As one of 600 municipalities with a combined sewer system in New York, the city of Auburn is required to submit reports through the NY-Alert system in the event of any overflow discharge.
At a meeting of the Cayuga County Water Quality Management Agency Thursday, Auburn Municipal Utilities Director Seth Jensen provided an explanation of combined sewer overflows.
Under the 2013 Sewage Pollution Right to Know Act, municipalities with publicly-owned treatment works or publicly-owned sewer systems must report any untreated or partially treated discharges to the state within two hours and to the public in four through the NY-Alert system.
“If a drop from the sanitary system makes it out of the pipes and into the environment, we note it,” Jensen said.
Combined sewers collect stormwater runoff, domestic sewage and industrial wastewater in the same system and transport it to a wastewater treatment facility, according to the state Department of Environmental Conservation.
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