Sewage

Mobile home with pipe directed into the yard into a pit of standing sewage.

Closing the ‘Wastewater Gap’ in the Black Belt

Newly announced federal funding will help resolve the decades’ long sewer crisis faced by rural majority-Black communities in Alabama and Mississippi.

February 19, 2024 - Word In Black

Sepia-toned photo of flooded street with residential home

Chicago Flood Mitigation Scrambles to Keep up With Climate Change

The city’s geography and the growing intensity of storms due to climate change are making it difficult for local officials to prevent neighborhood flooding and wastewater spills.

July 20, 2023 - Governing

Water Treatment

San Diego Launches Massive Sewage Treatment Project

The ambitious Pure Water project is designed to reduce the city's dependence on imported water and limit the amount of sewage dumped into the ocean.

August 27, 2021 - San Diego Union-Tribune

Vacant Properties

The Legacy of Structural Poverty in Alabama

In rural Alabama, a long history of racial inequality and poverty has left people struggling to survive in uninhabitable housing.

November 18, 2020 - The New York Times

Mississippi River Missouri

Polluted Chicago Water Travels Over 1,000 Miles and Wreaks Havoc in the Gulf

An algae bloom in the Gulf of Mexico has resulted in an oxygen-starved area the size of Massachusetts. Part of the problem is sewage runoff flowing south from Chicago.

June 22, 2019 - Chicago Tribune

Sewer

Florida Plagued by Sewage Spills

The state’s aging sewage infrastructure is failing, but the cost to replace it would be monumental.

April 15, 2019 - GateHouse Media

Hurricane Florence Causes Coal Ash Spill at Former Coal Power Plant

The breach of the coal ash landfill by a former coal-burning power plant in Wilmington, North Carolina serves as a reminder that even after coal plants are shuttered, the by-products of the world's most polluting fossil fuel can still cause harm.

September 19, 2018 - Utility Dive

Stormwater Infrastructure

How to Keep Billions of Gallons of Sewage Out of a Waterway

The Anacostia River Tunnel is just one component of DC Water's Clean River Project, but it's already making a huge difference.

July 16, 2018 - Greater Greater Washington

San Diego Harbor

After the Drought, San Diego Faces Lead and Sewage

In 2017, the Southern California city no longer had to be concerned about water quantity, but was plagued by issues of water quality.

January 3, 2018 - Voice of San Diego

Outhouse

Sanitation Without Sewers

In much of the world, people do not have access to toilets and sewers. To make these places safer, innovators look for cheap, easy-to-install solutions.

September 29, 2017 - Next City

Louisville Provides a Case Study for Sewage Clean Up

The Courier-Journal is launching a series of reports on the city of Louisville's ongoing work to clean up its sewer system.

October 23, 2016 - Courier-Journal

St. Petersburg

St. Petersburg Struggling to Keep its Sewage out of its Bays

A writer for the Tampa Bay Times critiques the city of St. Petersburg's response to repeat storm events that have sent millions of gallons of untreated wastewater into its public waters.

July 19, 2016 - Tampa Bay Times

D.C. Turns Poop to Power

No, the title does not refer to Congress, it is meant to be taken literally: It is about the District of Columbia's sewage treatment plant that produces renewable energy by treating its biosolids with a new hydrolysis technology imported from Norway.

October 10, 2015 - The Washington Post

Sandy's Enduring Environmental and Public Health Disaster

The raw and partially treated sewage that has for the past month, and continues to, flow into the New York region's waterways "will be one of the most enduring and expensive effects of Hurricane Sandy," reports Michael Schwirtz.

November 30, 2012 - The New York Times

NYC to Pilot New System for Monitoring Sewage Discharge

New York City is taking steps to manage the dumping of raw sewage, Mireya Navarro reports.

February 23, 2012 - New York Times - Green Blog

Philadelphia's Stormwater Solution

Philadelphia is embarking on a $2 billion, 25-year project to improve the way it absorbs and processes stormwater.

August 11, 2011 - This Big City

Overflow Plant Aims to Reduce Sewage Contamination

A new sewage plant has opened in New York that hopes to reduce the amount of sewage overflow when storms overwhelm the city's combined sewage and stormwater system.

May 14, 2011 - The New York Times

Seattle Upgrading its Stormwater System to Prevent Sewage Overflows

The city of Seattle is taking on a $500 million project to update its storm drains to reduce the amount of untreated sewage that overflows into waterways during storm events.

July 15, 2010 - The Seattle Times

Seeking Solutions to Stormwater and Sewage Issues

In many cities, stormwater and sewage water are collected in the same sewer. As a result, good rainwater is combined with dirty sewage water. Overflows can create major problems for cities. But avoiding those problems is not exactly easy.

April 17, 2010 - Urban Omnibus

Portland A Hotspot for 'Stormwater Tourism'

Portland's "Green Streets" program is becoming a new tourist attraction in the city, which officials from other cities are visiting to learn from the Pacific Northwest's model water treatment infrastructure.

March 30, 2010 - USA Today

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Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools

This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.

Planning for Universal Design

Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.