MSD

Missouri Coalition for the Environment Announces Intention to Sue St. Louis Sewer Authority Over Clean Water Violations

(ST. LOUIS –Missouri) -- The St. Louis Metropolitan Sewer District (MSD) will face a clean water lawsuit unless it commits to cleaning up systems that spill raw sewage into area streams.

This past April, the Missouri Coalition for the Environment mailed a Notice of Intent to Sue the St. Louis area sewage authority for ongoing water quality violations. The Coalition seeks an enforceable timetable for system repairs and upgrades and an additional layer of accountability for an agency with a history of money management problems.

"While MSD has delayed, delayed, and delayed fixing the problems, raw sewage continues to pollute our streams," said Kathleen Logan Smith, the Coalition's Executive Director. "We're seeking a commitment to solutions – not more excuses."

At issue are the sewage overflows that result from inadequate or poorly maintained sewers. At least 500 sewer overflows dump untreated sewage directly or indirectly into the Mississippi River, the River Des Peres, the lower Meramec and 20 other area streams.

Relying on streams to serve as the region’s back-up sewers is illegal under the Clean Water Act; it threatens public health as pathogens, viruses, and chemicals increase in waters, and reduces the numbers of fish in our streams. The Coalition's ultimate goal is to have streams in the St. Louis region that are clean and safe enough for kids to play in and for fish to live in.

"St. Louis has fallen behind other cities in addressing its sewage system problems," said Logan Smith. "We're well into the 21st century and still using a 19th century approach to sewers. It's time we caught up with the times."

Two types of sewer overflows cause raw sewage to spill into rivers and creeks. In the older parts of St. Louis, combined sewers carry both sewage and stormwater in the same pipes. Normally, the mixture is routed to treatment plants where it can be cleaned before being discharged into our rivers and streams. However, when it rains, the combined system is overwhelmed by the combination of storm and sewer water. When this occurs, a mixture of raw sewage and runoff is routed directly into streams through what are called combined sewer overflows or “CSOs.” As of 2006, there remained more than 200 CSOs in MSD’s system. MSD has estimated that its CSO’s spill 26 billion gallons of sewage and stormwater into our streams each year.

In the newer parts of the region, sanitary sewers are supposed to carry only sewage, not stormwater. Due to poorly designed and inadequately maintained sewer pipes, however, rainwater often infiltrates MSD’s sanitary sewers, causing them to overflow into streams.

These overflows are called sanitary sewer overflows or “SSOs.” More than 300 locations remain around the St. Louis region where sanitary sewer overflows discharge sewage into streams and tributaries. The precise total volume of these overflows is unknown because MSD does not routinely monitor them, however, it is likely that sanitary sewer overflows are discharging millions of gallons of raw sewage and stormwater during rain events. Poorly designed and maintained sewer systems that contribute to raw sewage in our waters also cause nasty basement backups for individual property owners.

For more than a decade, MSD has known that it must develop a "Long Term Control Plan" to address combined sewer overflows. The Missouri Dept. of Natural Resources (MDNR) generously allowed MSD until August 2006 to submit the plan. Nevertheless, MSD still does not have a Long Term Control Plan in place to help ensure that it will spend the billions of dollars needed for capital improvements in a way that delivers cleaner, safer streams. The plan, said Logan Smith, is a key to ensuring that projects help reach clean water goals.

"Spending money has never been hard for MSD, but spending money efficiently has," said Logan Smith. "The Coalition wants MSD to ensure that its efforts are part of an overall plan that will address overflows and basement backups and lead to cleaner, safer streams."

The fundamental problem with MSD’s sewer system is decades of poor design and maintenance stemming from a lack of overall planning. In 2004, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency sent MSD a letter noting that MSD’s efforts do not appear to have been based on a “comprehensive, integrated plan”. Without a comprehensive plan, the goal of clean, safe waters will keep slipping away.

MSD has historically been lacking in public accountability and transparency. Concerns that have lingered about MSD since the 1980’s include how the agency prioritizes and plans projects, how contractors are selected, how conflicts of interest are managed, and how projects are managed (or not) to avoid cost overruns. MSD collects and spends hundreds of millions of dollars from ratepayers and taxpayers. A shake-up at MSD in 2003 led MSD’s board to fire its Executive Director, and to the resignation, and ultimately the imprisonment of its attorney, as well as the resignation of five MSD trustees. Fallout from the controversy led to the dismissal of several staff members.

Currently MSD is seeking rate increases over the next five years to fund system improvements and maintenance. MSD plans to spend $100-$300 million each year on such work. Ratepayers deserve an additional layer of accountability to ensure the problems are fixed efficiently.