By Robert Kearns
Executive Committee Secretary of Sierra Club Massachusetts, Robert Kearns is a Braintree resident, and a lifelong environmental advocate.
Last night, the Massachusetts House of Representatives unanimously passed (159-0) the sewage notification bill (H.4921). The bill named, An Act promoting awareness of sewage pollution in public waters, requires the public to be notified if and when raw sewage is flowing into our water bodies is now moving on to the Massachusetts State Senate.
First of all thank you to Speaker Robert Deleo and Chair Smitty Pignatelli and Chair Aaron Michlewitz for championing this issue. Thank you for the leadership and support of the amazing sponsors Representative Denise Provost and Representative Linda Dean Campbell.
With our friends at the Massachusetts Rivers Alliance we are now calling on the Massachusetts State Senate to pass this bill today to ensure that we are told of the presence of hazardous pollutants in our waterways.
The issue became clear to me when, on a kayaking trip on the Monatiquot River upstream of the Armstrong Dam in Braintree, Massachusetts, I experienced something alarming.
Upstream of the Armstrong Dam on the Monatiquot River in Braintree from my kayak
After kayaking for a while, I got out of the river and I noticed that my kayak and water shoes smelled terrible.
Curious, I did some research at the Braintree Town Hall and discovered that a week prior to my kayak trip a sewer pipe ruptured sending raw sewage into the Monatiquot River.
I was kayaking in human waste. Yuck!
The phrase “sunlight is the best disinfectant” may not be effective for cleaning sewage, however it is good public policy to shine light on a problem -- to let the public know when to avoid contact with water contaminated with human feces.
My story underscores the reason why it is essential that both legislative houses pass the bill. Now, the Massachusetts State Senate must follow suit with the House and pass this sewage notification bill, which is sponsored by Massachusetts State Senator Patricia Jehlen of Somerville, Representative Linda Dean Campbell of Methuen, and Representative Denise Provost of Somerville. This bill creates a statewide sewage discharge notification system to alert the public in all 351 cities and towns in the Commonwealth through their local media any time that raw sewage spills into rivers causing an unsafe period for fishing, swimming, boating, paddling and other water recreation activities.
This is a common-sense bill to inform citizens of the proper information for them to make informed decisions on when it is safe to recreate in rivers, lakes and ponds. Notifications will also bring more awareness to the issue of sewage in local waterways and find solutions to eliminate them all together.
I am not alone in my support of this legislation, which also has the support of over 40 organizations and 144 local local officials across the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
You may ask yourself, is this a problem in my community? The answer may depend on whether your town has a sewerage system or not. Municipalities can have different wastewater systems from combined sewers, sanitary sewers or private septic tanks. However, this legislation will address notifications of sewage overflows from all sewerage systems.
There are two main types of sewerage systems: sanitary sewers and combined sewers.
Braintree, for example, has a sanitary sewer system, meaning that the sewer pipes are separated from the stormwater pipes or the storm drains you see in the gutters of streets. These are generally more effective than combined sewers at limiting raw sewage discharge into waterways because of the separate stormwater system.
Sanitary sewer schematic (alexandriava.gov)
Older cities may have combined sewer systems that convey both sewage from your toilets, sinks, showers as well as the rainfall from the streets, sidewalks, and other runoff. In these older systems, overflow pipes in rivers and waterways capture the raw sewage on dry days, but when there is rainfall, the pipes will overflow with the water from the street and send sewage and rainfall directly into rivers and streams.
Schematic of a combined sewer system (NYC.gov)
This being said, breaks in the cracks in any sewerage system can cause raw sewage to discharge (or spill and flow) into waterways like what happened to me on the Monatiquot.
Other serious issues can happen when people illegally hook up stormwater systems from their driveways, parking lots, basement sub pumps or gutters into the sanitary sewer system causing similar overflow problems as infiltration. This is called inflow into a sewer system.
Additionally, problems can arise when groundwater can intrude or infiltrate into broken sewage pipes. If there is a lot of groundwater intruding into a sanitary sewer system, especially during storms, overflow can happen. In storm events with high inflow municipalities or sewer authorities can open sewer overflow valves to ease the pressure off of the pipes so that raw sewage does not back up into the peoples' homes.
H.4921 would let the public know when any of these spills of raw sewage into waterways happen so people can make informed decisions about where and when they should recreate.
We can make a difference by making sure sewer overflows are known to the public. Let’s pass the sewage notification bill into law. Call and email your state Senator today requesting them to have President Karen Spilka and Chairman Michael Rodrigues vote yes on H.4921. An Act promoting awareness of sewage pollution in public waters. The senate bill is sponsored by Senator Jehlen of Somerville and your Senator can contact their staff with questions about the legislation. If you do not know who your legislator is, you can look them up on the find your legislator website.