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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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