Your water bill could increase $265 a year under proposed EPA rule, Philly water department says

The Philadelphia Water Department (PWD) says that a proposed U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rule to increase a clean water standard in the Delaware River would cost it $3 billion to comply — a cost customers would bear.

“Without significant financial support from the state or federal government, that cost will be passed on to customers in Philadelphia’s neighborhoods through higher water bills for years to come,” PWD said in a statement issued Sunday, just days before public comments close on the federal proposal.

It estimates that the proposed regulations would cost customers an additional $22.17 per month on their water bills, not $1.50 per month as calculated by EPA. That comes out to about $265 a year, PWD said in the statement.

PWD serves over 2 million people in Philadelphia, Montgomery, Delaware, and Bucks Counties by drawing water from the Schuylkill and Delaware and cleaning it to EPA drinking water standards.

» READ MORE: Where Philly’s drinking water comes from

In December, the EPA proposed a higher standard for levels of oxygen for the 20-mile stretch of Delaware River that flows from Philadelphia to Wilmington, the most polluted stretch of the 330-mile-long waterway. The standard for river water as it runs freely is separate from the drinking water standard, which must be made safe for direct human consumption.

The EPA said that raising the level of dissolved oxygen in the water would help aquatic life thrive, including striped bass, American shad, and the federally endangered Atlantic sturgeon. It would mark the first time since 1967 that the EPA raised the bar for oxygen levels along the Philly stretch, essentially bring the Philadelphia stretch up to standards the rest of the river enjoys.

A coalition of environmental groups support the increased levels as they press officials to make all rivers, including the Delaware, clean enough to be “fishable” and “swimmable” — goals originally set for the mid-1980s, but still not achieved.

PWD wastewater treatment plants that discharge pollution into the river are responsible for much of the lower levels of dissolved oxygen in the water.

In December, agency officials said they estimated the new rule would collectively cost 20 wastewater-treatment plants that discharge into the river $137 million a year to comply.

» READ MORE: The Delaware River is going to get a lot better for fish in Philly

“PWD is trying to evade their responsibilities to address the pollution they are dumping into our river that is inflicting extreme harm,” said Maya van Rossum, leader of the Delaware Riverkeeper Network, which has long fought for higher river water standards. “In addition, PWD is wildly misrepresenting the dire circumstance of the Atlantic sturgeon that could be driven to extinction by our generation — and their actions — if we do not ensure that polluting dischargers, like the city, take responsibility for the damaging impact they are having on the Atlantic sturgeon to simply breath, let alone survive, live, and to thrive.”

She called PWD’s notice “scare tactics.”

The EPA, under the Biden administration, is proposing to raise the current standard for dissolved oxygen to protect annual fish spawning, larval development, and juvenile development from March through October.

Most summers, the Philly zone experiences low levels of dissolved oxygen, a measure of the amount of oxygen in water, which can impede fish survival.

The biggest contributor to low oxygen rates is wastewater-treatment plants, particularly nine key plants along the river, including those owned by the Philadelphia Water Department (PWD). The plants release treated wastewater into the river. The wastewater contains ammonia, which can come from meat, blood, urine, and cleaning products. Ammonia eats up oxygen in the river as it converts to nitrate. That leaves less oxygen for fish.

If the EPA rule proposal is approved, plants operated by Philadelphia, the Camden County Municipal Authority, and Wilmington would all have to comply with new permitting overseen by the state DEPs in coming years. The plants were built decades ago without a way to get rid of the large amounts of ammonia in human waste.

Philadelphia Water Department operates three wastewater-treatment plants. Its Southwest Plant is the largest discharger of ammonia into the river. The department plans this summer to start building a new $70 million facility at its Southwest Plant.

But that would not solve the problem for all the pollution.

“Before we spend big, it is our responsibility to examine the science behind the regulations, weigh the increased cost of water for all Philadelphians, and ask whether increased oxygen levels are the key to protecting sturgeon,” PWD’s statement said.

PWD suggests sturgeon can survive at current dissolved oxygen levels, and questions whether raising the level is worth the price to customers. PWD said it analyzed 5,000 sturgeon, and found they are spawning and growing in the Philly stretch of river.

The agency called the EPA’s proposal for dissolved oxygen “overly conservative” and “higher than needed to support fish propagation.”

But the Delaware Riverkeeper Network’s van Rossum, disagrees, saying PWD is “justifying” its failure to have upgraded to “basic technology” over the years, and “take responsibility for its pollution.”

She said a line of Atlantic sturgeon that exists only in the Delaware River is threatened with extinction.

“It is shameful that PWD is not only looking to evade responsibility and to mislead the public with misinformation,” van Rossum said.

The EPA is taking public comments on the rule proposal through Tuesday.