Anticipating New Federal Reg, Localities Reassessing Wastewater Systems

摘要

In many parts of the United States, sewage and storm water share a single drainage system and major rainstorms can often overwhelm these systems, causing backups. Even where systems are separate, a large volume of rain within a short period of time can drive groundwater into the sanitary sewer system, causing backups or adding load to the treatment facility at the end of the lines. Local jurisdictions are taking an increasingly attentive look at the issue of sanitary sewer overflows and combined sewer overflows (SSOs/CSOs), spurred on in part by a pending Envi-ronmental Protection Agency regulation: capacity, management, operations, and maintenance (CMOM). Not that states are waiting for the EPA. "States are tending to put CMOM requirements into new permits anyway," says Michelle Pla, a vice president of CH2M HILL in San Francisco, "so we may not even need a federal regulation."