By ELLEN LIBERMAN
Journal Staff Writer
WEST WARWICK, Oct. 4, 2000 (The Providence Journal)—The town yesterday received a $20,000 planning grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to deal with the problem of water pollution caused by storm runoff from sources such as farmland, gas stations and parking lots.
The grant will finance the drafting of a plan to meet a federal mandate to eliminate such water pollution, said Town Planner Marc Jaffee.
We need to identify specific areas where stormwater is infiltrating the sewer system to try to eliminate it, Jaffee said.
The town has separate storm drainage and sewer systems, but stormwater does seep into the sewer system, raising the costs of treating wastewater and occasionally sending raw sewage into the Pawtuxet River. Janine Burke, executive director of the West Warwick sewage- treatment plant, said the problem here is a moderate one.
Stormwater creeps in in two ways, Burke said. First, stormwater flows directly into the sewer system at some points, from roof gutters and commercial parking lots. Homeowners who solve their wet basement problems with sump pumps also send stormwater directly into the sewers, Burke said.
The second way stormwater infiltrates the sewer system is through cracks in sewer pipes. A hard rain can cause the ground-water level to rise and trickle into sewer pipe fractures.
Stormwater runoff can significantly increase the amount of water flowing through the treatment plant from a 5-million-gallon-a-day average to 7 million, Burke said.
The problem can be expensive, she said.
"It's pretty clean, and we are paying to treat water we don't need to treat," she said. "And if the flow is too much for us to handle, it would overpower the system and some raw sewage would pass right through the system."
Although the town has regularly met its permit requirements, stormwater has occasionally caused sewage overflows, she said.
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