Combined Sewer Overflows (CSOs) represent a big problem that is not technically difficult to address. The issue is only money and political will. We have a gre

Combined Sewer Overflows (CSOs) represent a big problem that is not technically difficult to address. The issue is only money and political will. We have a great example in Maine of how well CSOs can be addressed and minimized in the twin-cities of Saco and Biddeford. These two municipalities face each other across the Saco River and have separate waste water systems. They both have historical issues with CSOs and have been working to address them. Saco worked quickly, spent a ton of money, and raised a lot of fees to upgrade their sewer infrastructure to minimize CSOs into the Saco River. They are largely complete with that work and total CSOs has dropped to under 1 million gallons per year[0] estimated, and only 600k gallons in 2016[1] (highly dependent on rainfall). Biddeford has been slower off the block, to be honest I'm not sure what they've accomplished although I know they've made progress. I believe a recent large Main Street reconstruction included CSO work. Their CSO discharge rate sits around 20-40 million gallons year year[1]. One big difference is that Saco charges an CSO impact fee on new sewer volume, currently $11.27 per rated gallon[2]. I'm pretty sure that Biddeford doesn't charge a CSO fee at all, at least it's not detailed on their wastewater permit application. A community is a reflection of it's citizen values. Care about CSOs? Talk about them, build consensus, and raise money to deal with them. There will always be someone complaining about the municipal fees to build and live in a particular community, don't let those individuals dictate the narrative and thereby the world you live in. It's easier to see your impact in a small community (like Saco, ME) as compared to a large community (like San Francisco, CA), I get that. Don't get discouraged, keep working. [0]http://courier.mainelymediallc.com/news/2017-11-09/News/Saco_completes_latest_sewer_overflow_project.html http://courier.mainelymediallc.com/news/2017-11-09/News/Saco... [1]http://www.maine.gov/dep/water/cso/2016_status_report.pdf http://www.maine.gov/dep/water/cso/2016_status_report.pdf [2]http://www.sacomaine.org/departments/water_resource_recovery_division/impact_fee_explanation.php http://www.sacomaine.org/departments/water_resource_recovery...