Billions and billions of gallons of raw sewage flow into our rivers and lakes
Three generations ago, American cities routinely poured huge amounts of untreated sewage directly into rivers and lakes. Just 25 years ago, during a strike by municipal workers, Youngstown by-passed its sewage treatment plant completely and the response by the Environmental Protection Agency was to give the city a week to see how things worked out. The strike was settled by then.
Americans like to think they've become more sensitive to the need to protect our natural resources, and we have. But, as a report by the nonprofit Environmental Integrity Project shows, not nearly enough.
The report focuses on one of the nation's greatest natural resources, the Great Lakes. What it shows is that massive amounts of untreated sewage from six upper Midwest states -- Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio and Wisconsin -- are being dumped into rivers and streams, and much of that makes its way into the Great Lakes.
The mechanism for the pollution is a legacy of the sewage systems in many older Midwest communities -- from small towns to huge cities. Their systems allow household and industrial sewage to flow toward the treatment plant in pipes that also receive storm water from downspouts and ditches.
And when it rains, the mixture of water and sewage exceed the processing capacity of treatment plants. As the sewage begins to back up, it is bypassed directly into the nearest river or stream.
Just imagine
That happens in quantities that boggle the mind -- about 850 billion gallons nationwide annually. By our calculations, that's about as much water as flows over Niagara Falls in 15 hours. Anyone who has ever been on the Maid of the Mist should be intimidated by such quantities.
The report's good news is that the scope of the problem has been pretty well nailed down. The bad news is that not enough is being done to drag Midwest sewer systems into the 21st century.
And the Bush Administration wants to eliminate current restrictions on discharging inadequately treated sewage into waterways during rain events and cut federal funds for work to separate storm and sewage water.
That would not only be unfortunate for the environment, it would be unfair to those communities that have made an effort to eliminate "blending" -- Toledo and Youngstown are cited in the report as cities with success stories.
Rivers lakes and streams are important natural resources that should be protected on principle. Pouring untreated sewage into those waterways creates a health hazard for people downstream. And the Great Lakes have enormous quality-of-life and economic value and potential.
Retreating from sound environmental policy that has been in place for decades and that is beginning to show results might save money now, but would be a costly mistake in the long run.