Ohio Chapter

NEWS RELEASE

Sierra Club Notifies City of Intent to Sue

COLUMBUS - On August 22, 2002, the Sierra Club sent yet another Notice of Intent to Sue to the City of Columbus. The Sierra Club discovered another unpermitted and illegal raw sewage by-pass pipe in the City's sewage system, this time at its Jackson Pike Wastewater Treatment Plant. The Club notified the City that if it does not permanently cease operation of this illegal bypass within the next 60 days, the Sierra Club will seek an injunction and civil penalties from the federal district court in Columbus. This marks the fourth time in the past six-months that the Sierra Club has been forced to notify the City of its intent to sue over the City's violations of the federal Clean Water Act.

Columbus for many years has been far exceeding its sewage treatment capacity, which is a major thrust of the Sierra Club's legal actions. Ohio EPA has determined that, because of Columbus' illegal sanitary sewer overflows, plant bypassing, combined sewer overflows, and sewage backups in basements, that its collection system and its two plants are seriously overloaded on a "daily basis."

Despite the City's ongoing violations of federal law, on June 24, 2002, Stephen J. Salay, of the City's Division of Sewerage and Drainage (DOSD), sent a form letter to "All developers, consultants, licensed sewer contractors." In this letter, Salay tells developers how to fill out OEPA Permit-to-Install forms so that the forms will be deemed "adequate from the City's standpoint." Salay advises the developers to state that the Jackson Pike and Southerly Plants have "adequate capacity to treat anticipated flow from existing sewers plus the proposed sewer based on the sewer's design capacity."

"DOSD has lost any sense of accountability to the public. Salay is telling the developers that it does not matter to the agency how big the development is, how many gallons of sewage it may add to the already overloaded system, when it adds the sewage flows, or what particular part of the sewer system it flows into," said Pat Marida, chair of the Central Ohio Sierra Club. "Existing sewers must be fixed first-rather than expanding a broken system."

The first notice letter sent by the Sierra Club in March sought an end to illegal sanitary sewer overflows (SSOs). On the 59th day of the Sierra Club's 60-day SSO notice, the Ohio EPA and City entered into a consent decree that, as a result of violations pointed out by the Sierra Club, forced the City to commit to a $497 million initial upgrade of the sewer collection system. The City also agreed to pay to the State a $500,000 fine for past violations of Ohio clean water laws. The second and third Sierra Club notice letters seek to stop the City's violations of its Combined Sewer and Storm Water permits, and excessive by-passing of raw sewage at the City's two wastewater treatment plants in wet weather. The second and third notice letters are currently the subjects of a lawsuit in federal court.

"Columbus sewers are in such bad shape because residents' sewer fees have been spent to extend new sewers into the countryside," said Jeff Cox, former employee of the Department of Sewers and Drains. "With new sewers as a priority, Columbus' operation and maintenance of the existing system is sadly deficient."

The Sierra Club is the nation's oldest and largest grassroots environmental organization with 800,000 members nationwide and 4,000 in the Central Ohio area.

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