TRANSCRIPT: Combined Sewer Overflows in Syracuse
Jill Schumacher: When you think of Spring, many people think of flowers and heavy rainfall. And in Syracuse, when it rains hard, watershed pollution usually increases. NCC News reporter Andrew Watson has more on this hidden polluter.
Andrew Watson: Thank you, Jill. The hidden pollutant in Syracuse is actually buried right below the community’s feet. They are called Combined Sewer Overflows. The system dates back to the mid-1800s, but to this day they have a drastic effect on pollution levels in the local watershed.
Watson: Onondaga Lake has been one of the most polluted bodies of water in the United States since the early 1900s. However, pollution levels have slowly but surely decreased in the last 40 years. But while there has been improvement, Combined Sewer Overflows are still one of the main pollutants in the Syracuse community.
Steve Shaw: When you have a rainfall event, you could potentially have basically sanitary waste. So that could be from the toilet, shower, things like that, ending up in open water bodies.
Watson: Even though CSOs have been identified as a polluter, restructuring the entire system would be difficult and unlikely.
Shaw: So, what they basically have to do is they have to disconnect or basically create parallel pipe systems of the sanitary and the stormwater sewer.
Watson: A complete overhaul of the combined sewer overflow system in Syracuse is estimated to take anywhere between 50 and 100 years. But environmental studies professor Sharon Moran believes that there are other ways community members can help limit the effects on the watershed in an individual way.
Sharon Moran: We’ll see some people who try to re-naturalize with local plants, things that have been adapted to this particular environment for centuries or longer.
Watson: With more than 30 different overflow points in Syracuse, Dr. Moran also believes that this system doesn’t just create environmental issues, but it can also affect the community’s mindset.
Moran: Also, just the sense of being scared of your local water, just because something gross happens periodically, and kind of unexpectedly
Watson: Jill, with heavy rainfall expected to make its way into the Syracuse area tonight, it is very likely that you may see something like this floating through Syracuse’s waterways as a result of the Combined Sewer Overflow system.
SYRACUSE, N.Y. (NCC News) — Syracuse is one of more than 700 communities across the United States that use a combined sewer overflow system.
According to the Onondaga County Department of Water Environment Protection, the CSOs were first introduced in 1855.
While this system may have been an effective alternative at the time, they are now a significant contributor to pollution in Syracuse waterways.
Steve Shaw, SUNY ESF professor, says that the CSOs have a noteworthy environmental effect.
“When you have a rainfall event, you could potentially have basically sanitary waste,” Shaw said. “So that could be from the toilet, shower, things like that, ending up in open water bodies.”
According to Shaw, the process of overhauling the CSOs in Syracuse would be an extensive process that would take anywhere from 50 to 100 years.
“What they basically have to do is they have to disconnect or basically create parallel pipe systems of the sanitary and the storm water sewer,” Shaw said.
Due to the difficulty of the removal process, Sharon Moran, SUNY ESF professor, says that there are other ways for the community to help minimize the CSOs effects.
“We’ll see some people who try to re-naturalize with local plants, things that have been adapted to this particular environment for centuries or longer,” Moran said.
Moran also says that the system not only affects the watershed, but it also plays a role in the mindset of the community.
“Just the sense of being scared of your local water, just because something gross happens periodically, and kind of unexpectedly.”