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Ohio EPA: City has 5 years to fix raw sewage overflow issue

EPA gives 2014 deadline to eliminate problem

Civil engineer Dan Arthur, of the Hamilton Public Works Department, opens a sewer overflow next to the Great Miami River in Hamilton. The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency is requiring Hamilton to eliminate the rest of their sanitary sewer overflows. During extended rain events, tens of thousands of gallons of raw sewage ends up in the Great Miami River and Two-Mile Creek.

Staff photo by Nick Daggy Civil engineer Dan Arthur, of the Hamilton Public Works Department, opens a sewer overflow next to the Great Miami River in Hamilton. The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency is requiring Hamilton to eliminate the rest of their sanitary sewer overflows. During extended rain events, tens of thousands of gallons of raw sewage ends up in the Great Miami River and Two-Mile Creek.

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By Richard Wilson, Staff Writer 11:04 PM Friday, June 19, 2009

HAMILTON — Protecting the Great Miami River watershed is important to Ron Nelson, an avid fisherman who calls himself a “passionate stakeholder” in the natural resource.

While standing near the water rushing over the low-level dam on Neilan Boulevard, the 62-year-old industrial engineer said he’s been fishing up and down the Great Miami since he was a child.

“Compared to the ’70s, it’s tremendously cleaner,” Nelson said. “The fishing is excellent. But there’s always room for improvement.”

The river’s water quality should get a significant improvement by 2014, when the city is required by the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency to eliminate sanitary sewer overflows.

There are five such locations around the city where, during heavy rains, untreated wastewater including raw sewage overflows into the river system.

According to city records, 278 overflows have occurred at those sites since 2005; one of the more frequent overflow sites — on the West side of the river just south of the High/Main Bridge — accounted for more than 11 million gallons of wastewater going into the river in 2008.

That wastewater contains bacteria and pathogens that pose serious health risks to people who come in contact with it, said Ned Sarle, who oversees the city’s compliance and enforcement for the Ohio EPA.

Particularly worrisome, Sarle said, is when the river overflows its banks and floods into homes.

For Nelson, who lives on Franklin Street, whatever it takes to fix the problem is worth the investment.

“Not just for fishing’s sake, but for our safety and our health, that should be our No. 1 issue,” he said.

Upgrades have improved waterway, but ‘unfunded mandate’ costly

When it rains hard, wastewater from the Hamilton community, sometimes millions of gallons of it including raw sewage, ends up going straight into the Great Miami River and its tributaries.

Sanitary sewer overflows were deemed illegal back in 1988 as part of the Clean Water Act, when new regulations were passed aimed at improving water quality, said Heather Lauer, spokeswoman for the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency.

“We know that when wastewater treatment plants cleaned up, the aquatic communities improved greatly,” Lauer said.

But untreated sewage continues to overflow into waterways in virtually every city in Ohio. Because the upgrades are complex and costly, communities have been given time to develop long-term control plans to comply fully with the law, Lauer said.

In Hamilton, which was initially ordered in 1991 to upgrade the sewer systems, the city must eliminate overflows at five locations in five years.

‘Unfunded mandate’ adds burden to residents

That five-year time line is shorter than what was allotted for other cities with outdated combined sewer and storm water systems, said Public Works Director Ralph Reigelsperger. The “unfunded mandate,” he said, puts an added burden on Hamilton residents who will have to pay for most of the project costs through higher sewer rates.

Those rates are increasing from 2008 to 2012 to pay for the estimated $36 million that will be needed to fix the city’s five overflow sites. While future rate hikes are currently being calculated, the average city resident paid a little more than $13 more this year on sewage bills than last year, a 5.1 percent increase, said Doug Childs, utilities infrastructure manager.

Ned Sarle, of the Ohio EPA who oversees Hamilton’s compliance, said each city’s situation is different and that “aggressive schedules” are necessary.

“When dealing with sanitary sewer overflows ... communities aren’t supposed to have them,” he said.

The Ohio EPA is funneling stimulus money to communities to fix overflow problems, but the funding is woefully short. Hamilton is slated to receive $1.8 million, which will cover upgrades at the overflow site near the intersection of See and Imlay avenues, according to state records.

Dina Pierce, an Ohio EPA spokeswoman, said only 222 projects are receiving funding out of 2,100 requests across the state. She added there was $220 million in stimulus funds available while the requests totaled $5.4 billion.

Overflows down from 10 years ago

The city’s plans include running additional sanitary sewer piping underneath the river to accommodate overflows at one of the more active overflow sites, said Dan Arthur, public works civil engineer.

Arthur tracks the city’s overflows and works directly on the System Evaluation and Capacity Assurance Plan, which was submitted to the Ohio EPA in 2007 and was just approved earlier this month.

Arthur said about $25 million already has been spent over the years on replacing or improving sewer lines.

As a result, the overflows are not what they once were.

At one time, there were 38 sites where untreated wastewater was entering the Great Miami River system. That number is down to five, Arthur said.

In 1998, there were 76 total overflows during rain events throughout the year. That number has been reduced to 11 in 2008, according to city records.

The Ohio EPA is currently conducting a periodic survey of the upper Great Miami River to determine nutrient content and other water quality factors. Sarle said the survey team will be evaluating the river in the Hamilton area next year.

Contact this reporter at (513) 820-2122 or rwilson@coxohio.com.

By the numbers

• 2014: Deadline for the city of Hamilton to eliminate sanitary sewer overflows

• 5: Locations around the city where untreated wastewater, including raw sewage, enters streams during heavy rains

• 19.5 million: Gallons of untreated wastewater overflowed during a three-day period in March 2008 (25-year storm)

• $36 million: Estimated cost to fix the problem

• $1.8 million: Amount of federal stimulus funding the city may receive to fix the problem, half of which will need to be paid back.

Source: City of Hamilton, Ohio Environmental Protection Agency

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OMG that smell is horrible....... i don't know how those people that live right in front of the wastewater treatment plant there do it... i know I couldn't!

netboy
12:03 PM, 6/20/2009

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Dont ever swim or eat anything out of the river in Hamilton or Ohio is what this article is saying to me

someone
12:02 PM, 6/20/2009

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you all need to do something in Middletown it's nasty and it smells bad please help them just don't like to drive in Middletown on Rt73

sally
11:48 PM, 6/19/2009

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