Prevent Sewer Overflows-Neg

Josh Wilson Prevent sewer overflows-Neg Page 1 of 10
Prevent sewer overflows-Neg

Index:
Prevent sewer overflows-Neg.............................................................................................1
Strategy notes......................................................................................................................2
Inherency:...........................................................................................................................3
Definition of SSO....................................................................................................................................3
Definition of CSO...................................................................................................................................3
These discharges are already Illegal.......................................................................................................3
The federal government is already requiring communities to separate their storm and sanitary sewers
.................................................................................................................................................................3
The government is working on more funding.........................................................................................4
The EPA is starting to enforce better......................................................................................................4
EPA cracking down on overflows..........................................................................................................4
Congress already approving money for improving sewers.....................................................................4
Congress already approving money for improving sewers.....................................................................4
Cities are working on innovative ways to deal with sewage overflow...................................................5
Solvency:.............................................................................................................................5
It takes time to fix, requires things to be shut down...............................................................................5
Non solvent, even good systems can fail................................................................................................6
Most Sanitary sewer overflows are from leaking pipes, if aff only deals with reconstructing sewer
storage then they won’t solve..................................................................................................................6
Already tried and failed, empirics prove that the government throwing money at a program doesn’t
solve anything.........................................................................................................................................6
Disadvantages.....................................................................................................................6
Huge Increase in water bills for citizens:................................................................................................6
Justice undermined..................................................................................................................................7
Other arguments.................................................................................................................7
Non T, already policy, just funding ........................................................................................7
Unconstitutional........................................................................................................................7
They have to cut something to pass the aff plan, ...................................................................8
PAYGO rules require that any new programs be funded by cutting other programs ............................8
PayGo will be followed ..........................................................................................................................8
If you can’t decide which side is right then we should vote negative on ‘presumption’ .......................8
Minor repair/CP: Enforce the law, and make polluters pay, but leave the innocent alone.
....................................................................................................................................................9
CP advocacy/alternate solvency...............................................................................................9
Alternate causality: SQ laws not enforced. ............................................................................................9
Alternate causality: SQ laws not enforced. ............................................................................................9
Without enforcement they can’t solve..................................................................................................10
Alternate solvency.................................................................................................................................10
Strategy notes
You basically have two courses of action,
1) Stick with SQ, run topicality spending DA stuff, inherency and solvency
2) Run the CP, hit them on all fronts and use the justice DA, constitutionality, and
alternate solvency cards as the reason to prefer your counterplan.
Right now I’m leaning toward the second but I’ve only run a CP once before so I
hope this one would turn out well.
At times I have added notes, they are mostly for my own benefit but they can be used
for your own benefit as well, edit them as necessary.
BTW: Be careful not to run contradictory arguments, for instance: Don’t argue higher
water bills are bad and then run the counterplan which could raise certain people’s water
bills ;).
Inherency:
Definition of SSO
The US Environmental Protection Agency, July 2001 “Source Water Protection Practices Bulletin:
Managing Sanitary Sewer Overflows and Combined Sewer Overflows to Prevent Contamination of
Drinking Water” http://www.epa.gov/safewater/sourcewater/pubs/fs_swpp_ssocso.pdf
Sanitary sewer overflows (SSOs) are discharges of untreated sewage from municipal
sanitary sewer systems as a result of broken pipes, equipment failure, or system overload.
Definition of CSO
Combined sewer overflows (CSOs) are discharges of untreated sewage and storm water
from municipal sewer systems or treatment plants when the volume of wastewater
exceeds the system’s capacity due to periods of heavy rainfall or snow melt.
These discharges are already Illegal

Under the Clean Water Act, discharges from point sources into waterways are prohibited
unless authorized by a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES)
permit. NPDES permit requirements for municipal wastewater treatment plants must
include limitations based on secondary treatment, including limits on oxygen-demanding
pollutants and suspended solids, as well as any other more stringent requirements (such
as disinfection) necessary to meet state water quality standards. Although CSOs [Combined
Sewer Overflows] are considered point sources, they are not subject to secondary treatment requirements;
instead, NPDES permits for combined sewer systems are based on the provisions of EPA’s 1994 CSO
Control Policy, which provides for implementation of minimum technology-based controls and long-term
control plans to meet water quality standards. SSOs, [Sanitary sewer overflows] on the other hand,
typically are not permitted and are generally prohibited.
The federal government is already requiring communities to separate their storm

and sanitary sewers
Melanie D. Hayes (Journalist for Indystar) April 6, 2010 “10th Street intersection to close in
Noblesville” http://www.indystar.com/article/20100406/LOCAL0104/4060370/-1/frontpagecities/10th-
Street-intersection-to-close-in-Noblesville
The federal government is requiring that communities separate their storm and sanitary
sewers, although the projects are not receiving federal funding, the release said.
"During periods of heavy rain, this combined sewer is overwhelmed with the volume of water and must
overflow the storm and sanitary waste directly into the White River," according to the release. "The Maple
Avenue Infrastructure Project will correct this problem by constructing two separate sewers to replace the
one existing combined sewer."
The government is working on more funding

US Fed News Service, March 7, 2007 “House Of Representatives Reauthorizes Sewer Overflow
Grants; Would Subsidize Buffalo Sewer Replacement” http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1P3-
1228953131.html
Today the House of Representatives passed H.R. 569, the Water Quality Investment Act
of 2007, which authorizes $1.8 billion over the next five years for grants to prevent
dangerous sewer overflows. This bill passed the Transportation and Infrastructure
Committee's Water Resources Subcommittee, of which Rep. Brian Higgins' (NY-27) is a
member, at the end of January 2007. This bill will particularly help Buffalo because of the
significant sewer overflow problem that exists there which pollutes waterways
The EPA is starting to enforce better

The New York Times November 22, 2009 “As Sewers Fill, Waste Poisons Waterways”
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/23/us/23sewer.html?_r=1&pagewanted=1&hpw&adxnnlx=1258984978-
miEvUk7F/EJMX5/7/yVDnA
In the last year, E.P.A. settlements with sewer systems in Hampton Roads, Va., and the
east San Francisco Bay have led to more than $200 million spent on new systems to
reduce pollution, the agency said. In October, the E.P.A. administrator, Lisa P. Jackson,
said she was overhauling how the Clean Water Act is enforced.
EPA cracking down on overflows

The E.P.A., concerned about the risks of overflowing sewers, issued a national
framework in 1994 to control overflows, including making sure that pipes are designed so
they do not easily become plugged by debris and warning the public when overflows
occur. In 2000, Congress amended the Clean Water Act to crack down on overflows.
But in hundreds of places, sewer systems remain out of compliance with that framework
or the Clean Water Act, which regulates most pollution discharges to waterways.
Congress already approving money for improving sewers

Legislation under consideration on Capitol Hill contains millions in water infrastructure
grants, and the stimulus bill passed this year set aside $6 billion to improve sewers and
other water systems.
Congress already approving money for improving sewers

Consulting Specifying Engineer, [accessed with highbeam] July 1, 2002 “Federal funding to boost
water infrastructure security.” http://business.highbeam.com/435917/article-1G1-90190565/federal-
funding-boost-water-infrastructure-security
Out of the $89 million that Congress has allocated for the initiative to bolster water
infrastructure security, $53 million is available in the form of individual grants of up to
$115,000 for utilities to conduct vulnerability assessments, remediation planning and/or
emergency plan development.
Cities are working on innovative ways to deal with sewage overflow

To combat these shifts, some cities are encouraging sewer-friendly development. New
York, for instance, has instituted zoning laws requiring new parking lots to include
landscaped areas to absorb rainwater, established a tax credit for roofs with absorbent
vegetation and begun to use millions of dollars for environmentally friendly
infrastructure projects.
Philadelphia has announced it will spend $1.6 billion over 20 years to build rain gardens
and sidewalks of porous pavement and to plant thousands of trees.
But unless cities require private developers to build in ways that minimize runoff, the
volume of rain flowing into sewers is likely to grow, environmentalists say.
Solvency:
It takes time to fix, requires things to be shut down
Melanie D. Hayes (Journalist for Indystar) April 6, 2010 “10th Street intersection to close in
Noblesville” http://www.indystar.com/article/20100406/LOCAL0104/4060370/-1/frontpagecities/10th-
Street-intersection-to-close-in-Noblesville
As part of a big improvement to an old sewer system, the Noblesville city government
will shut down a downtown intersection for two weeks to pursue a portion of the project.
[He goes on in the same context to say] The intersection at 10th Street and Maple Avenue will
close Wednesday before the morning rush hour, according to a city news release. The intersection is
expected to reopen on or near April 21.
Work has already been taking place at the intersection of Ninth Street and Maple Avenue. The intersection
remained open through the winter but was recently closed to finish construction, said city spokeswoman
Cara Culp.
Paving of the roads will be completed and the intersection will re-open to north-south traffic Wednesday
morning, the release said.
The two-week closure will allow for work to be done in the Maple Avenue infrastructure project,
separating the storm-water and sanitary sewers along the avenue, the release said. The sewer is more than
100 years old and currently transports storm and sanitary sewage together. The federal government is
requiring that communities separate their storm and sanitary sewers, although the projects are not receiving
federal funding, the release said.
"During periods of heavy rain, this combined sewer is overwhelmed with the volume of water and must
overflow the storm and sanitary waste directly into the White River," according to the release. "The Maple
Avenue Infrastructure Project will correct this problem by constructing two separate sewers to replace the
one existing combined sewer."
The project started in August, Culp said, and would take about 18 months to complete.
"The contractor stopped work over the winter due to the weather but then re-mobilized this spring and has
been making good progress," she said.
During the two-week road closure starting Wednesday, drivers will need to take detours around the
intersection along Sixth, Eighth or Ninth streets to travel north and south.
Drivers who are traveling toward downtown from the north should take the Field Drive bridge if they are
planning to go west of the White River. This route will help reduce traffic congestion that will result from
the intersection closure, the release said.
Non solvent, even good systems can fail

Even well-operated systems may be subject to occasional blockages or structural,
mechanical, or electrical failures
Most Sanitary sewer overflows are from leaking pipes, if aff only deals with
reconstructing sewer storage then they won’t solve.
Cities estimate that 60 percent of SSOs come from leaking service lines, and monitoring
and maintenance programs are a key component in preventing them.
Already tried and failed, empirics prove that the government throwing money at a
program doesn’t solve anything
During the 1970s and 1980s, Congress distributed more than $60 billion to cities to make
sure that what goes into toilets, industrial drains and street grates would not endanger
human health. But despite those upgrades, many sewer systems are still frequently
overwhelmed, according to a New York Times analysis of environmental data.
Disadvantages
Huge Increase in water bills for citizens:
New York’s sewage system overflows essentially every other time it rains.
Reducing such overflows is a priority, city officials say. But eradicating the problem
would cost billions.
Officials have spent approximately $35 billion over three decades improving the quality
of the waters surrounding the city and have improved systems to capture and store
rainwater and sewage, bringing down the frequency and volume of overflows, the city’s
Department of Environmental Protection wrote in a statement.
“Water quality in New York City has improved dramatically in the last century, and
particularly in the last two decades,” officials wrote.
Several years ago, city officials estimated that it would cost at least $58 billion to prevent
all overflows. “Even an expenditure of that magnitude would not result in every part of a
river or bay surrounding the city achieving water quality that is suitable for swimming,”
the department wrote. “It would, however, increase the average N.Y.C. water and sewer
bill by 80 percent.”
Justice undermined
The people who do the damage should pay, not the federal government (and thus
everyone through taxes.)
The aff plan rewards people that are in violation of the law by paying for their upgrades,
thus punishing responsible cities and sewage companies who have already taken the
trouble to comply with the law.
The people that receive the benefits of the better sewer system should be the people that
pay through higher prices,
The people that have already had to pay for their own upgrades should not be forced by
the government to shoulder the burden of those who have willfully violated the law in
order to gain profit.
Polluters should pay

Law professor Jonathan H. Adler, (Professor of Law and Director of the Center for Business Law and
Regulation at the Case Western Reserve University School of law) February 28, 1995 “Making the
Polluters Pay” http://cei.org/gencon/019,03110.cfm
Because the first duty of government should always be to protect people and their
properties from external harm, pollution control is a legitimate function of government.1
Pollution, like vandalism or theft, deprives people of what is theirs. The proper role for
government in this area is to ensure that polluters pay for the damage they cause and are
enjoined from causing harm in the future. This approach is often referred to as the
“polluter pays principle,”
(Great card for here from Peter Voell in his superfund liability brief… but I’m not
allowed to trade it.)
Other arguments
Non T, already policy, just funding
We already have established a policy of requiring sewer upgrades, the aff fails to
make any sig change in enviro pol. All they do is pay people money to do what they
already have to do.
(See generic T-press for a counter definition and topicality impacts)
Unconstitutional
“Not yours to spend”
The federal government is nowhere given the power to spend money on sewer
upgrades, to allow the aff to violate the constitution furthers the mindset that it’s ok
to violate the supreme law of the land whenever people wish
This=Bad
(See constitutional generic brief for cards on all this)
They have to cut something to pass the aff plan,

PAYGO rules require that any new programs be funded by cutting other programs
RTTNEWS, “Orszag Says Statutory PAYGO Strengthens Fiscal Responsibility”, June 25, 2009,
http://www.tradingmarkets.com/.site/news/TOP%20STORY/2390190/
The Director of the Office of Management and Budget said Thursday that the new
Statutory Pay-As-You-Go Act of 2009 would strengthen the country's enforcement of
and reemphasize its commitment to fiscal discipline. At a hearing before the full House Budget
Committee, OMB Director Peter Orszag emphasized the need to enact the PAYGO Act proposed by the
Obama Administration into law. "We should follow that Hippocratic Oath that first directs doctors to do no
harm," Orszag said. PAYGO rules, enacted as part of the Budget Enforcement Act of 1990,
require that increases in direct spending and decreases in revenue be offset by other
spending cuts or revenue increases.
PayGo will be followed

Sentinel & Enterprise [news service], September 13, 2009, “Holding Obama Accountable”,
http://m.sentinelandenterprise.com/Sentinel/db_11582/contentdetail.htm;jsessionid=AA21202399FE38B92
C40D152E146DEDF?contentguid=PauhCZmP&pn=0&full=true
PAYGO is a simple term. It means that Congress can't spend a new dollar without cutting
a dollar out of the budget somewhere else. On Monday in the White House Obama tried
to adopt the mantra as his own, but actually House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had required the
House to budget along PAYGO lines before Obama's presidential candidacy was being
taken seriously.
IMPACT: We have no idea what beneficial programs will have to be cut in order to
pass the affirmative plan
Impacts=Vagueness, education, fairness, Russian roulette, vote neg on presumption,
basically, we know what we have but change could be disastrous
If you can’t decide which side is right then we should vote negative on
‘presumption’
Christy Shipe (The Founder of NCFCA) In her book “An Introduction to Argumentation and
Debate” (The first debate theory book specifically for NCFCA debate) Copyright 1998 by Christy
Shipe, published by the Home School Legal Defense Association P.O box 3000, Purcellville, Virginia
20134.
When the negative defends the status quo, it is generally held that the negative maintains
presumption in the debate. In other words, it is the job of the affirmative to justify why we should
make a change in the present system. If the judge cannot decide whether or not a change is
warranted many argue that he or she should vote negative “on presumption.” The rational for
presumption is simply that we know what we have right now and change brings uncertainty and
risk.
Minor repair/CP: Enforce the law, and make polluters pay, but
leave the innocent alone.
1. The EPA and the several states shall take action to force all entities who are
shown to have violated the law by allowing sewer overflow to upgrade their
systems to comply with the current policy, The EPA shall fund such enforcement
measures using money from the current budget
2. Current funds shall be used in the unlikely event that no polluter can be located
3. Public education? Inspections? (Whatever you want to run from the last alternate
solvency card)
This counter plan is non topical as it does not change any “official rules and regulations
concerning the environment” and simply enforces the laws on the books.
And,
The counterplan is net beneficial as it solves better than the aff can while upholding
justice and the constitution.
(The plan is also mutually exclusive, you can’t both give the money and not give it)
CP advocacy/alternate solvency
Alternate causality: SQ laws not enforced.
In the last three years alone, more than 9,400 of the nation’s 25,000 sewage systems —
including those in major cities — have reported violating the law by dumping untreated
or partly treated human waste, chemicals and other hazardous materials into rivers and
lakes and elsewhere, according to data from state environmental agencies and the
Environmental Protection Agency. But fewer than one in five sewage systems that broke
the law were ever fined or otherwise sanctioned by state or federal regulators, the Times
analysis shows.
Alternate causality: SQ laws not enforced.

When a sewage system overflows or a treatment plant dumps untreated waste, it is often
breaking the law. Today, sewage systems are the nation’s most frequent violators of the
Clean Water Act. More than a third of all sewer systems — including those in San Diego,
Houston, Phoenix, San Antonio, Philadelphia, San Jose and San Francisco — have
violated environmental laws since 2006, according to a Times analysis of E.P.A. data.
Thousands of other sewage systems operated by smaller cities, colleges, mobile home
parks and companies have also broken the law. But few of the violators are ever
punished.
Without enforcement they can’t solve

miEvUk7F/EJMX5/7/yVDnA [note: context is explicitly talking about sewer overflows]
“The E.P.A. would rather look the other way than crack down on cities, since punishing
municipalities can cause political problems,” said Craig Michaels of Riverkeeper, an
environmental advocacy group. “But without enforcement and fines, this problem will
never end.”
Alternate solvency
Employee training is an important tool for preventing contamination from sewer
overflows. Employees should be trained on how to run the equipment, and shut it down,
if necessary, to prevent overflows. Employees should have access to and knowledge of
contingency and emergency response plans. They should be aware of any potential for
overflow events and be prepared to take appropriate action to prevent sewage from
entering the source water.
Public education involves informing developers and the public of how sewer overflows
occur, and what they can do to prevent them. Developers should be aware of the sewer
collection design capacity, and plan accordingly. As new communities are developed, the
additional sewage can overload the collection system. Developers should check to make
sure the new sewer lines are compatible with the existing sewer system. If the lines do
not fit the joints, then the sewage can leak out of the system, or rain water or snow melt
can infiltrate the cracked lines and cause overflows. Developers should also make sure
that sewer lines are not placed near trees; the roots can grow into the sewer lines and
crack them. The community can help prevent overflows by conserving water and flushing
only appropriate items. Citizens should also be aware that hazardous substances,
pesticides, and fertilizers could be carried off in storm sewers and increase the deleterious
effects of CSOs.
Visual inspections of the surface and internal areas (pipelines and manholes) ensure that
the equipment is running properly and efficiently. Operators should pay specific attention
to sunken areas in the groundcover above a sewer line and areas with ponding water.
Operators should perform these inspections on a daily or weekly basis at low flow times
(e.g., overnight), depending on the system size or frequency of overflows, and log their
findings. Inspection reports provide managers with pertinent information and keep them
informed on how the system is running. This will help avoid equipment failure and
resulting overflows.

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Josh Wilson Prevent sewer overflows-Neg Page 1 of 10

Prevent sewer overflows-Neg

These discharges are already Illegal

The federal government is already requiring communities to separate their storm

The government is working on more funding

The EPA is starting to enforce better

EPA cracking down on overflows

Congress already approving money for improving sewers

Congress already approving money for improving sewers

Cities are working on innovative ways to deal with sewage overflow

Non solvent, even good systems can fail

Polluters should pay

They have to cut something to pass the aff plan,

PayGo will be followed

Alternate causality: SQ laws not enforced.

Without enforcement they can’t solve

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