Tired of ads? Subscribers enjoy a distraction-free reading experience.
Click here to subscribe today or Login.

Despite repeated releases of untreated wastewater into the Susquehanna River, residents in the southern tier of New York are not being charged a fee similar to one being implemented locally to help clean up the Chesapeake Bay.

More than 602 million gallons of untreated wastewater have been discharged by the City of Binghamton into the river over the last five months, according to an accumulation of New York safety alerts.

The releases, which New York officials have said have had no impact on Pennsylvania towns along the river, were first reported by the Times Leader in August.

Each discharge of untreated waste generates an alert by New York. There has been 36 alerts issued since mid-August.

“The Binghamton Regional wastewater treatment plant is being comprehensively reconstructed and upgraded under an enforcement action with New York State and at an estimated total cost of approximately $330 million,” according to a statement from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. “These upgrades, when complete, will significantly reduce nitrogen, phosphorus, etc., discharges to the river.”

The statement was in response to questions submitted by the Times Leader in connection to the new stormwater fee imposed on customers of the Wyoming Valley Sanitary Authority and the Dallas Area Municipality Authority.

The fee stems from an agreement to handle a pollution-reduction mandate on behalf of 32 municipalities that requires less sediment, nitrogen and phosphorus washed into the Chesapeake Bay over the next five years.

Customers in the southern tier of New York are not being charged the fee.

Instead, New York has decided to fund its Watershed Implementation Plan through other means to reduce nitrogen, phosphorus and sediment in the Chesapeake basin.

“As with all other states, New York’s Watershed Implementation Plan is being updated in cooperation with U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. To be clear, New York is not imposing a fee but supporting extensive implementation efforts through the $300 million annual Environmental Protection Fund and $2.5 billion Clean Water Infrastructure Act of 2017,” the statement says.

As for Binghamton’s wastewater woes, the discharges will continue until its wastewater plant is rebuilt. Currently, the Binghamton-Johnson City Wastewater Treatment Plant is capable of handling 12 million gallons of waste per day.

The facility was inundated when a flood wall protecting it from the Susquehanna River collapsed during the September 2011 flood. Rebuilding and lawsuits have been ongoing since 2011, according to media reports.

New York officials have said previously that the river naturally assimilates all the discharges from Binghamton within approximately 12 miles of the discharge location. They say that happens much more quickly in flood conditions.

The Susquehanna River is shown flowing past the Luzerne County Courthouse last summer. Despite continued discharges of untreated wastewater into the river from the Binghamton, N.Y., treatment plant, residents there are not paying a fee such as the one implemented locally to help clean up the Chesapeake Bay.
https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/web1_photo-7-.jpg.optimal.jpgThe Susquehanna River is shown flowing past the Luzerne County Courthouse last summer. Despite continued discharges of untreated wastewater into the river from the Binghamton, N.Y., treatment plant, residents there are not paying a fee such as the one implemented locally to help clean up the Chesapeake Bay. Times Leader file photo

By Ed Lewis

[email protected]