Combined Sewer Overflows Not Unique to Charleston

Charleston residents have recently been hit with a large increase in sewer fees in order to pay for regular maintenance and upkeep of the city's sewer system. It went up by nearly half (42 %) in order to replace old and leaking sewers and fund a capital improvement fund.

The same thing is happening elsewhere. Lexington, KY is also seeing huge increases in sewer fees to pay for changes to its sewer system to avoid combined sewer overflows, or CSOs. CSOs occur when sanitary and storm sewers run together. During a heavy rain, the sewage treatment facilities are unable to handle the total water/sewage surge effluent and the excess is shunted off to the rivers, untreated. Charleston is also on the list of cities that have CSOs that will have to be addressed at great cost.

Industrial facilities have been held to a higher standard for years, and would not have been allowed to discharge untreated waste. Now it is the cities' turn to meet the same standards, and it is going to be expensive. Still worth doing, but it is always easier to tell someone else to clean up, rather than do it yourself.