Towards Better Management of Combined Sewage Systems

In New York and New Jersey, and many older areas in the United States, stormwater runoff is cleared from the streets and is dispensed into combined sewers. These combined sewers transport both runoff and domestic waste through pipes that lead to wastewater treatment plants. The problem is that when it rains a couple of tenths of an inch, the runoff enters the sewer and dramatically increases the amount of water and domestic waste in the sewer, exceeding the maximum capacity. This causes the water-waste mixture to bypass the treatment plant and dispense into the nearest waterway (e.g. the Hudson River). This pollutes the waterway it enters and makes the environment uninhabitable for wildlife it used to support, and unsafe for the people that use it. The introduction of rain barrels - barrels that collect stormwater runoff from the roofs of buildings - can delay the runofffrom going into the sewer, allowing it to be dispensed in a manner that the sewer systems can manage. [1]