Existing treatment plants are not without their share of problems either.  Most people (and community leaders) are under the impression that sewage treatment facilities are these high-tech modern marvels that will take in highly contaminated wastewater in one end and 10 minutes later spit out crystal clear drinking water.  This is wrong. 

Treatment facilities reduce the contaminates in wastewater, not eliminate it.  The truth is cities all across the country are fined millions of dollars every year because they have exceeded the limits determined safe and discharged millions of gallons of contaminated water into the waterways.  This contamination has lead to thousands of beach closings every year and is contributing to Red Tide outbreaks (among other environmental/health concerns) in coastal areas.

From 1995 to 2005 the health and environmental damage to our coastal areas, waterways and lakes went up almost 600%!!!  That should tell you something about the effectiveness of these treatment plants.    

By the way, guess who pays these fines…you do with your tax and treatment fee dollars.    

This doesn’t happen because the operators of these plants aren’t doing their job; it happens because most of these facilities are now hopelessly overloaded and in need of major updating.  But this process takes millions of dollars, again paid for by your tax and treatment fee dollars. 

Everyone wants clean water...but no one wants to pay for it.  At the same time people are too busy to pay attention to what solutions are available.   

The bottom line is, as cities continue to grow sooner or later almost every community in the country will be facing these questions:  

 
• Expand the current sewage treatment facility to accommodate the outlying homes.
• Build a new sewage treatment facility to accommodate those outlying homes. 
• Let these homes stay on septic systems (but upgrade them).     

The direction you take will depend on how knowledgeable you are...if you ignore the issue you may not like the choices others make for you. 

Take my word for it, over the next few years millions of Americans are going to be saying, "I voted for you to look out for me.  Just who in the hell are you working for?" 

You don't want to be in that group and the key is to learn!


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