Success Stories:
Citizens' Right
to Know of Sewage in Local Streams
By Tom Neltner
|
..... |
An inconspicuous
sign in front of a combined sewer outfall. |
Improving Kids’ Environment*
Tom Neltner
5244 Carrollton Avenue
Indianapolis, IN 46220
317-442-3973 317-283-6111 (fax) E-mail
Neltner@in.net
www.ikecoalition.org
*With support of Sierra Club-Hoosier Chapter, Save the
Dunes Council, Hoosier Environmental Council, and Izaak
Walton League of America-Indiana Division
Indiana has 105 communities
with combined sanitary and storm sewer systems. More than
20 billion gallons of sewage overflows from these sewers
each year. It is estimated that it will cost more than
$4 billion and take more than 10 years to solve the existing
problem. By most indicators, Indiana trailed a majority
of states in dealing with the problem of combined sewer
overflows (CSOs).
Improving Kids’ Environment
took a multi-faceted approach to address the problem that
included (1) monitoring the state’s CSO Long-Term Control
Plans to ensure that the plans complied with EPA requirements
and were done in a manner that actively involved the community,
(2) participating in the state’s regulatory process to
adopt policies and rules that would ensure that new sewer
connections did not increase the overflows as plans are
developed and implemented, (3) ensuring that the public
is informed when a combined sewer overflow occurs so that
they can take steps to protect themselves, their children,
and others from the pathogens in their neighborhood streams,
(and so they can more effectively push for long-term reductions
in the overflows).
The problem with combined
sewer overflows will not be solved overnight. It may take
ten years in some cities in Indiana. Several cities have
asked for 20 years. In the meantime, children continue
to play in the sewage-laden streams - and parents let
them - unaware of the hazards. Thanks to EPA’s nine-minimum
controls, CSO communities have generally posted signs
at the outfalls and have educated the public in broad
terms. However, when signs are posted, they are often
not at access points (usually the outfalls are difficult
to get near) and the broad education efforts lack the
timeliness and focus that parents need to protect children.
To date, only the City of Indianapolis has agreed to establish
a public notification program. However, by February, 2003,
all 105 CSO communities are required to have a program
in place.
What do you consider
the key to your success?
The linkage of the public’s
right to know and children’s health is a powerful combination
that can get widespread support.
How would you outline
the steps you took to organize your project in order to
advise another group working on a similar project?
The project began in July
1999 as part of an overall effort to reduce the public
health impacts from combined sewer overflows in Indiana’s
105 communities with combined sewer systems. During the
Fall of 1999, the team met with CSO communities, activists
concerned about sewage in our streams, and municipal consultants.
In Fall 1999, GLAHNF provided a $1,500 one-year grant
to IKE to facilitate a community right-to-know program
that would provide notification to schools, parents, residents,
and waterbody users when a combined sewer overflow has
occurred.
In April 2000, the Indiana
General Assembly passed SEA-431, which required the Indiana
Water Pollution Control Board to adopt rules requiring
public notification of each combined sewer overflow event.
The rules had to be effective on September 1, 2002. On
April 10, 2002, the Water Pollution Control Board preliminarily
adopted the proposed rule over objections from the CSO
communities.
What have been the results
of your efforts to date?
A statutory mandate from
the Indiana General Assembly to the Indiana Water Pollution
Control Board to adopt a public notification rule by September
1, 2001.
A proposed rule preliminarily
adopted on April 10, 2002 by the Indiana Water Pollution
Control Board.
A commitment by the City
of Indianapolis to implement a public notification program
in May 2002.
What have the effects
of this effort been on your organization’s work?
The CSO Right-to-Know effort
has been a critical part of the overall effort to reduce
combined sewer overflows. When implemented, it should
dramatically increase the public’s understanding of the
problem and build support for protecting public health
from the effects of sewage in our streams.
How has the project affected
your community?
It has not had an impact
yet, but it stands to have a tremendous beneficial impact
once the plan is in place.
What particular stumbling
blocks, challenges, or defeats did you encounter?
Convincing state and local
agencies of the importance of the public’s right to know
was and is a major stumbling block. While elected leaders
support the project, the technical bureaucracies at the
state and local levels, the ones that must design and
implement it, are either opposed to the concept of right-to-know
and public notification or make it a low priority.
The project was dismissed
by the agencies involved, finding the concept of telling
the public when an overflow occurs to be a waste of time
that detracts from their efforts to reduce the overflows.
They do not value the public’s right-to-know and appear
to resent the accountability that goes with it. Privately,
they indicated that they were worried about the public
backlash once the extent of the problem became well known.
How many people were
involved?
(a) Initially: The team
consisted of five individuals with a broader group of
supporters.
(b) Finally: Same.
At least 300 people-hours
were expended on the project.
How was public involvement
motivated and facilitated?
The groups that participated
kept their members informed. (These groups included Sierra
Club - Hoosier Chapter, Save the Dunes Council, Hoosier
Environmental Council, and Izaak Walton League of America
- Indiana Chapter.) IKE published a regular Sewage in
Our Streams newsletter containing bi-monthly updates.
How was public education
a component of your program?
The goal was to build support
for the rulemaking by engaging group members.
What was the primary
means of communication?
Newsletters and articles
written by reporters for local newspapers that were interested
in the issue.
What resources were available/acquired/tapped
into?
GLAHNF provided $1,500.
IKE contributed $500 in supplies, materials, and travel.
What level and types
of media exposure were you able to obtain and how did
it affect/assist your efforts?
Several newspapers covered
the issue. Seth Slabaugh, an environmental reporter for
the Muncie Star-Press, took particular interest in the
issue and wrote several articles. These articles prompted
IDEM to restart the rulemaking process.
Other comments that you
feel would be helpful to other grassroots organizations
working on similar projects.
If you undertake a project
to reduce CSOs, the effort will be worthwhile, but only
as part of a broader effort to reduce combined sewer overflows
and their public health impacts.
Improving Kids’ Environment*
Tom Neltner
5244 Carrollton Avenue
Indianapolis, IN 46220
317-442-3973 317-283-6111 (fax) E-mail
Neltner@in.net
www.ikecoalition.org
*With support of Sierra Club-Hoosier Chapter, Save the
Dunes Council, Hoosier Environmental Council, and Izaak
Walton League of America-Indiana Division
|
