Way Downstream
Binghamton, which is situated at the confluence of the Susquehanna and Chenango rivers, discharged nearly 50 million gallons of untreated wastewater starting Aug. 13 due to so much rain, the New York’s Department of Environmental Conservation reported.
The Susquehanna, as you probably know, is the longest river in the East Coast, flowing 464 miles through Pennsylvania, into the Chesapeake Bay and on to the Atlantic Ocean.
Sewage spills carry bacteria and a host of other impurities that, we can only hope, become diluted by the time they flow our way.
We weren’t comforted when Binghamton Mayor Richard David told a radio interviewer that the discharges “will continue in the future” because the city’s sanitary system gets overwhelmed.
In Maryland, we’ve come up with the flush tax and other means to curb sewage pollution. For our sake, New Yorkers should do the same.