Communities across the U.S. are burdened by combined sewer systems, which dump raw sewage containing harmful pathogens into public waters during wet weather. Public notification of discharges is a common strategy to reduce public health risks from exposure to contaminated waters. We helped MassDEP prepare to implement proposed regulations that would strengthen public notification requirements of combined sewer overflows in Massachusetts. Through interviews and content analysis, we characterized current municipal notification practices for these events in the Commonwealth and identified potential challenges and strategies to meet the new requirements. We recommended 9 strategies that MassDEP can use to assist Massachusetts communities as they increase their community notification practices.

• This report represents the work of one or more WPI undergraduate students submitted to the faculty as evidence of completion of a degree requirement. WPI routinely publishes these reports on its website without editorial or peer review.

Creator

• Catalino, Peter J.
• Li, Marissa
• Capucilli-Shatan, Noah P.

Subject

• Environment
• Well-Being

Publisher

• Worcester Polytechnic Institute

Identifier

• 4391
• E-project-101520-123933

Keyword

• MassDEP
• Public notification
• Combined Sewers
• Sewage
• Water pollution
• CSOs

Advisor

• Tuler, Seth
• Song, Qingshuo

Year

• 2020

Center

• Boston, Massachusetts Project Center - IQP

Sponsor

• Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection

UN Sustainable Development Goals

• 6 - Clean Water and Sanitation

Date created

• 2020-10-15

Resource type

• Interactive Qualifying Project

Rights statement

• In Copyright

License

• Creative Commons BY-NC Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International