Save The Bay and the city of East Providence have reached a creative agreement in their dispute over how the city should fix its aging sewer pipes that allowed sewage to spill into Narragansett Bay during heavy rain. The consent decree issued by Federal District Court Judge Ernest C. Torres calls for the city to solve the immediate problem, overflowing sewage, while it works to develop a permanent solution to the cause of the problem, which is the leaking pipes.
The dispute dates back to the summer of 1998, when record rainfalls caused sewer treatment plants to overflow into Narragansett Bay, forcing the state to close portions of it to shell fishing and swimming.
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But what caught the attention of Save The Bay that summer was that the East Providence Water Pollution Control Facility continued to discharge waste, even after the rain had stopped, and long after the overflows at the other plants had halted, said spokesman John Torgan.
Save The Bay then investigated the Department of Environmental Manage-ment’s records. It found that the department had cited about 18 instances in which the plant had discharged sewage into the bay in violation of the federal Clean Water Act and in violation of its discharge permit, Torgan said.
Since DEM had chosen not to enforce any of these violations, Save The Bay decided to enforce the Clean Water Act by suing the city. Mike McGiveney, president of the Rhode Island Shellfishermen’s Association, signed an affidavit at the time, stating that he as a fisherman had been affected by the East Providence overflows, which contributed to the closures of Narragansett Bay.
Finally, on Tuesday, Nov. 16, the two sides reached an agreement in the form of a consent decree, in which the court enforces the agreement reached by the two parties.
This could have been ugly,” Torgan said. “It could have led to long, protracted litigation and it could have been very expensive for Save The Bay and the city” with uncertain results for both sides, he said.
DEM did cite the city on Dec. 29, 1998 for multiple overflow violations, said spokeswoman Gail Mastrati. The penalty for that citation was $143,500. She said the state and the city are now negotiating a settlement to that dispute, and hope to reach their own consent decree.
The city has been very cooperative. We have been working with them since that time to resolve these issues,” Mastrati said. “The negotiating process is ongoing and it has been for some time.”
City Manager Paul E. Lemont said the city will spend millions over the next two years to stop sewage from reaching the bay and to find a long-term solution to the problem.
The East Providence sewer system is different from the combined sewer system of Providence, which combines the wastewater from homes, businesses, and street drains into pipes that flow to treatment plants. In East Providence, sewage and drain water flow in separate pipes. And when conditions are dry, the East Providence treatment plant is able to treat the sewer flows so that no untreated sewage reaches the bay.
The problem, Lemont said, is that system is about 50 years old. Over time, roots have broken into the pipes. Others have just cracked. Some people have connected to the sewer system illegally, he added, which also contributes to the problem.
Because these pipes are old and leaking, Torgan said, they allow sewage and storm water to mix whenever it rains hard, which allows sewage to spill into the bay.
But developing a system that would solve the problem completely would require several years of study and a great deal of money, neither of which the city had at the time of the lawsuit. So, Save The Bay and the city crafted an agreement that allows the city to tackle the problem in stages.
The agreement calls for the city to place screens at the end of the sewer pipes to catch plastics, litter, trash, and other large particles before they are washed into the bay. Next, it requires the city to install a chlorine drip system that helps disinfect the sewage that does overflow. The city must also conduct tests outside the Watchemoket Cove and Wannamoisett pump stations to be sure that these measures are reducing the amount of bacteria that reach the bay. And it calls for the city to improve operating procedures at the pump stations.
The consent decree runs through 2003. After that, the city must implement its long-term plan. Lemont said the city is now conducting tests to find out exactly where the problems in the system lies. By 2003 a clearer picture will have emerged as to what will be needed to solve the problem.
Within the next year we’re going to have a much better handle on where the infiltration is occurring,” he said.
A long-term solutions might call for fixing or replacing old pipes and possibly for creating storage tanks to hold excess sewage during heavy rains, Torgan said.
