Fort Madison Must Stop Sewage Overflows to Mississippi River

The U.S. EPA Region 7 has reached a legal agreement with the City of Fort Madison, Iowa, to address the city's combined sewer overflow problems.

The administrative agreement, approved Wednesday, sets a schedule for the city of 12,000 people in southeast Iowa to implement its proposed plan to addressed combined sewer overflows under a phased approach.

Remnants of the country's early infrastructure, combined sewer systems often overflow after heavy rains or snows, allowing untreated sewage to flow into creeks, streams and lakes.

Fort Madison lies on the banks of the Mississippi and the city's sewage overflows empty into the river.

The city was flooded repeatedly last May and June, with water pouring through the CSO system. Severe flooding shut down the city's riverfront area and disrupted an important cross-country train service that sees 80 to 90 trains cross the Mississippi at Fort Madison every day.

Pumping floodwater out of the Fort Madison Historical Center, May 3, 2008 (Photo by Dawna Deanne)

The first phase of the Fort Madison schedule calls for a pilot treatment system, including disinfection, to be installed at one of its eight combined sewer outfalls by late January 2010.

If the pilot system proves successful, the second phase of the plan would involve installation of the same system at the remaining seven outfalls over a period of four years, at a projected cost of $4.5 million.

The agreement calls for the City of Fort Madison to monitor results of the pilot system for a year. After a year of monitoring, the city must submit a report to the U.S. EPA and the Iowa Department of Natural Resources for review.

If the pilot project is not successful, the city would then be required to find an alternate method of either mitigating or eliminating its combined sewer overflows.

The city would have until March 2027 to implement the alternative method.

The alternative method could involve the separation of Fort Madison's combined sewers, which carry storm water and sanitary sewage, at an estimated cost of up to $18 million.

"This agreement should produce significant reductions in health risks to the public while making important improvements to the environment," said Acting Regional Administrator William Rice. "I commend the City of Fort Madison and its residents for making this investment in their city."

Six more Iowa cities have combined sewer systems that need to be separated - Burlington, Clinton, Des Moines, Spencer, Keokuk, and Ottumwa

In 2007, the City of Burlington signed a consent order with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources to update its sewer system by 2025, making a major commitment to reduce wastewater entering the Mississippi River.

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