Today's action is a step toward ensuring that sewer systems across America will be improved to help keep our beaches safe for swimming. Today's proposal comes in response to President Clinton's May 1999 executive action to improve water quality and public health by developing stronger measures to prevent sewage spills, the major cause of beach closures. In l999, nearly 1500 of the nation's beach closures and health advisories were due to sewage overflows, threatening public health, family vacations, recreational use of waterways and billions of tourist dollars. Overflowing untreated sewage can contaminate rivers, lakes, and coastal waters and threaten drinking water supplies, as well as back up into homes, resulting in expensive property damage to homeowners and communities. A sanitary sewer overflow is a release of sewage from a collection system, including pipes, before it reaches a municipal wastewater treatment plant.
Sewer overflows are a chronic and growing problem.
Many systems have not received the essential maintenance and repair necessary to keep them working properly. The proposed rule would require improved management of capacity and maintenance programs to reduce sewer overflows by strengthening current Clean Water Act permit conditions for over 19,000 sewage treatment plants around the country. Cities would be required to develop and implement plans to improve plant performance, encourage new investments in infrastructure, as well as perform a number of technical upgrades. EPA would clarify that communities have limited protection from enforcement in very rare circumstances. EPA will take public comment for 120 days on the proposal.