Officials call for a change to sewage dumping in Connecticut River

HOLYOKE, Mass. (WGGB/WSHM) - Officials in Connecticut recently sent out a letter to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, after the city of Holyoke dumped millions of gallons of rainwater and untreated sewage in just one day, into the river through multiple locations.

On July 27, it’s estimated that more than 7,000,000 gallons of sewage and rainwater were discharged into the river. Four days later, on July 31, reports indicated that more than 588,000 gallons were dumped into the river. August 1, it’s estimated that the city discharged more than 6,500,000 million gallons into the river.

Connecticut state lawmakers now calling for change due to this recent surge in sewage overflow.

Representatives Devin Carney and Tami Zawistowski submitted a letter to the Regional Administrator for U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, asking for help in preventing Massachusetts and other up-river states from continuing to discharge sewage and other harmful substances into the Connecticut River.

The letter, addressing the specific incident from Holyoke on July 27, and stated that all that sewage going into the river poses serious public health, environmental, and economic impacts for the state of Connecticut.

Lawmakers are now asking the agency for real time monitoring, investments in new infrastructure, regulatory enforcement, among other things to combat this problem. They’ve turned to the EPA for help in preventing Massachusetts, Vermont, and New Hampshire from dumping wastewater and other harmful substances into the Connecticut River. “This is such an expensive process; no community can do it alone. So, I’ll be happy to join with those in Connecticut that say send some federal money our way, we’ll be glad to get this project done tomorrow if the feds want to pay for it but that’s been the problem since the start.” Said Mike Bissonnette, the Assistance City Solicitor for Holyoke.

Holyoke Interim Director of Public Works, Mary Monahan, told Western Mass News that while she understands the concern from other municipalities, the city of Holyoke is already working under court order on ways to mitigate the sewer overflow, including a $10,500,000 sewer separation project in River Terrace.

“To date we’ve already removed 70 percent of the targeted CSO flows from the Connecticut river as we progress on these projects which are part of the consent decree,” Monahan said. “We should be completed by 2037 with the sewer separation according to our consent decree so were proud of the work the city is doing in order to maintain our environment.”

Monahan also said that the general court of the commonwealth recently filed bills to rapidly advance the schedules for CSO separations, to hopefully get these necessary projects completed sooner rather than later.

Holyoke Mayor Joshua Garcia provided Western Mass News with a statement on this issue.

That statement reads in part: “Over the past several years, the City of Holyoke has invested millions of dollars in infrastructure upgrades to reduce CSO occurrences, including sewer separation projects and improvements to our wastewater treatment facilities. These efforts have significantly decreased the frequency and volume of overflows, but we acknowledge there is more work to be done. We are in regular communication with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP) to ensure compliance with all regulations and to advance long-term solutions.”

The mayor also stated that the city remains committed to being a responsible partner in preserving the Connecticut River for future generations.