All News Releases By Date

EPA Announces Second Order Requiring Holyoke to Fix High-Priority CSO Discharges

Release Date: 04/24/2001
Contact Information: Mark Merchant, EPA Press Office (617-918-1013)

BOSTON – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today announced it has issued a second administrative order requiring the city of Holyoke take immediate action to reduce untreated sewage flowing into the Connecticut River.

The city's wastewater treatment plant takes both sewage and storm water runoff. Due to the lack of capacity, the pipes – known as combined sewer overflows, or CSOs – are designed to overflow after heavy rains, resulting in wastewater being discharged directly into the Connecticut River.

The estimated 15 CSOs that occur annually in Holyoke discharge approximately 700 to 850 million gallons of wastewater into the Connecticut River. These discharges are a major reason why the Connecticut River routinely fails to meet water quality standards after heavy rains. CSOs pose a significant threat to water quality, carrying viruses, bacteria and other biological pathogens as well as industrial waste and toxic materials.

To address the CSO problem, EPA has ordered the city to:

• Stop the flow of Day Brook into the city's wastewater treatment plant. Instead it will be diverted to flow directly into the Connecticut River. In December, EPA ordered the city stop the flow of Green Brook to its wastewater treatment plant.
  
• Upgrade the city's wastewater treatment plant to boost the amount of water it can handle during rainy weather.

Holyoke is among more than a half dozen cities on the Lower Connecticut River facing severe CSO problems. Springfield and Chicopee are under compliance orders for reducing their CSO discharges, while the communities of Agawam, West Springfield, Ludlow and South Hadley have already eliminated their CSOs or are close to eliminating them.