St. Louis Sewer District sued over federal clean water rules

ST. LOUIS (AP) -- Federal and state environmental regulators want St. Louis' aging sewer system fixed swiftly, alleging in a lawsuit that too much raw sewage has overflowed into local streams after heavy rains.

In a lawsuit filed Monday in U.S. District Court in St. Louis, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Missouri Department of Natural Resources said the discharges violate the federal Clean Water Act and threaten public health.

Leaders with the Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District warned that the suit may lead to higher rates for customers.

Sewage overflows aren't uncommon in older cities.

Most of St. Louis and its inner suburbs are served by a "combined" sewer system that carries both storm water and raw sewage to treatment plants. But during moderate to heavy rainfall, the overflow is released directly into the Mississippi River and tributaries through 201 individual "outfalls."

The suit alleges that more than 500 million gallons of raw sewage overflowed into those waterways in violation of the Clean Water Act from Jan. 1, 2000, to Dec. 31, 2005.

In remaining parts of St. Louis County, storm water and raw sewage are carried in different pipes. But storm water can infiltrate the aging sewer pipes, leading to basement backups.

So the district built relief valves, or bypasses, to carry the overflow to streams or ditches. The district's 280 outfalls that are fed by the relief valves are illegal, according to the federal government.

"They're sort of the lesser of two evils," district Executive Director Jeffrey Theerman told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. "That's preferable to backing up into people's basements."

The lawsuit cites more than 1,700 discharges from the illegal overflow points from 2000 to 2005.

It blames some overflows on power outages and inadequate backup power at some pumping stations.

The suit alleges thousands of instances in which sewage reached streets, yards, public parks and even homes, putting potentially dangerous pathogens within reach of residents.

Doyle Childers, director of the Department of National Resources, said his agency was a reluctant plaintiff in the case.

Childers said Attorney General Jay Nixon was apparently unwilling to sign off on a proposed settlement that appeared to be "a reasonable solution to a complex problem that had been going on for 100 years." A Nixon spokesman declined to comment on specifics, other than to refer to the joint state-federal lawsuit.

Theerman said the agency has eliminated 300 of the overflows in the past 15 years, and has embarked on an aggressive capital improvement program funded, in part, by a $500 million bond issue approved by voters in 2004.

"We're going to spend billions on this. And we have to be mindful of how the ratepayers -- particularly the low-income ratepayers -- can tackle this along with us," Theerman said.

The agency has prepared a long-range plan to deal with the combined-sewage overflows and eliminate the sewer bypasses.

The EPA contends the sewer district's plan won't correct the problems soon enough.

The lawsuit seeks an injunction preventing future violations of the Clean Water Act.

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Information from: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, http://www.stltoday.com