Indiana Clean Water Coalition

Sewage in Our Streams Newsletter

April 2004 Edition   

This newsletter is written and edited by Tom Neltner of Improving Kids’ Environment on behalf of the Indiana Clean Water Coalition.  For information about the newsletter articles, please contact him at mccabe@ikecoalition.org or 317-442-3973. 

Click here for a version in PDF

MUNICIPAL SEWAGE ISSUES

Welcome Cyndi Wagner

Congratulations to Cyndi Wagner.  On November 10, she became the new section chief of IDEM’s wet weather section.  With her previous experience within IDEM, the private sector, and Marion County Health Department, she is prepared to continue the excellent work of Reggie Baker.  Our best wishes!

SSO and Bypass Problems

Sierra Club and IKE have been reviewing IDEM's NPDES files to get a better understanding of the compliance issues for municipalities that regularly have SSOs and bypasses.

So far, we have seen some pretty serious problems on our initial review.
Regularly we see SSOs and bypasses reported on the monthly report not showing up on the SSO/Bypass Database indicating that they were not properly reported or documented somewhere in the system. We often find the follow-up reports missing.

Many of the follow-up reports make no attempt to comply with the permit requirement to identify “steps taken or planned to reduce or eliminate the noncompliance and prevent its recurrence.”  Others simply blame a light rain as an act of god and treat the sewage overflows as a fact of life.  Few reports identify tangible steps to investigate and remedy the problem or even explain a broader effort to evaluate sewer capacity.  We have even identified situations where capacity certifications were issued for new connections at the same time as SSOs were regularly occurring. 

Almost 2000 Sewage Discharges in 2003

Every year, Sierra Club and IKE have reviewed the 24-hour reports that NPDES permit holders must make to IDEM.  Permit holders must report unanticipated bypasses, noncompliance that may pose significant danger, plant upsets, sanitary sewer overflows and dry weather combined sewer overflows.   Permit holders are not required to report wet weather CSOs or the gallons bypassed.  Almost all of the reported events are from municipalities and the majority involves wet weather. 

There were 1,954 reported events in 2003, down from the high of 2005 events in 2002.  43 facilities had ten or more events, down from 59 facilities in 2002.  The total reported gallons were 1.3 billion gallons, up from 1.0 billion in 2002.  Please note that municipalities do not consistently report gallons.  Anderson reports the gallons in bypasses.  Many municipalities do not report any gallons in bypasses even though they know the number – preferring to provide the information in the monthly discharge monitoring report.  Here is the tally for 2003.

The Indiana Clean Water Coalition repeats its plea for IDEM to make this information available on its website and to provide timely updates.  The Coalition also asks for IDEM to begin the promised rulemaking to require municipalities to notify the public when the events occur.  The public has the right to know! 

These 43 facilities are the focus of a joint Sierra Club and IKE Environmental Compliance Project.

Hanover and Milan

Two cities stand out on the list:  Hanover and Milan. 

For Hanover, IDEM issued a notice of violation on April 2000, an agreed order on March 2001, and an early warning notice on July 2002.  Despite this intervention, Hanover has seen the following trends in reported SSOs and bypasses.

Year           # of Events            Gallons
1999                5                             100
2000                16                    937,200
2001                22                    811,050
2002                41                 4,207,500
2003                51                 9,187,100

For Milan, the situation is similar but worse. IDEM issued an early warning notice in September 1997, an agreed order on May 1998, a sewer connection ban in May 2000, and a notice of violation (NOV) in June 2003.  The NOV addressed a number of problems including 18 months of missed monthly discharge monitoring reports.  Despite this intervention, Milan has had the following trends in bypasses and SSOs.  

Year                 # of Events 
1997                        11
1998                        14
1999                        17
2000                        34
2001                        55
2002                        69
2003                      116

CSO Long-Term Control Plan Status Report

IDEM provided IKE with the following status report on CSO Long-Term Control Plans for Indiana’s 105 CSO communities as of March 5, 2004.  Click here for a copy.

Here are the cities moving up (which is good) since September 8, 2003:

·    Moving from “complete and ready for detailed review” to “under detailed review”:  Butler and Mishawka

·    Moving from “working to supplement submitted plan” to “complete and ready for detailed review”:  Hammond, Ridgeville, Redkey,

·    Moving from “due in 2003” to “complete and ready for detailed review”:  Lowell, Bluffton, Paoli, and Summitville,

·    Moving from “due in 2003” to “working to supplement submitted plan”:  Valparaiso,

Other cities of note:

·    Goshen submitted its plan one year early and it intends to transport potential overflows and treat at the plant.  It also plans to eliminate the high priority CSOs through their park.

·    Milford sealed its only outfall temporarily while they upgrade the plant to handle any other the peak flows which would have caused a CSO.  This outfall hasn't discharged in years.

·    Warren, Bremen and Ossian have separated their sewers.  IDEM is drafting specific post-construction monitoring requirements for their permits.

·    Indianapolis and Fort Wayne are undergoing dramatic rewrites to improve their LTCP.

Public Notice of Combined Sewer Overflows:  Plans Should Be Fully Implemented

By November 9, Indiana’s 105 CSO Communities were required to submit their procedures to notify the public when a CSO occurs or is about to occur.  The procedures were to be fully implemented by February 7.  Only Alexandria, Fortville and Brazil failed to meet the deadline.

Thanks to IDEM for staying on top of the requirement.  It issued notices of violation to the three delinquent communities.  IDEM reports that most of the submitted plans were deficient but that communities have been cooperative in fixing their plans.

The Indiana Clean Water Coalition has not yet reviewed and assessed the plans.  It hopes to do so during the summer.  Please contact Tom Neltner at 317-442-3973 or mccabe@ikecoalition.org if you have had any experiences with the notice whether good or bad. 

Indy’s Early Action Projects

Indianapolis reported that it is completing $230 million in projects to reduce combined sewer overflows.  The city moved ahead with these early action projects while completing revisions to its Long-Term Control Plan.  The city has proposed more than $500 million in a second phase of projects while the plan analysis is wrapped up.  It is negotiating with IDEM and EPA now to determine which projects it can move ahead with in confidence that it will be consistent with the final plan.

IDEM, EPA and the City of Indianapolis have reached an agreement on the final steps in its alternatives analysis.  Indianapolis is scheduled to submit the plan in late November 2004 to IDEM and EPA for approval.  Difficult issues such as financial capability, sewer connection policies, and use attainability analysis still must be resolved.  The systemic alternatives analysis has already yielded some major insights and cost savings so the Coalition is hopeful that these issues can be worked out. 

If resolved in a manner that addresses the disparate impacts of combined sewers on minority communities in Indianapolis, the civil rights complaint may be able to be withdrawn.  Concerned Clergy, Mapleton-Fall Creek Neighborhood Association, Hoosier Environmental Council, Sierra Club, and Improving Kids’ Environment in October 1999 filed the complaint.  EPA accepted it for investigation in October 2001.  The parties mutually agreed to suspend EPA’s investigations pending negotiations in December 2001. 

CSO Regulatory Option / E.coli Rulemaking Workgroup

IDEM created the E. coli rulemaking workgroup in 2002 to provide input to IDEM regarding possible revisions to the bacteriological criteria based on new guidance issued by U.S. EPA in May 2002 regarding implementation of the 1986 ambient water quality criteria for bacteria.  In late 2003, the Indiana Association of Cities and Towns (IACT) as well as the Indiana Water Environment Association, the Inter-Agency Municipal Task Force and environmental representative, Dick Van Frank, requested that IDEM hold off proceeding with the E.coli rulemaking in order to incorporate the wet weather issues into this rulemaking and discuss these issues with IACT and other interested parties.  IDEM agreed to expand the scope of the workgroup’s mandate in accord with the request.