BY CHRISTINE KRALY
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219.662.5335 | Monday, May 19, 2008

A proposal before federal legislators aims to notify the public quickly of possibly dangerous sewage overflows into local waterways.

But Indiana and Illinois already require at least some of the goals outlined in the federal Sewage Overflow Community Right-to-Know Act.

First introduced a year ago in the U.S. House of Representatives, the bill would require municipal sewage treatment sites to notify the public of overflows of raw or partially treated sewage no later than 24 hours after spills.

Sewage sites also would be required to install equipment for a timely alert of overflows and immediately notify public health authorities when an overflow risks human health.

The bill would provide needed broad-based national notification and reporting guidelines, said Adam Krantz, of the Washington, D.C.-based National Association of Clean Water Agencies.

NACWA, which represents the nation's public sewage operators, supports the bill but notes the importance of not overburdening cash-strapped communities.

Indiana already requires sites to notify the Indiana Department of Environmental Management within 24 hours of a sanitary sewer overflow, the reports of which IDEM posts on its Web site.

In Illinois, sites with wastewater permits must notify the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency of overflows "as soon as possible," according to agency spokeswoman Jill Watson.

Watson said some permits may be more specific on notification time or method, especially if a site discharges into a more sensitive waterway.

"The difficulty is in establishing an adequate and meaningful notification system," Watson said. "In the case of SSOs (sanitary sewer overflows), not everyone is likely to be affected, so issuing widespread notices would go unnoticed soon and would be useless if not properly targeted."

Krantz said the bill was prompted in part by a growing number of municipalities facing penalties for overflow violations and the desire for more consistent national guidelines.

Those goals support findings from an eight-month Times investigation that found many local municipal sewage plants faced as many or more wastewater violations as local industries face. It also found that Indiana and Illinois lack consistent methods in treating released wastewater.

Krantz said he did not think the bill would impose substantial costs upon treatment plant operators.

If the bill is passed by Congress, the U.S. EPA would need to create a federal rule, which individual treatment plants would have to follow.

The bill passed a House subcommittee, and Krantz said he does not know when the bill might hit the U.S. Senate.

ABOUT OVERFLOWS
Sanitary sewer overflows occur when rain or snow overwhelm a sewer system already at capacity or when normal flow becomes blocked. Large overflows into waters such as Lake Michigan, especially from major city sewage systems, can shutter beaches.