Colin Crawford, MA, JD, College of Law, Georgia State University, PO Box 4037, Atlanta, GA 30302, 404-651-2058, ccrawford@gsu.edu

It is time to rethink the preference for centralized wastewater treatment. Decentralized treatment options – from gravity systems to septics – offer a wide range of alternatives adaptable to climate, topography and population density. They also tend to be less energy- and resource-intensive than centralization, are readily integrable into land use plans to maximize reuse (e.g. greywater irrigation and blackwater as fertilizer), and can equally disperse facility siting burdens. Yet public health officials consistently endorse centralized wastewater treatment infrastructure. Indeed, centralized treatment is often touted as a crowning achievement of early 20th century urban sanitation efforts. Consequently, public health authorities – and not environmental or land use regulators – typically are charged with regulatory oversight of wastewater treatment. Centralized treatment may be a public health success, but it is not environmentally friendly. Operation requires considerable financial and natural resources (e.g. infrastructure construction cost, huge water volumes to transport waste, energy to operate). Its land footprint is heavy, and it tends to be chemical intensive. Treatment facilities are typically sited in poor communities (often communities of color), raising environmental justice concerns. The challenge, therefore, is implementation of decentralized treatment without risking public health. This paper (1) examines comparative advantages of centralized and decentralized wastewater treatment, (2) reports on the findings of an empirical, 16-county study of decentralized efforts in the metropolitan Atlanta region, and (3) concludes with recommendations for public health law and regulation to manage decentralized systems.

Learning Objectives: At the end of this presentation, audience members will be able to

• Describe the public health and land use context in which centralized wastewater treatment became the favored urban wastewater infrastructure.
• Compare and contrast the advantages and disadvantages of decentralized wastewater treatment.
• Examine proposals to implement public health management and responsibility for safe and healthy decentralized wastewater treatment systems

Keywords: Environmental Justice, Environmental Health Hazards

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.