EPA to ease sewage treatment rules (biological treatment dropped)

[donsu]

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2003-11-02-sewer-rules-usat_x.htm

The Bush administration is shifting policy so cities and towns can skip a required treatment procedure for sewage they pump into rivers, lakes and coastal waters during high rains.

The change aims to settle years of disputes over how municipal sewage plants handle the increased flow of waste — mainly storm runoff — that comes during wet weather. At issue is whether local governments should have to spend billions of tax dollars upgrading those plants so peak flows of sewage can get all the sanitary treatment that federal law demands in normal conditions.

-snip-

Federal law normally requires that sewage treatment plants send waste through a series of cleaning steps. First, solids are separated and removed. The sewage then goes through "biological treatment," where living organisms break down remaining solids and kill bacteria. Typically, the waste also is treated with disinfectants to meet sanitary standards before it is discharged, usually into waterways.

-snip-

But "those standards don't cover viruses or parasites ... and those are the contaminants that don't get removed if you skip biological treatment," says Nancy Stoner of the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental group that wants more federal aid to help communities increase sewage plant capacity. Blending "will put more of those contaminants in water supplies."
-snip-
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and you wonder why you have gotten sick

[dwckabal]

1. As an ex-civil engineer

I have to say this disturbs me greatly.