Sewage Overflows Threaten Public Health and Economy
New Report Finds Bush Policies Making a Bad Situation Worse

Michigan Case Study Featured in Report

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: February 19, 2004

CONTACTS: Cyndi Roper, Clean Water Action: 517-490-1394 Megan Owens, PIRGIM: 734-730-5725 James Clift, MEC: 517-487-9539 Nancy Stoner, NRDC: 202-289-2394 Michelle Merkel, EIP: 202-263-4452

Harrison Township, MI - While many Southeast Michigan communities are working to stop dumping sewage into Lake St. Clair, the Great Lakes and other Michigan waterways, the Bush Administration is proposing to let other communities off the hook by slashing funding and proposing to allow sewage to keep pouring into the nation's waters indefinitely.

According to a report released today, sewage pollution costs Americans billions of dollars every year in medical treatment, lost productivity and property damage, and Bush administration policies are compounding the problem. "Swimming in Sewage" reports that the nation faces an emerging environmental and public health crisis resulting from our failure to effectively treat sewage. The report's authors, the Natural Resources
Defense Council (NRDC) and the Environmental Integrity Project (EIP), found
that sewage from homes, businesses and factories often never reaches a
treatment plant and, when it does, too often it is not treated adequately to protect public health.

According to a national report released today, Michigan officials reported that more than 31 billion gallons of sewage entered the state's waterways in 2001, which endangers drinking water and causes the majority of the state's beach closings and advisories every year. Research conducted by Clean Water Action for roughly the same timeframe pegged the volume at more than 50 billion gallons.

"Michigan has more at stake than virtually any other state because we are so heavily reliant on our beaches for tourism and recreation," said Bethany Renfer, Clean Water Action's Michigan Program Coordinator. "Sewage overflows matter in Michigan. People are disgusted by the thought of sewage flowing into our water. They also know there are health threats posed by this sewage and that sewage in the state's waters harms our tourism industry."

"What Bush is trying to do is remove the finish line; he's taking away the hope that some day the sewage overflows will stop," said Renfer.

"We have a looming public health crisis on our hands, made worse by President Bush's new budget proposal which dramatically slashes funding for wastewater infrastructure. At nearly $500 million, it's his biggest cut for any environmental program, and it's indefensible," said Megan Owen, PIRGIM Field Director. "The result will be more beach closings, more polluted drinking water supplies, and more waterborne disease, which now sickens nearly 8 million Americans every year."

The NRDC-EIP report also identifies a number of Bush administration policies in addition to the new Bush budget cuts that exacerbate sewage pollution. Those policies include shelving a Clinton administration proposal that would have required controls to prevent raw sewage discharges, and a new proposal to allow sewer operators to discharge
inadequately treated sewage in waterways when it rains.

The EPA calls this latest proposal "blending" because it involves mixing treated and untreated sewage. NRDC and EIP say it is a radical departure from current treatment standards, which require full treatment for sewage except in emergency conditions such as hurricanes, and would violate the Clean Water Act. It also would threaten the health of millions of Americans. According to a recent study by Joan Rose, a microbiologist at
Michigan State University and an expert on waterborne illness, the risk of contracting giardiasis from untreated parasites in blended wastewater is a thousand times higher than from fully treated wastewater. (Dr. Rose can be contacted at 517-432-4412 or rosejo@msu.edu.)

"Waterborne disease outbreaks are on the rise across the country," said Michele Merkel of EIP. "Most often, Americans get diarrhea, skin rashes or respiratory infections, but waterborne illness can also threaten the lives of seniors, young children, cancer patients, and others with impaired immune systems. Now is the time to boost funding to protect Americans, not cut it."

The report concludes with recommendations to address America's sewage problem. NRDC and EIP urge the Bush administration to drop its new blending policy, establish a national clean water trust fund to assist communities to provide effective sewage treatment, set standards for Cryptosporidium and Giardia and other currently unregulated water pollutants that make people sick, and enforce Clean Water Act requirements that would prevent raw sewage discharges.

"Swimming in Sewage" features seven case studies from around the country that illustrate how exposure to sewage pollution has killed or seriously injured people and harmed local economies. The case studies are from Michigan, California, Florida, Indiana, Ohio, Wisconsin and Washington, D.C. . The full report is available at http://www.nrdc.org/water/pollution/sewage/contents.asp.

Maps showing the concentration of CSO and SSO releases in Michigan as reported by the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality to the U.S.E.P.A. can be found at the links above.

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Clean Water Action is a national citizens' organization working for clean, safe and affordable water, prevention of health-threatening pollution, creation of environmentally-safe jobs and businesses, and empowerment of people to make democracy work. Michigan Clean Water Action is headquartered in East Lansing,Grand Rapids and Clinton Township in Macomb County. www.cleanwateraction.org.

PIRGIM is a non-profit, non-partisan public interest advocacy organization, working throughout Michigan to preserve the environment, protect consumers and promote good government. www.pirgim.org.

The Natural Resources Defense Council is a national, nonprofit organization of scientists, lawyers and environmental specialists dedicated to protecting public health and the environment. Founded in 1970, NRDC has more than 1 million members and e-activists nationwide, served from offices in New York, Washington, Santa Monica and San Francisco. www.nrdc.org

The Environmental Integrity Project is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization established in March 2002 to advocate for more effective enforcement of environmental laws. The organization was founded by Eric Schaeffer, former director of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Regulatory Enforcement, with support from the Rockefeller Family Fund and other foundations. http://www.environmentalintegrity.org.