Fitzpatrick to speak on addressing combined sewer overflows and stormwater
When not doing Elvis impersonations, Kevin Fitzpatrick is the Water Quality Section Manager for Washington Department of Ecology’s Northwest Regional Office. In that role, he participated in the four year process that led to the recently announced Seattle and King County consent decrees to meet combined sewer overflow (CSO) correction and stormwater requirements.
The experience and lessons learned are valuable to Spokane. In Spokane, about a third of the city’s stormwater goes into dedicated stormwater drains. The majority of this stormwater flows directly to the Spokane River and Latah Creek via one of 130 storm drain outfalls with only partial treatment. Another third of Spokane’s stormwater goes directly into CSOs as part of migrating to the city’s wastewater treatment plant, where it’s processed and then discharged to the river. When more stormwater is coming into the system than can be treated at the plant, one of about 20 overflow outfalls take the combined sewage and stormwater directly to the river.
For Seattle and King County, EPA Region 10 proposed the Consent Decree process to both communities to ensure compliance with the Clean Water Act. Simply put, from the combined pollution (contaminants, nutrients, etc.) picked up by stormwater flowing off streets, parking lots and other surfaces and mixed with sewage in the combined sewer overflows are being deposited into Puget Sound and causing environmental degradation. Ecology joined with EPA as co-plaintiffs on both consent decrees, which puts both communities on a defined and certain path to fix the problem.
Seattle and King County, like Spokane, are not alone in facing the multi-million dollar problem of addressing stormwater. EPA, in fact, has negotiated numerous consent decrees to address this problem nationally.
What is unique is that these are the first consent decrees to address CSO correction in the state of Washington. Further, EPA issued new policy guidance in 2012 called “Integrated Municipal Stormwater and Wastewater Planning Approach Framework.” Said Fitzpatrick, “The consent decree was looked at as an opportunity to see how an integrated approach might possibly play out. We ended up being one of the first to try and incorporate core principles.”
Picking up on the stormwater theme, Mayor Condon will address the benefits an integrated approach may have for Spokane during his luncheon keynote address.
According to EPA, “The responsibility to develop an integrated plan rests with the municipality that chooses to pursue this approach.” It can be part of meeting current and future permit requirements; or it can be in response to litigation. Regardless, EPA states that it “…does not remove obligations to comply with the CWA, nor does it lower existing regulatory permitting standards. Instead, it “… recognizes the flexibilities in the CWA for the appropriate sequencing and scheduling of work.”
Some key elements of an integrated approach include first addressing the most pressing human health and environmental protection needs; incorporating green infrastructure technologies like rain gardens, grassy swales or porous pavement; and sequencing projects and capital investments over several years. It can also be used for things like supporting nonpoint source reductions and protecting surface water supplies.
The Seattle/King County consent decrees have a number of integrated approach elements. Fitzpatrick stresses the practical elements of his experience. “What we’re trying to do is get to better outcomes sooner. Let’s say you want to install green infrastructure as part of retrofitting a stormwater system, and install a tank to collect runoff that doesn’t infiltrate the ground. What you might find is it’s better to sequence retrofitting the stormwater system first. Maybe you reduce flows into the CSO system so much that the tank can be much smaller or replaced with a more cost effective solution. For that matter, maybe it doesn’t work as well as planned and you need an even bigger tank.”
The four year negotiation with Seattle and King County reflected these types of tradeoffs, complexities, and needs to build in flexibility while staying true to meeting the long term pollution reduction goals. Said Fitzpatrick “If Spokane or another Washington municipality chooses to use the integrated approach as part of a permit or enforcement process, Ecology will review and respond. It’ll likely be an iterative process where advantages, opportunities and limits of what can and can’t be done will be fully defined over time.”
With millions of dollars required to address CSO and stormwater needs, the one thing everyone agrees on is the need to invest wisely.
The Forum thanks Kevin for sharing his experience at the conference. As for the Elvis impersonation, conference participants will need to invite Kevin to the nearest karaoke bar.