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20 EPA J. 22 (1994)
Portland, Maine: Case of a Combined Sewer System

handle is hein.journals/epajrnl20 and id is 22 raw text is: Portland, Maine: Case of a Combined Sewer System When it rains, the system overflows by David Urbinato KAs anyone who has ever had problems with a clogged toilet okws, sewer systems are an important but easily taken for granted asset. As far back as the mid-I9th century, Americans were building systems to get waste, both human and animal, out of town. Since animals were the main source of transportation (Urbinato vrote this article while at EPA as part of the University of Missouri's Washington, DC, prograni for graduate students in jounialism. He graduated in May &ith an M.A. in journalism.) towns had to devise a way to get their waste off the streets. So they combined their street, or storm, sewers with their residential sewers to avoid the cost of building separate systems. There are 1, 100 of these combined sewer systems (CSSs) still in use today, most of them in the Northeast and Midwest. Together they serve 43 million people. There is a problem with CSSs: When it rains, they often overflow, because they carry more wastewater than either treatment facilities or their piping systems can handle. Portland, Maine, is one of the communities struggling with combined sewer overflows (CSOs). About 720 million gallons pour into the coastal waters around Portland every year. That amount of flow would cover most of downtown Portland, about three square miles, with a puddle more than a foot deep. The city's efforts to come up with a plan to deal with CSOs show how difficult and expensive a problem they have become. CSOs are responsible for closing Portland's East End Beach several times during the summer, and they contribute to the closing of the city's shellfish beds. Back Cove, which is in the center of the city--and is for Portland the kind of recreational focal point that the Tidal Basin is to Washington, DC--is unsuitable for recreation for several days after storms. Though the outfall from Portland's wastewater-treatment facility is partly responsible for these problems, there is no question that CSOs are a substantial threat to human and aquatic life in the waters around the city. Portland's problems come from the city's collection system. During rainy periods, the pipes and mains in certain parts of the system can't get combined sewage flow to the treatment plant. Whatever can't be accommodated by the conveyance system gets piped straight into the receiving water. In Portland, there are 39 locations where this happens. In 199 1, the city of Portland and the Portland Water District were required by a consent agreement with the Maine Board of Environmental Protection to develop a CSO abatement plan. In response to the consent agreement, the city formed a task force consisting of state, regional, and local officials and local environmental groups to study the problem. Over a three-year period the task force came up with a plan that, when fully implemented, will allow greater use of Portland's public beaches EPA JOURNAL

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