A proposed plan to help protect an endangered species of fish in the Delaware River could potentially lead to a major spike in water bills for Philly customers, the city’s water department claims.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently proposed a change to water quality standards in the Philadelphia portion of the Delaware River. The change would increase the levels of dissolved oxygen which fish need to breathe in order to protect the Atlantic Sturgeon, an endangered species of fish that swim up the Delaware River to spawn and lay their eggs.
Representatives for the Philadelphia Water Department claim the proposal could prove to be costly for city residents.
“To meet the proposed standards, Philadelphia is looking at a potential $3 billion price tag for new construction projects at our wastewater treatment facilities,” a PWD spokesperson wrote. “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.”
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The spokesperson wrote that the department shares the EPA’s goal of protecting Atlantic Sturgeon and improving the Delaware River. The spokesperson mentioned that construction will begin during the summer on a $70 million treatment facility that will “reduce oxygen-depleting ammonia on an efficient scale and at a reasonable price.”
The spokesperson also said, however, that the department wanted to analyze the EPA’s proposal before it’s approved.
“But 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,” the spokesperson wrote.
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Tuesday was the last day for the EPA’s public comment on the proposal.
“It seems unfair to pass that cost onto us,” Michele Tantoco, a PWD customer, told NBC10. “It is important for the people using the water to know that we have impact on the environment.”
Maya Van Rossum, an environmental attorney and activist with the nonprofit Delaware Riverkeeper Network, believes that the benefit of the regulations will outweigh any potential costs.
“When we protect the quality of the river water for the fish, we are protecting the quality of the river water for the people,” she said.
Van Rossum has been advocating for the Atlantic Sturgeon for decades.
“Amongst the biggest harms to the Atlantic Sturgeon of the Delaware River is pollution,” she said. “Pollution that’s resulting in a low-level of dissolved oxygen. So little oxygen that the Sturgeon can’t fully procreate and the young of year -- the eggs and the larva and the young of year -- can’t actually grow and survive, let alone thrive.”
Peyton Jefferson, another PWD customer, told NBC10 she knows little about the Atlantic Sturgeon and planned on learning more about the fish as well as the EPA’s proposal.
“I’m going to check it out,” she said. “I’m going to go to the EPA website and see what the concerns are and what they’re doing to address the situation.”
It likely will take a few months for the EPA to reveal more specifics about how the proposed standards could be implemented and when. As the debate over the regulations continues, Van Rossum says it’s an issue that the average Philadelphian should care about.
“If the quality of the water is not high enough to support the fish, it means we’ve got a pollution problem,” she said. “We have communities that drink this water. We have communities that swim in this water. We have communities that depend upon the aquatic life in this water.”
