controls of CSOs and SSOs, the EPA concluded
that occurrences of Combined Sewer Overflows (CSOs)
and Sanitary Sewer Overflows (SSOs) are widespread and
are heavily concentrated in the Northeast and Great
Lakes States. Additionally, EPA estimates that more
than 3,400 U.S. Beaches were closed in 2004. Of those,
almost a third were due to high bacteria indicator readings.
These high bacteria readings are often indicative of
pollution from partially treated or raw sewage released
into the environment.
The
results of the first New York State Sewer Scorecard
report further underscore the substantial resource gap
that exists to upgrade and improve our aging and failing
infrastructure. Understanding that over $20 billion
is needed to meet that gap can be overwhelming, but
finding solutions is imperative because sewer infrastructure
cannot fix itself. There are many policy solutions,
however, that can be adopted at the federal and state
levels to help ease the burden on local municipalities
and sewer operators and improve our water quality.
Clean
water is essential to life. Working together with system
operators, rate payers, and elected officials, we look
forward to using this report as a catalyst for enacting
long-term solutions and ending sewage pollution.
Dereth Glance
Program Director
Citizens Campaign for the Environment
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