Atlanta's Consent Decrees Drive a Substantial Commitment to Trenchless Sewer Rehabilitation

摘要

In 1998 and 1999, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Georgia Environmental Protection Division (EPD) completed settlement negotiations associated with two complaints against the City of Atlanta for various violations of the United States Clean Water Act and Georgia Water Quality Act. This resulted in the recording of the Consent Decree (CD) related to Combined Sewer Overflows (CSOs) and the First Amended Consent Decree (FACD) associated with Sanitary Sewer Overflows (SSOs). They mandated improvement of the City wastewater collection and transmission systems including wet-weather control for combined sewers, and rehabilitation and relief of capacity-limited sanitary sewers. The City's seven existing CSO control facilities experience a combined 300 discharge events per year. Additionally, over 550 SSOs (unpermitted discharges and spills to dry land) are experienced annually. The City wastewater collection and transmission systems include approximately 1600 miles of sewer mains and approximately 37,500 manholes. Fifteen percent of the system is comprised of combined sewers while 85 percent of the system consists of separate sanitary sewers. Six other governmental entities contract for wastewater treatment by the City including the Cities of Hapeville, College Park and East Point, and DeKalb, Clayton and Fulton Counties. Fifty-five percent of the sewage flows are generated by Atlanta and 45 percent by the wholesale agencies. The total benefiting population is 1.2 million.