Published: December 11, 2008 09:45 am      

City continues to fight CSO regulation

CLINTON — City Administrator Gary Boden reported at Tuesday’s City Council Committee of the Whole meeting that the city has successfully delayed a combined sewer overflow project for two years.

Mandated by the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Natural Resources, construction of the CSO elimination program would cost an estimated $100 million; therefore, the city of Clinton and other cities have turned to the courts to fight the requirement.

Because of the diligence by Hall and Associates based in Washington, D.C., Boden asked the council for another $20,000 to retain the law firm and possibly incur little to no costs in regard to CSOs. The committee of the whole passed the measure unanimously.

Out of the original $20,000 allocated for Hall and Associates, the city is down to its final $500.

“The $20,000 that we’ve spent has been very helpful,” Boden said. “We’ve looked at what is required of these CSO emissions and hopefully we can argue for much reduced, if hardly anything at all for a CSO program.”

The costly regulation has incited other Iowa cities, causing a national fight against the mandated project. Boden said the city is partnering with cities to find alternative interpretations of the law requiring cities to construct a CSO elimination program.

“We’re finding out from other cities that this is a costly concern,” Boden said. “Hall and Associates is on the front line of this issue.”

During dry weather and small wet weather events, CSOs are designed to transport all flows to a treatment plant. During larger wet weather the volume of storm water may exceed the capacity of the combined sewers or the treatment plant. When this happens, combined sewers are designed to allow a portion of the untreated combined wastewater to overflow into the nearest ditch, stream, river or lake, according to the EPA.

The DNR’s original position would have required the city to conclude the project over a 17-year period.