MORGANTOWN – It’s not pleasant to think about, but combined sewer overflows are a fact of life in Morgantown.
A combined sewer overflow, or CSO, is a byproduct of a combined sewer system, meaning the system collects both wastewater and stormwater runoff in the same infrastructure.
During and immediately following heavy rain events that overwhelm the system’s capacity, both are discharged untreated directly into streams, rivers and other bodies of water.
The Morgantown Utility Board system has 21 CSO outlets along Deckers Creek and 17 along the Monongahela River. There is one each on Popenoe Run, near Brewer Street, and Burroughs Run.
While the frequency of discharge varies by location, MUB advises avoiding the water altogether in these areas for 72 hours following a rain event.
The CSO issue was identified as a likely deal breaker by Mark Downs in June 2024, after an $18,000 feasibility study was launched to gauge Deckers Creek’s viability as a major recreational asset.
Downs was speaking as a representative of Main Street Morgantown at the time.
Today, he represents the 6th Ward on Morgantown City Council. He also sits as city council’s representative to MUB.
During council’s most recent regular meeting, the city raised the issue of CSOs as a priority for an upcoming meeting with state legislators. While not at the top of the agenda, City Manager Jamie Miller said it’s time for those conversations to begin.
“We do understand the combined sewer concerns that we have to separate the combined sewers. Certainly any financial support or any type of support from the state level for funding for that would be great,” Miller said. “We understand that everybody is always challenged with limited resources, but that is an item where we would love to see a pot of funds be available to continue to push projects like that forward.”
So, what would it take to fully separate MUB’s combined sewer system?
MUB doesn’t have the exact numbers, but it has enough data to declare the idea all but impossible.
“The combined system exists in very congested parts of the city, where it’s necessary in many cases to be 10, 15 or even 20 feet deep. The depth and proximity to houses and other buildings combined with the large size of pipes that would be required would lead to some incredibly large excavations,” MUB Communications Director Chris Dale explained. “In addition, the magnitude of construction that would be necessary would have the streets of the city under construction for many years or even decades.”
Taken all at once, Dale said the cost of a total separation would be well into the hundreds of millions of dollars, potentially topping out in the billions of dollars.
But progress is being made.
Number one, Dale noted, there hasn’t been any new combined sewer piping constructed “for many decades.” Every new development is required to have completely separate systems.
Further, when MUB takes on any sanitary or storm project – extensions, replacement, repairs, etc. – separation is considered and incorporated into the project, if feasible.
Dale points to the 2023 repair work on Baird Street and Forest Avenue as an example.
“MUB has also begun allocating a substantial amount of money each year to perform cured-in-place pipe lining in certain areas of our system. This year, the Evansdale area includes over 3,000 feet of sanitary and 1,000 feet of storm lining on streets such as Vassar Street, Hawthorne Avenue, Dudley Avenue is underway and should be completed in the spring,” Dale said. “Along with greatly increasing the life of the existing pipe, the lining will separate the sanitary from the storm in these areas.”
Perhaps the largest single upgrade aimed at reducing the number of CSO overflows is the $85 million expansion of the Star City Wastewater Treatment Plan completed in 2022. That work expanded plant capacity from 12 million gallons to 20.8 million gallons per day. It also upgraded the operations of a facility originally built in 1965.
An illicit discharge detection and elimination program is also in place, through which MUB works with property owners to determine options to remedy connections introducing stormwater into the sanitary sewer system.
As councilor Jenny Selin noted, “it starts at the house level.”
“Mine is combined right now and in November, I’m going to work on separating it and getting the storm water out to the storm water system instead of flushing it,” she said. “Making sure it happens, or at least that there’s progress every year to lessen it would be good.”
According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, there are more than 700 communities in the U.S. with combined sewer systems.
