NATIONAL ACADEMY PRESS
2101 Constitution Ave., N.W. Washington, DC 20418
NOTICE: The project that is the subject of this report was approved by the Governing Board of the National Research Council, whose members are drawn from the councils of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine. The members of the committee responsible for the report were chosen for their special competencies and with regard for appropriate balance.
This report has been reviewed by a group other than the authors according to procedures approved by a Report Review Committee consisting of members of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine.
Support for this project was provided by the National Academy of Engineering, National Science Foundation Grant No. BCS-9002867, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Contract No. X-817001-01-0, the City of San Diego, the Freeman Fund of the Boston Society of Civil Engineers, and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Contract No. 50-DGNC-900139.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Managing wastewater in coastal urban areas / Committee on Wastewater Management for Coastal Urban Areas, Water Science and Technology Board, Commission on Engineering and Technical Systems, National Research Council.
p. cm.
ISBN 0-309-04826-5
1. Sewage disposal. 2. Runoff—Environmental aspects. 3. Coastal zone management. I. National Research Council (U.S.). Committee on Wastewater Management for Coastal Urban Areas.
TD653.M34 1993
628.1'682—dc20 93-1845
CIP
Copyright 1993 by the National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America
COMMITTEE ON WASTEWATER MANAGEMENT FOR COASTAL URBAN AREAS
JOHN J. BOLAND, Chair,
Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland
BLAKE P. ANDERSON,
County Sanitation Districts of Orange County, Fountain Valley, California
NORMAN H. BROOKS,
California Institute of Technology, Pasadena
WILLIAM M. EICHBAUM,
The World Wildlife Fund, Washington, D.C.
LYNN R. GOLDMAN,
California Department of Health Services, Emeryville
DONALD R. F. HARLEMAN,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge
ROBERT W. HOWARTH,
Cornell University, Ithaca, New York
ROBERT J. HUGGETT,
Virginia Institute of Marine Sciences, Gloucester Point
THOMAS M. KEINATH,
Clemson University, Clemson, South Carolina
ALAN J. MEARNS,
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Seattle, Washington
CHARLES R. O'MELIA,
Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland
LARRY A. ROESNER,
Camp Dresser & McKee Inc., Orlando, Florida
JOAN B. ROSE,
University of South Florida, Tampa
JERRY R. SCHUBEL,
State University of New York at Stony Brook
WSTB LIAISON
RICHARD A. CONWAY,
Union Carbide Corporation, South Charleston, West Virginia
PANEL ON ENVIRONMENTAL PROCESSES
NORMAN H. BROOKS, Chair,
California Institute of Technology, Pasadena
WAYNE R. GEYER,
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, Massachusetts
ROBERT J. HUGGETT,
Virginia Institute of Marine Sciences, Gloucester Point
GEORGE A. JACKSON,
Texas A & M University, College Station
ALAN J. MEARNS,
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Seattle, Washington
CHARLES R. O'MELIA,
Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland
DONALD W. PRITCHARD, Professor Emeritus,
The University at Stony Brook, New York (resigned 9/6/91)
JERRY R. SCHUBEL,
State University of New York at Stony Brook
PANEL ON HEALTH, ECOSYSTEMS, AND AESTHETICS
LYNN R. GOLDMAN, Chair,
California Department of Health Services, Emeryville
WILLIAM M. EICHBAUM,
The World Wildlife Fund, Washington, D.C.
ROBERT W. HOWARTH,
Cornell University, Ithaca, New York
ROBERT J. HUGGETT,
Virginia Institute of Marine Sciences, Gloucester Point
ALAN J. MEARNS,
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Seattle, Washington
JOAN B. ROSE,
University of South Florida, Tampa
PANEL ON POLICIES, INSTITUTIONS, AND ECONOMICS
JOHN J. BOLAND, Chair,
Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland
JOHN M. DeGROVE,
Florida Atlantic University/Florida International University, Fort Lauderdale
WILLIAM M. EICHBAUM,
The World Wildlife Fund, Washington, D.C.
KATHERINE FLETCHER,
Campaign for Puget Sound, Seattle, Washington
PANEL ON SOURCE CONTROL AND PUBLICLY OWNED TREATMENT WORKS TECHNOLOGY
THOMAS M. KEINATH, Chair,
Clemson University, Clemson, South Carolina
BLAKE P. ANDERSON,
County Sanitation Districts of Orange County, Fountain Valley, California
TAKASHI ASANO,
University of California, Davis
GLEN T. DAIGGER,
CH2M Hill, Denver, Colorado
DONALD R. F. HARLEMAN,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge
BILLY H. KORNEGAY,
Engineering-Science, Inc., Fairfax, Virginia
JAMES F. KREISSL,
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Cincinnati, Ohio
JOSEPH T. LING,
3M Company (retired), St. Paul, Minnesota
P. AARNE VESILIND,
Duke University, Durham, North Carolina
PANEL ON SOURCES
LARRY A. ROESNER, Chair,
Camp Dresser & McKee Inc., Orlando, Florida
JAMES P. HEANEY,
University of Colorado, Boulder
VLADIMIR NOVOTNY,
Marquette University, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
WILLIAM C. PISANO,
Havens and Emerson, Inc., Boston, Massachusetts
Staff
SARAH CONNICK, Study Director
PATRICIA L. CICERO, Senior Project Assistant
JACQUELINE MACDONALD, Staff Officer
LYNN KASPER, Editorial Assistant
Interns
BETH C. LAMBERT, Summer Intern
SUSAN MURCOTT,
Marblehead, Massachusetts
WATER SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY BOARD
DANIEL A. OKUN, Chair,
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
A. DAN TARLOCK, Vice Chair,
Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago-Kent College of Law
J. DAN ALLEN,
Chevron USA, Inc., New Orleans, Louisiana
KENNETH D. FREDERICK,
Resources for the Future, Washington, D.C.
DAVID L. FREYBERG,
Stanford University, Stanford, California
WILFORD R. GARDNER,
University of California, Berkeley
DUANE L. GEORGESON,
Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, Los Angeles
LYNN R. GOLDMAN,
California Department of Health Services, Emeryville
WILLIAM GRAF,
Arizona State University, Tempe
THOMAS M. HELLMAN,
Bristol-Myers Squibb Company, New York, New York
ROBERT J. HUGGETT,
Virginia Institute of Marine Science, Gloucester Point
CHARLES C. JOHNSON,
Consultant, Bethesda, Maryland
JUDY L. MEYER,
University of Georgia, Athens
STAVROS S. PAPADOPULOS,
S. S. Papadopulos & Associates, Inc., Rockville, Maryland
KENNETH W. POTTER,
University of Wisconsin, Madison
BRUCE E. RITTMANN,
Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois
PHILIP C. SINGER,
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
JOY B. ZEDLER,
San Diego State University, San Diego
Staff
STEPHEN D. PARKER, Director
SARAH CONNICK, Senior Staff Officer
SHEILA D. DAVID, Senior Staff Officer
CHRIS ELFRING, Senior Staff Officer
GARY KRAUSS, Staff Officer
JACQUELINE MACDONALD, Staff Officer
JEANNE AQUILINO, Administrative Associate
ANITA A. HALL, Administrative Assistant
PATRICIA L. CICERO, Senior Project Assistant
GREGORY K. NYCE, Senior Project Assistant
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Preface
At least 37 percent of the U.S. population is located in counties adjacent to the oceans or to major estuaries, most of them in relatively concentrated urban areas. The waste from this population and its associated activities is a major contributor to the widely documented deterioration of ocean and coastal waters. Beaches are closed, fisheries and shellfish beds are quarantined, and, in many areas, harbor sediment has become so contaminated that dredging cannot be accomplished safely. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and others have expressed concern over the relative lack of progress in improving the quality of estuarine and coastal waters. However, two of the most highly publicized coastal wastewater policy disputes in the late 1980s involved cases of alleged overcontrol. Both Boston and San Diego complained that they were being asked to provide upgraded wastewater treatment facilities that would produce no significant improvement in ocean water quality at great costs.
A number of factors combined to focus the attention of the Water Science and Technology Board (WSTB) on this issue. First was the conspicuous paradox of complaints of overcontrol in the midst of widespread concern over deteriorating water quality. Another notable feature was the large amount of money involved: both Boston and San Diego face secondary treatment construction costs on the order of several billion dollars. Finally, there had been no outside review of the policies laid down by the Clean Water Act since the National Commission on Water Quality report in 1975. Consequently, in 1989, at the direction of Congress, the EPA requested that the WSTB advise the agency on opportunities to improve wastewater management policy for coastal urban areas in the future.
The WSTB then initiated the study that led to this report. Financial support was provided by the EPA, the National Science Foundation, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the City of San Diego, the Freeman Fund of the Boston Society of Civil Engineers, and the National Academy of Engineering. The Committee on Wastewater Management for Coastal Urban Areas was formed and charged with the completion of various aspects of this study. The Statement of Task required the Committee to examine issues relevant to wastewater management in urban coastal areas. Among other things, the Committee was directed to consider:
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environmental objectives, policies, and regulations;
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technology and management techniques; and
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systems analysis and design, including environmental modeling.
The Committee was not asked to review past decisions. Instead, it was directed to identify opportunities for improving the current system through which coastal urban wastewater and stormwater are managed.
The Committee consisted of fifteen engineers, scientists, and environmental policy specialists. The first meeting was held in Washington, D.C. in May 1990. As a result of its initial assessment of the problem, the Committee formed five panels with a combined membership of 30, including the Committee members. The Committee met six times and heard from a wide range of local, state, and federal officials, as well as independent engineers and scientists and other concerned individuals. The panels met more than 20 times, and additional meetings were held by an executive subcommittee and an editorial subcommittee.
It is fair to say that the Committee experienced more than the usual amount of difficulty in preparing this report. The problems arose, not from any significant disagreement among the members, but from uncertainty about how to present the Committee's findings. On the one hand, the Committee has assembled much information of immediate use to wastewater management practitioners, much of it never before published: comparisons of treatment processes, design procedures, a guide to risk management, and evaluations of alternative regulatory instruments. On the other hand, the report provides a wide-ranging critique of existing wastewater management policy and proposes a new and fundamentally different paradigm: integrated coastal management.
The Committee's problem was to present the practical information without obscuring the policy recommendations and to highlight the policy recommendations without crowding out the practical data. This report represents a set of compromises reached after several major changes of outline and countless revisions. It expresses the consensus of the Committee, but it fails to capture everything that every member would have wished.
The issues addressed by the Committee take place within complex and
diverse institutional and political structures. Also, as may be expected, data on the progress and status of water quality improvement efforts are less than complete in most cases, and because of site-specific and methodological differences difficult to compare from one case to another. As much of the available information on experiences with existing policies is less than complete, and therefore perhaps subject to broad interpretation, the recommendations in this report reflect the collective judgement of the Committee and are based on a substantial examination of experiences around the nation.
In reaching its conclusions, the Committee consulted with more than 150 distinguished scientists, engineers, public officials, regulators, and citizens (see Appendix G). The Committee is grateful to them for sharing their knowledge, insights, and accumulated experience in these matters. The quality and usefulness of this report has been improved immeasurably by this assistance, so generously offered. Any errors or shortcomings are, of course, the responsibility of the Committee.
In the course of this study, a large volume of material was transmitted to, among, and from Committee and panel members. The reports and papers reviewed at various times in the life of the Committee now amount to more than one meter of shelf space. Another meter would be needed for all of the meeting notebooks, panel reports, and Committee report drafts. The management of this flood of material, along with the arrangement of meetings and monitoring of the comings and goings of Committee and panel members, adds up to a formidable workload interspersed with numerous deadlines. Despite the size of this task, everything was done as needed calmly and efficiently by Senior Project Assistant Patricia Cicero and her colleagues in the office of the Water Science and Technology Board.
Several other WSTB staff members must be mentioned here. WSTB Director Stephen D. Parker was one of the first to understand the need for this study. He guided and shaped the concept through nearly two years of preliminary discussions and was instrumental in securing adequate financial support. He continued to provide advice and perspective throughout the life of the study. Additional assistance was provided by Research Associate Jacqueline MacDonald, who served as staff to one of the panels.
Special thanks are due, as well, to Susan Murcott, a graduate student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who began working with the Committee as a 1990 Summer Intern. Following that summer, Susan continued her association with the Panel on Source Control. She served as a researcher and technical writer, making many important contributions to the panel's report.
To the extent that this report serves its intended purpose, the major credit belongs to Study Director Sarah Connick. Sarah had the overall responsibility for managing the numerous activities that made up the study
and for insuring that the final product met the expectations of the Board and the Committee. It would be accurate to say that she carried out this responsibility fully and with complete professionalism, but that would miss the point. Sarah was, in a very real sense, a contributor to this project as well as its staff director. Her knowledge, judgment, and sense of balance were always present, even when the Chair and other Committee members temporarily lost their way. Whatever usefulness this report may have in the public policy arena is largely due to Sarah's consistent attention to purpose and priorities.
Finally, we return to the subject of Boston, San Diego, and other situations where waivers from the Clean Water Act's secondary treatment requirement were requested. Amid much controversy, San Diego's application was withdrawn and Boston's was not approved. The provision of the Act under which waivers are administered, Section 301(h), continues; however, the opportunity to enter the program has since expired. Meanwhile these and other relevant controversies live on. This report will doubtless be scrutinized by persons on all sides of these controversies, seeking evidence of the Committee's views.
The Committee makes no explicit recommendations on these or any other specific cases. Rather, the report offers a detailed proposal for the way in which coastal wastewater systems should be planned and such issues should be considered in the future. The approach the Committee advocates, integrated coastal management, is more demanding in many ways than existing wastewater management policy, but it is inherently flexible in application. The key decisions in the Boston and San Diego cases were made within the more rigid context of existing policy. Whether these decisions were correct at the time is an issue that the Committee did not address. Whether findings in this report will permit any of these decisions to be revisited is essentially a legal matter that is outside the purview of a National Research Council committee. The Committee does believe the report contains technical information and analysis that should be immediately useful to coastal areas faced with environmental problems. In addition, the wastewater management policy proposed here will greatly improve the ability to resolve future conflicts in the best interests of the environment and the community.
JOHN J. BOLAND, Chair
Committee on Wastewater Management for Coastal Urban Areas