End the discharge of raw sewage and pollutants into waterways – The Fourth Regional Plan
Many of the region’s sewer systems were built to collect stormwater together with domestic sewage and industrial wastewater. Unfortunately, in times of heavy rain, these systems overflow. In 39 municipalities across the tri-state region, there are 702 combined sewer overflow outfalls—places where untreated human and industrial waste, plus contaminants and debris, gets discharged directly into our rivers and ocean when there are periods of heavy rain.
Each year, more than 27 billion gallons of untreated wastewater and polluted stormwater discharge from 460 combined sewer overflow (CSO) outfalls into New York Harbor alone, with another nearly 300 CSOs in waterways throughout the region. These outflows present significant ecological and public health issues, as they generate algal blooms, reduce water quality and biodiversity, increase shellfish-bed and beach closures, and create the potential for waterborne-disease outbreaks. More sewage and pollutants will spill into these waterways as climate change brings intensified storms, threatening wetlands, oyster beds, and other natural systems that protect against flooding.
Communities that discharge raw sewage into waterways are required to have a plan to separate older-style combined sewer systems, store excess sanitary waste and stormwater until it can be treated, or otherwise control the discharges. Municipalities that are prepared for the future by scaling efforts to eliminate the discharge of polluted stormwater and untreated sewage into our waterways by 2040 will be better positioned to attract residents, businesses, and tourists with access to clean water.
New York City has adopted an approach that combines “green” and “grey” infrastructure improvements to reduce CSOs, investing $1.5 billion in public funds in green stormwater runoff mitigation strategies by 2030, and an additional $1.6 billion in grey infrastructure, including treatment-plant upgrades and the construction of large retention tanks to hold overflows until the polluted water can be treated. These investments will help the city reduce CSO discharges by approximately eight billion gallons per year.
Communities outside New York City in the Hudson Valley, northern New Jersey, and coastal Connecticut have fewer concentrations of CSOs, but the pollution and harm they cause are still significant, at 6.3 billion gallons per year. Like New York City, these areas are implementing plans to reduce flow through green and grey infrastructure investments.
