Source: The Sun (Lowell, Massachusetts) - By Christopher Scott, The Sun, Lowell, Mass.
Mar. 16--LOWELL -- Heavy, sustained rain is not the Merrimack River's friend.
Since torrential rains swept into the region Saturday, the Duck Island Sewage Treatment Plant has released thousands upon thousands of gallons of raw sewage into the Merrimack because the plant cannot process the suddenly larger amount of effluent rushing into its augers, pumps and settling pools.
A shocking result is looming. During the Mother's Day floods of 2006, more than 100 million gallons of raw sewage was diverted into the Merrimack over several days, setting an all-time record.
Mark Young, executive director of the plant, said this week's diversions have a "good chance" of surpassing that appalling milestone.
"Rain like we've had since Saturday is not good for the river," Young said.
But it's all perfectly legal. Under the plant's operating permits with the state Department of Environmental Protection and the federal Environmental Protection Agency, the city is allowed to divert sewage when the plant's mechanical shortcomings cannot keep pace with Mother Nature. Such diversions are called combined sewer overflows.
Besides rain, lots of rain, the culprit is the city's ancient sewer-collection system. Old, undersized pipes carry not only sewage, but also storm run-off, to the plant. The plant, which came on line in 1980 after several years of construction, has the capacity to treat about 110 million gallons a day. Chelmsford, Dracut, Tewksbury and Tyngsboro also send their sewage to the plant under contracts with Lowell.
"This week, we will exceed that number," Young said. "Greatly exceed that number."
The city has nine points of diversion when the treatment plant lags. Early yesterday afternoon, diversion points on West Street and the Merrimack River Station, which is located on the river's south bank directly across from the treatment plant, were in use. A Sun photographer witnessed the latter belching brown, sudsy water through a large opening in a concrete rampart.
Environmental groups have called such discharges "toxic soups" of not just untreated sewage, but any other substance or object that water rushing in a gutter and into a catch basin happens to push along.
Over the last several years, the city has borrowed from the state, at low interest rates, nearly $43 million to install nearly 15 miles of separate storm run-off drainage lines. The additional lines channel run-off -- far from crystal clear but far less nasty than raw sewage -- to brooks and streams rather than the treatment plant, thereby freeing up capacity.
In four individual projects, such lines have been installed beneath Chelmsford, Gorham, Lincoln, Shaw and Stevens streets, to name a few. With some storm run-off out of the equation, the treatment plant can treat more of what it was built to treat.
The goal of the infrastructure improvement projects, Young said, is to have four or fewer diversions per year.
Christine Tabak, executive director of the Lowell-based Merrimack River Watershed Council, strongly urges folks to stay away from the river the next few days.
"If Mark's numbers are correct, and I'm sure they are, the river is not safe right now," Tabak said. "It really makes me sad."
Despite the diversions, 150,000 people living between the Pawtucket Dam in Lowell and the Essex Dam in Lawrence will continue to use the river as their primary source of water, Tabak said.
Lowell is not unique. Also yesterday, three days of relentless rain threatened to overwhelm the Boston-area sewer system and force a controlled release of untreated sewage into Boston Harbor.
Massachusetts Water Resources Authority Executive Director Fred Laskey said the agency's primary sewage-treatment facilities on Deer Island and Nut Island are operating at or beyond maximum capacity.
Laskey says there's a better than 50-50 chance that the MWRA would make a controlled release of untreated sewage later yesterday to prevent the facilities from being swamped.
The MWRA provides water and sewer services to 2.5 million residents of metropolitan Boston, including sewer service to Bedford, Burlington and Wilmington.
Diversions are also an issue in Manchester and Nashua, N.H. Those communities are also working with state and federal environmental authorities to update sewerage collection systems.
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