Nebraska communities both large and small must often face the difficult problem of separating storm and sanitary sewer lines in older sewage systems. An issue that poses an expensive infrastructure problem, sewer overflow is unsanitary, unsightly, and unwelcome in the basements of Nebraskans who have experienced sewage back-ups. There is room for the federal government to pitch in and aid those communities most in need.
Sewer overflow can occur in any community with inadequate systems when it rains.
It is a nationwide problem that officials at all levels of government can get involved to help solve. Americans have the right to reliable municipal sewer service, just as we have the right to safe electrical service and clean air. Politicians are, for some reason, reluctant to go before the American people and espouse better waste management. The news media rarely give time to sewer infrastructure problems until some poor citizen's basement is full of them. In most cases, implementing a solution to overflow problems simply requires better funding.