Proposed Prohibition of CSO's for Great Lakes Dischargers

At September's training in Ft. Wayne, one of the things that we discussed was language in Section 428 pf the Senate Appropriations Committee FY 2016 spending bill. If passed, Section 428 will prohibit all CSO's within the Great Lakes Watershed. After 2035, POTW's will be fined $100,000 for any CSO's, regardless of the intensity and/or duration of the storm event. The financial costs are tough to estimate at this point, but would be extremely high. For one large Indiana community, their current estimated cost to meet 3-4 CSO's per is roughly $300 million. To meet the zero CSO requirement, they would have to spend at least $590 million dollars! 

It is extremely important that you share this information with your elected officials, boards, rate payers, etc. and decide what affect, if any, this could have on your community.