What’s particularly worrisome about the unsafe levels in the Wallkill and Rondout is that they occur in dry weather — hot sunny summer days when people are most likely to take a dip or get out in their fishing boats or kayaks. “When the public is not made aware of a sewer break, it’s very much at risk,” Lipscomb continued. “It could be a beautiful morning in June, when you want to spend the day on the water. Meanwhile, a sewer main breaks and sewage is pouring into the storm drain and into the river where you swim.”
Fortunately, starting this summer the public should finally get some protection, thanks to passage of a new “sewage right-to-know” state law. The legislation, advocated by Riverkeeper and signed into law by governor Andrew Cuomo last August, is now in effect. Municipalities will be required to notify the public whenever sewage is released into a waterway from malfunctioning public sewage infrastructure, such as a broken pipe or water main. The law will cover discharges from publicly owned wastewater treatment plants as well as the systems that feed into them, including pipes, mains and pump stations.
Such a law is particularly needed in the Hudson Valley, given the frequent instances of infrastructure failures, said Tracy Brown, water quality advocate at Riverkeeper. “The DEC has acknowledged we’re billions of dollars behind where we should be in terms of investing in sewer system repairs and upgrades.” One of the more egregious breakdowns occurred in the summer of 2010, when underground leaks and mains breaking in Tarrytown “resulted in more sewage volume coming into the river than escapes along the entire coast of California,” according to Brown.
Riverkeeper hopes “reports for water quality safety will become habitual, like weather, traffic and ozone-level reports,” especially during the recreation season, said Brown. Under the new law, impacts to the sewage infrastructure from new development will also have to be monitored. The need to comply could result in communities passing a “no hook-up law” — no new building permits without fixes to aging municipal treatment plants and delivery systems.
The DEC is currently writing regulations to define how notification takes place. The agency would be responsible for enforcing the law, possibly by utilizing the Office of Emergency Management’s alert system. The DEC has published a Google map showing every combined sewer overflow outfall pipe in New York State. (Combined outfall pipes are remnants of aging urban sewage systems designed for stormwater runoff which become tainted with sewage during heavy rains.)
