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Little Movement On Massachusetts Proposal To Tell Folks When There's Sewage In The Water

The Connecticut River in autumn from the French King Bridge.
Kimon Berlin
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Creative Commons / flickr.com/photos/81943113@N00
The Connecticut River in autumn from the French King Bridge.

There's no single, quick protocol to make sure the public knows when untreated sewage or wastewater makes its way into rivers in Massachusetts. But a bill to create a timely, uniform notification process is sitting in a legislative committee. 

Some big discharges into a river last year pushed state Representative Linda Dean Campbell of Methuen to file her legislation.

"Five sewerage systems along the Merrimack River reported hundreds of discharges, totaling more than 800 million gallons," and potentially full of harmful pathogens, Campbell said.

Another example happened in the Pioneer Valley in July — peak river recreation season. The Montague wastewater treatment plant ran low on chlorine, and discharged water that wasn't completely purified into the Connecticut River.

"There is no robust way of reporting this," Campbell said. "It's kind of all haphazard."

From Campbell's perspective, this kind of safety notice should be a government-enforced responsibility.

Andrea Donlon, with the Connecticut River Conservancy, has been focused on the Massachusetts part of the Connecticut River watershed for about 15 years. She said the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection last year began notifying her organization of wastewater releases. 

"When something happens, a flood, a power outage, an operator error, whatever — and untreated sewage gets discharged into the river, right now there's no requirement or formal mechanism for the public finding out this has happened," Donlon said.  

A comment on a November 19, 2018, post on the Connecticut River Conservancy's Facebook page. The post linked to a report on a Massachusetts bill (that later died) to raise awareness of sewage pollution in public waters.
Credit NEPR screenshot / Facebook
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Facebook
A comment on a November 19, 2018, post on the Connecticut River Conservancy's Facebook page. The post linked to a report on a Massachusetts bill (that later died) to raise awareness of sewage pollution in public waters.

There were three such incidents along the Connecticut River in Massachusetts last year. And so far this year, Donlon said, there have been three more.

Her organization's solution was to use Facebook to get the word out about sewage overflows, wastewater releases and other discharges.

"We think it's really important that the public know, because it's widely used for recreation," she said.

But as we all know, the algorithms of seeing things on social media are tricky, and it could be just luck that someone sees it before hitting the river. 

Donlon said some sewage operators, like Springfield recently, put out press releases when there's a spill or other discharge. But not all pollution reporting trickles down to recreational users.

"Right now, the operators have to report all this to the Mass DEP — so the agencies know. But the public doesn't have access to that information," she said.

The bill under consideration mandates the public is notified quickly when sewage discharges happen. The notice would be posted, texted, and emailed to the public — within two hours. Depending on the severity of the situation, local health departments could even initiate a reverse 911 call.

Credit NEPR screenshot / State of Massachusetts
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State of Massachusetts
A portion of the text from bill H3976 from the current session of the Massachusetts legislature.

The state of Vermont has a similar notification law. And there's one in place in Connecticut.

Campbell noted that her legislation was created after "many, many meetings" with Massachusetts sanitary district directors.

"Here's the challenge with this type of legislation: You have some very small bodies of water... in certain places that are contributing to this," Campbell said. "And then you have some larger bodies of water that are affected by this. So coming up with a system was a challenge. We wanted to make sure that this worked for everybody.”

A spokesman for the state's environmental protection department said he can't comment on pending legislation. But — together — Campbell's proposal and a similar one in the Senate have support from more than 80 lawmakers.

Carrie Healy hosts the local broadcast of "Morning Edition" at NEPM. She also hosts the station’s weekly government and politics segment “Beacon Hill In 5” for broadcast radio and podcast syndication.
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