One wouldn’t think that rainwater could be an issue of concern to the average American. . If there was concern the topic of flooding would probably be on the top of the list, or a lack of rainwater that hurts the farmer’s crops. But this is 2010 and we have seen what rain water does around here. It was only a few years ago that a consent decree was signed by the powers that be and the EPA to stop overflows in the sanitary system.
It was Hurricane Hugo that started the oversight. The EPA got involved because in old towns like ours the sewer systems were built as a co-mingled system. That means that storm water, or rainwater runoff, is directed into the sanitary system and goes through the treatment plant. In severe weather the treatment plant overflowed, causing sewage to go into the river. The original idea of co-mingled systems was to push the sanitary waste out of the pipes and down stream. That was before we had water treatment plants as far back as the 1800’s.
Our town has been upgrading our sewer system for the past 20 years but spending big money in the past 10 years. The City of Pittsburgh has finished their work that leads to the Farragut sanitary line and storm line, Bellevue and Ross Township finished years ago. The visible result is the reworked “Tiger Cage” that was installed on Farragut at the end of Jacks Run Creek back in the 1950’s. The Tiger Cage was originally installed when raw sewage was still being put into Jacks Run and needed to be directed to the treatment plant. The Tiger Cage is gone, replaced with a series of debris interrupters that stop trees and tires from entering the sewer system from Jacks Run Creek. Now, storm water from Bellevue, Ross Township and the City of Pittsburgh headed for the Farragut valley is directed to the Ohio River rather than ALCOSAN.
If you have been paying attention you know that ALCOSAN is about to raise fees that we will pay on our sewage bills to help pay for the EPA consent decree work that ALCOSAN has to do. By the time the work is completed, and who you choose to listen to or believe, the cost will be somewhere between $1 billion and $3 billion dollars.
It is nice to talk about the nostalgia of the “Tiger Cage” and pre water treatment days, but this is all old news. Yes, fellow resident, it is old news that we haven’t really started to pay for yet. However, our elected leaders are already pushing their weight around through the EPA for a new round of regulation and taxes. The EPA is looking to regulate the discharge of “rainwater runoff”.
That means a U.S. government agency wants to tax me for the water that falls on my house, driveway or sidewalk and is “runoff” or discharged somewhere. The proposed rule making says the plan is only to affect new or newly redeveloped sites. I guess I shouldn’t worry because my house would be grandfathered wouldn’t it? Well, that depends on what one means by newly redeveloped sites. Did Bellevue just newly redevelop our sewer system? Does that mean that Bellevue will be forced to figure out how much water is coming off private property and into our new storm sewer system?
Does this mean that the surcharge I pay to the Borough for the sewer system we put in, is being added to a surcharge to ALCOSAN for the sewer system they are going to upgrade, for water I use to water my lawn? In the future will I have to pay an EPA tax for the rain when I don’t have to water my lawn?
Oh, by the way, ALCOSAN existed prior to the EPA. We were cleaning our water in Allegheny County before the EPA began operation in 1970. The EPA was originally charged to protect human health and the environment and exists to develop and enforce regulations based on laws passed by Congress.
The EPA ‘s 2010 budget exceeds $10.5 billion, $1 billion of that is for clean air and global climate change investigation and close to $1billion for what they call compliance and environmental stewardship. I’ve got an idea, since the EPA has solved all of our health problems to the point that they want to figure out how much rain water runs off our property, I think they have outlived their original mandate. They aren’t protecting human health any more, if they ever did. It’s time for Congress to pass a law dissolving the EPA.
