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6 In-Depth: Corpus Christi Negotiates With EPA Over Sewage
Posted: Nov 29, 2012 6:48 PM by Caroline Flores - cflores@kristv.com
Updated: Nov 30, 2012 1:10 PM
CORPUS CHRISTI - Last month we told you about the Environmental Protection Agency demanding the city make nearly $900 million in changes and repairs after several leaks from sewage lines were reported. Those changes could cost tax payers an average of $65 a month more on wastewater bills. The city and the EPA have been negotiating for the past two days.
Many of the city's old sewer lines in Corpus Christi are in serious need of repair cracks like the ones in some of ours can lead to sewage overflows. The city was discussing those overflows with the EPA in Dallas. This round of negotiations held this week have allowed the city to tell the EPA what it is already doing to reduce the number of overflows.
"What we want to do is continue to communicate what we're doing and how it is positively impacting the performance of our system," said Assistant City Manager Oscar Martinez.
City officials have informed the EPA it is renovating the Broadway Water Treatment Plant which city officials say it is very old and has caused several overflows. They even had a chance to inform the EPA of other city measures the federal agency didn't know about.
"For example they were not aware of the extensive televising and cleaning of our lines," said Martinez.
The city says they put in about 2 million dollars into that system and say the EPA was pleasantly surprised .
But the EPA is still concerned with the over flows, which is why they met in the first place. The city says they had a simple explanation for the high number of over flow reports.
"We report any sanitary sewer overflow that exists. Even as much as an eye dropper full. If there's an overflow, we report it," said Martinez.
The city says those small amounts of over flow don't need to be reported, but they do it anyway to be safe. Martinez says the city is in good standing with the EPA as of now. Negotiations though are still underway and it's still unclear whether or not they city will have to make those 900 million dollars in changes.
The negotiation phase has been extended a few more weeks. After that the EPA will decide if what the city is already doing will be good enough.
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