Enforcement to Address Sewer Overflows

Preventing
sewer overflows is a national enforcement priority for EPA. EPA’s
compliance goal is to eliminate sanitary sewer overflows (SSOs) from municipal
collection systems and to ensure that wastewater is being conveyed to treatment
plants in accordance with the requirements of the Clean Water Act. To
eliminate SSOs, EPA uses a mix of compliance and enforcement tools. As
part of its efforts to achieve these improvements, EPA New England has
issued a number of traditional administrative and judicial penalty actions
assessing over $2 million in penalties.

Sanitary Sewer Overflows, USEPA Office of Water
Properly designed, operated, and maintained sanitary sewer systems are meant
to collect and transport all of the sewage that flows into them to a publicly
owned treatment works (POTW). However, occasional unintentional discharges of
raw sewage from municipal sanitary sewers occur in almost every system. These
types of discharges are called sanitary sewer overflows (SSOs). SSOs have a variety
of causes, including but not limited to severe weather, improper system operation
and maintenance, and vandalism. EPA estimates that there are at least 40,000
SSOs each year. The untreated sewage from these overflows can contaminate our
waters, causing serious water quality problems. It can also back-up into basements,
causing property damage and threatening public health.

Clean
Water Act, National Enforcement Programs, USEPA Compliance
and Enforcement
EPA’s Clean Water Act (CWA) enforcement programs are designed to protect and
improve the quality of the nation’s waters. SSOs are overflows or releases
from sanitary sewer systems and are illegal under the Clean Water Act.