Clean Water News

Ohio—As the swimming season begins around Lake Erie and the rest of the Great Lakes this Memorial Day weekend, a new Ohio PIRG report finds that Ohioans are not being told when hazardous sewage is being dumped into local waterways. Sewage Warning! What the Public Doesn’t Know about Sewage Dumping in the Great Lakes—released today by Ohio PIRG in conjunction with the Central Ohio Chapter of the Sierra Club and the Ohio Environmental Council—assesses public notification about sewage dumping around the Great Lakes. The report finds that Ohio ranks last in providing this critical public health information to its citizens.

“Families heading to Lake Erie beaches this summer will be left in the dark about a major public health risk. Bacteria, viruses, worms and other unspeakable things in sewage are being dumped into local waterways, and the state is not telling you about it. To make matters worse, in most cases they aren’t even collecting the information themselves.” said Erin Bowser, State Director with Ohio PIRG (Public Interest Research Group).

Sewage Warning! exposes the fact that over 30 years after the passage of the Clean Water Act, the U.S. is still dumping over 850 billion gallons per year of untreated sewage into our rivers and lakes, including tens of billions of gallons in the state of Ohio.

Exposure to water that is contaminated with bacteria or viruses from sewage pollution is an unnecessary and costly public health threat. The U.S. EPA estimates that between 1.8 – 3.5 million cases of illness occur each year from swimming in waters contaminated by sewage. Viruses like Hepatitis A, which was recently discovered in the Cuyahoga River, and bacteria like Salmonella can be contracted by people exposed to sewage.

Most Great Lakes states have weak or nonexistent sewage dumping notification laws and regulations. Despite the legal requirements for full treatment, wastewater treatment plants often do not inform citizens and government officials when sewage releases occur. State environmental agencies are frequently to blame for these breakings of public trust. As is the case with the Ohio EPA, they have the authority to collect and release information about sewage that is being discharged into our waters, yet often they fail to do either. Ohio’s state legislature could remedy this situation, but to date, no action has been taken.

Ohio PIRG’s Sewage Warning! Analyzes and ranks the public notification about sewage discharges of all the Great Lakes states:

Sewage Warning! analyzes and ranks the dumping right-to-know programs of Great Lakes states:

Michigan (A-): Best overall law, although implementation needs to be improved.

Indiana (B+): A model for direct public notification, but misses some types of dumping.

New York (B-): Some strong requirements, but significant loopholes.

Minnesota (C+): Notification system needs to be more systematic and coordinated.

Pennsylvania (C-): Notification is not comprehensive and does not reach public directly.

Illinois (C-): Scattered approach needs to be strengthened and institutionalized.

Wisconsin (D+): Vague rule needs to be expanded, clarified and codified.

Ohio (D-): No significant statewide public notification program exists.

As Ohio PIRG’s report documents, no systematic reporting requirements or public notification exists for sewage discharges. Ohio PIRG is calling on the Taft administration to protect Ohioans by enforcing reporting requirements about sewage releases and keep citizens up to date about sewage pollution in their local waterways.

Hazardous sewage releases should be reported to the Ohio EPA and then to the public via the media, a website, phone hotline and “opt-in” e-mail system. The Ohio EPA should be a clearinghouse for all information about sewage releases and that information should be made available to the public in time for us to protect ourselves.

“As Gov. Taft considers a ‘Third Frontier’ for Ohio we urge him to call for the complete elimination of sewage in Ohio’s waterways. In the meantime, Governor Taft and the OEPA should require and obtain reports of all sewage dumping and immediately notify the public,” Bowser stated.

While notification is important to protect citizens from the hazards of sewage dumping, the only way to fully protect public health is to stop releases of raw or partially untreated sewage. To stop sewage dumping, communities need to enact comprehensive solutions that prevent stormwater from entering sewage systems, governments need to provide more funding for sewage infrastructure, and environmental agencies need to enforce current laws.

One promising development is the recent creation of the Healing Our Waters – Great Lakes Coalition and the EPA-led Great Lakes Regional Collaborative. Both efforts are in the process of creating a fundable plan to restore the Great Lakes, including the “virtual elimination” of sewage dumping.

Finally, Ohio PIRG’s report makes recommendations such as using mechanisms that temporarily trap rain before it can cause a sewer overflow as well as increase funding for repairing Ohio’s sewer infrastructure.

"We can overcome these threats to the health of our citizens by using green infrastructure to control stormwater before it enters the sewer system, by ensuring that we spend our money wisely, and by enforcing the Clean Water Act. For our children's sake, let us make our waterways clean and our public health safer," said Keith Dimoff, Deputy Director of the Ohio Environmental Council.

“Standing up for Lake Erie and waterways throughout the Great Lakes region not only means cleaner and safer water, it also means standing up for our recreational tourism and fishing industries as well as our health. Ohio needs to enact comprehensive sewage dumping notification laws to protect the health and well-being of our citizens and waterways,” concluded Bowser.

Cyane Gresham, Central OH Sierra Club Chapter: 461-0734
Keith Dimoff, Ohio Environmental Council: 487-7506