Tyler TX - Bullard Sewage System Strained By Rain

(Staff Photo Jaime R. Carrero)

Raw sewage overflows between 109 Lynch Drive and the house next door in Bullard on Thursday.

The term SSO - Sanitary Sewer Overflow - seems fairly innocuous to the general public.  However, when presented with a picture of raw sewer in a back yard like this, indignation, anger, shock and outrage will abound.    Having USSI's assistance in abating SSO's using our readily available, inexpensive and relatively quick repairs, that don't require diverting the utilities human resources, will ensure that the general public won't see such an event in their backyard.

Why sewer overflows matter

By Paul Biedrzycki

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Posted: April 21, 2007

Recent news about sewage dumping in Milwaukee area rivers and Lake Michigan as a result of sewer overflows should not go unheeded.

While these events are often portrayed as infrequent or a necessary evil, they unfortunately continue to imbue a sense of unmitigated complacency and misguided environmental stewardship on the part of many officials and policy-makers alike.

Assuring adequate separation of sewage waste water from other source waters in which community drinking water and contact originates is one of the great public health success stories of the past 150 years or so.

In 1849, John Snow, a London physician and pioneer in the field of epidemiology, linked drinking water contaminated by fecal "cesspools" with outbreaks of cholera in the community. Since that era, the protection of water supplies and recreational areas from sewage is one of the most basic and fundamental public health principles.

Yet over the past decade, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the United States Environmental Protection Agency have tracked and recorded a marked increase in both recreational and drinking water illnesses and outbreaks.

Many of these have been linked to a new set of emerging waterborne pathogens. One only need to recall the notorious 1993 Milwaukee Cryptosporidium outbreak to be reminded of the devastating public health consequences of their resurgence.

There is a tenuous balancing act between competing forces of population growth, unconstrained urban sprawl, accompanying citizen demands and the public's health.

Truth be told, in the long term, the latter may indeed find itself on the proverbial short end of the stick. After all, sewer infrastructure is a byproduct of human habitation and development and has expanded to meet the voracious appetite of the modern consumer.

This is most readily apparent in the square footage of roofs and driveways, the width of suburban concrete thoroughfares and the increasing number of bathrooms per square foot of new house.

It doesn't take long to realize that many municipalities are simply "chasing" sewer capacity, not to mention the associated construction and maintenance costs levied from the taxpayer.

To be sure, great strides have been made to reduce the number of sewer overflows within the metropolitan community over the past 10 years. However, the sewer infrastructure has grown commensurately, and volume of discharge and type and epidemiology of pathogens need to be reflected in a new risk equation, along with frequency of such events.

Furthermore, the population demographic continues to change along with immune system status and subsequent vulnerability. Can we really afford to play this roulette wheel indefinitely?

To be naive about this matter may be convenient but is also remarkably shortsighted.

History tends not to be kind to those that choose to be ignorant about past lessons. Sewer overflows, however infrequent and unintentional, tempt fate of both ecosystem and human health.

Paul Biedrzycki of Milwaukee has worked in the public health field for 24 years.