Sewage system problems during heavy rains to cost $4.5 billion

The rivers and streams that run through Indiana conceal a filthy legacy of the 20th century -- gaping drainage pipes that spew raw sewage when heavy rains fall and winter snows melt.\nThe sewage problem is so vast and so costly to fix that many communities have made little progress on repairs, despite the threat to human health and wildlife habitat, and a cleanup mandate by the federal government, The Associated Press found in a three-month review.\nRepairs and construction of new systems are expected to cost Indiana about $4.5 billion.\nThe improvements are needed to stop an estimated 20 billion gallons of sewage mixed with rain water that flow annually into the state\'s rivers and streams -- a volume that would fill 228 RCA Domes, from the playing field to the top.\nIndiana's sewage problems are the byproduct of antiquated sewer systems and government policy that critics say amounts to tolerance of a public health problem many would equate with developing nations.\nYet for 105 cities and towns, and many of the 2.5 million people who call those communities home, the problem is not the plight of an impoverished culture lacking streets and sewers; it is in their parks and back yards.\n\"People just assume that when they flush the toilet everything is going to work all right, that it's going to go to the proper place to be treated. But the truth is, that's not the case," said Tim Method, deputy commissioner of the Indiana Department of Environmental Management.\nThe state's sewer problems arise from an engineering flaw, a problem that was not envisioned when Indiana's cities and towns began laying brick-lined storm sewers more than a century ago.\nRapid suburban growth, particularly after World War II, continued this trend until the federal government effectively banned the practice in the 1970s by requiring cities to lay separate storm and sewer lines.\nAlthough most sewer lines carrying both storm water and sewage work fine during dry weather, rain and snowfall can quickly overwhelm municipal sewer treatment plants.\nThese discharges kill fish, close beaches and taint waterways green from algae blooms fueled by nutrients found in human waste. And they leave behind a sickening smell that can linger for weeks.\nFor people who swim or wade into these waterways, particularly children attracted to rain-swollen creeks, they hold the threat of stomach and intestinal illness or viral disease like hepatitis.\nMindful of the enormous cost of addressing their sewer woes, public officials once ignored the overall problem while spending minimal amounts to handle the worst of their sewer overflows.\nBut now the bill for those outdated sewer designs is coming due, with a federal mandate looming for cities and towns to draft long-term plans for cleaning up the mess.\nNationally, the fix will cost about $44.7 billion, according to a 1996 survey by the Environmental Protection Agency. Indiana's piece of the bill was estimated then at $4.5 billion.\nAs state and federal environmental officials press municipalities into action, residents of dozens of Indiana cities and towns already face sewer rate increases to finance sewer plant improvements or expansions.\nBut many communities with big sewer problems have small tax bases from which to finance sewer upgrades, even as expanding suburbs stress their overtaxed treatment plants even further.\nAs elected officials grapple with those issues, tens of thousands of Indiana residents continue living in areas where human waste pours out of pipes near their homes. In fact, Indiana is home to more than 10 percent of the nation\'s cities that discharge raw sewage into waterways, said Jim Filippini, a deputy branch chief of the EPA\'s regional office in Chicago.\nRegardless of who is to blame, public health and recreation is at stake, said Rae Schnapp, water policy specialist for the Hoosier Environmental Council, the state\'s largest environmental group.\nDirty rivers and streams mean people cannot enjoy recreational pursuits -- swimming, fishing and wading -- that their grandparents took for granted.