Summer Sewage Spills & Swimming Advisories

What You Need to Know About Pollution In The Water This Summer

On hot summer days, many people seek to cool off and have some fun at the nearest beach, lake, or river.

But what happens when a refreshing dip becomes a health hazard?

Across the country, sewage spills and overflows are forcing communities to issue swimming advisories that can turn a sunny day on the water into a public health concern.

Watch out for Fecal Matter Contamination

In 2024, more than 60 percent of U.S. beaches had potentially unsafe contamination levels, according to a new report published by Environment America’s Research & Policy Center.

That means 1,930 out of 3,187 beaches experienced at least one day on which indicators of fecal contamination reached potentially unsafe levels, which means they exceeded EPA’s most protective “beach action value,” a conservative, precautionary tool states can use to make beach notification decisions. Beaches may also have experienced contamination on days when testing did not take place.

About 1 in 7 beaches, 453 of those sampled, showed potentially unsafe fecal contamination on at least 25 percent of the days on which testing occurred, according to the report.

The Gulf Coast had the largest share of beaches with at least one unsafe day at 84 percent, followed by the West Coast with 79 percent, and the Great Lakes with 71 percent.

This year, during July 4th weekend, a swimming advisory was issued at Rehoboth Beach, a popular beach destination in Delaware. The advisory was put out due to above-average levels of fecal bacteria found in the water during routine testing, according to DNREC officials. Increased levels of bacteria can often show up after periods of heavy rainfall.

Swimming in polluted waters can cause a range of health issues from gastrointestinal distress to respiratory disease, ear and eye infections, and skin rashes.

Each year, about 57 million cases of illness in the U.S. come from swimming in oceans, lakes, rivers, and ponds, and most of those cases go unreported.

Contaminated water can also trigger health warnings or closures that interfere with our ability to enjoy the water. States, territories and tribes issued more than 7,500 health warnings or closures at U.S. coastal and Great Lakes beaches in 2024, impacting one out of every 15 swimming days, according to EPA data.

Where does all this pollution come from? One of the main sources is overflow from outdated and deteriorating sewage systems. Gross, right?!

Sewage is a particularly dangerous threat to beach safety because it contains bacteria, viruses, and parasites that can cause disease in humans. Unfortunately, sewage infrastructure around the country is inadequate or in poor repair, enabling raw sewage to find its way into our waterways.

Sanitary sewers (the most common in our country) overflow up to 75,000 times each year in the U.S.

Fecal pollution from livestock production is also responsible for water pollution, especially in areas with factory farms, also known as concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs), because of the sheer volume of manure they generate. Lagoons holding waste from hog and dairy farms can also be inundated during heavy rains, carrying their contents into local waterways.

Get a load of this shit.

Failing infrastructure is everywhere but we continue to get distracted by other BS.

Congress is the midst of reconsidering funding for the main federal program that could help reduce sewage overflows. It’s called the Clean Water State Revolving Fund (CWSRF).

Last year the EPA reported that this program needs at least $630 billion in the next 20 years to provide sufficient treatment to the country’s wastewater and stormwater infrastructure.

Sadly, that same fund could face steep cuts under the White House’s 2026 budget proposal, decreasing funds to $305 million total to “allow States to adjust to alternative funding sources for their water infrastructure.” That’s $2.46 billion less than the 2025 budget, or an almost 90 percent reduction.

The National Association of Clean Water Agencies said this proposal puts clean water agencies and public health at risk by “kneecapping the primary water infrastructure financing programs on which local utilities rely.”

Now let’s talk about what happened this weekend in Virginia. More than a million gallons of raw sewage spilled out of the wastewater treatment facility into the James River thanks to a power failure from faulty wiring.

Sewage spills are not just accidents. They are often the result of aging infrastructure, extreme weather, and overwhelming demand on treatment systems

Hopewell Water Renewal personnel and contractors “successfully restored full operational capacity” by late Saturday afternoon to the facility, repairing the faulty wiring that led to the power failure and ultimately the spill.

A permanent repair is scheduled for July 18, according to a statement from the city spokesperson Ginger Holland. She also confirmed that there was no disruption to residential sewer service, and the drinking water supply remains safe.

While the leak has been contained, the Virginia Department of Health did issue a recreational swimming advisory for Gravely Run Creek and both sides of the James River from City Point down to Berkeley Plantation in Charles City County, meaning people should avoid swimming, wading, and paddle-boating in the water.

In 2024, more than two-thirds of the water treated by Hopewell Water Renewal came from industrial sources, contaminated with different chemicals than domestic sewage. VPM reports that a state Department of Environmental Quality spokespersons said initial reports indicate only the domestic intake was affected, meaning no industrial waste was discharged.

In the 1970s, the sign that greeted anyone driving into the city, read, “Welcome to Hopewell, Virginia, the Chemical Capital of the South.”

In the summer of 1975, Hopewell made national headlines when a toxic pesticide known as Kepone was discovered as the source of a mysterious illness afflicting workers at a local manufacturing plant. The facility had also been dumping tens of thousands of gallons of Kepone waste daily into Bailey’s Creek, causing fisheries in the lower James River to be shut down for up to 13 years afterward. Read more about it here.

Riverkeeper Tom Dunlap with the James River Association told VPM the recent spill shows a continued need to invest in wastewater management.

“We need to not only better invest in our infrastructure, whether it's wastewater infrastructure or otherwise, but also need a little bit more resilient infrastructure,” he said.

The Department of Environmental Quality is investigating the incident and will be working with the plant to find solutions to prevent future leaks.

Always check local health department websites or social media for current water quality advisories before heading to the beach or a local lake or river.

If you’re unsure about water quality, look for warning signs like unusual odors, discolored water, or visible debris. Avoid swimming in areas near storm drains, marinas, or industrial facilities where contamination is more likely.

Tips For If You Come In Contact With Contaminated Water

• Avoid any area of the waterbody where there is water with a foul or chemical odor, dead or dying fish, or discolored water.

• Promptly wash skin with soap and water if you cannot avoid contact with water in the vicinity.

• Rinse or wash items that come in contact with the water, including clothing, fishing gear, life vests, ropes and paddles.

Sewage spills will most likely continue to happen until we put more money to fix our infrastructure and improve our monitoring programs.

Public awareness can help minimize their impact on the water activities we love.

More Considerations To Protect Our Waterways

We must invest in fixing and improving our wastewater infrastructure. This work includes repairs and upgrades to conventional sewage treatment plants and stormwater storage, as well as natural and green infrastructure features such as rain barrels, permeable pavement, urban green space and green roofs; requiring the use of green infrastructure in new development; and protecting natural infrastructure such as riparian areas and wetlands that filter pathogens and other pollutants. Officials should also enforce pollution limits from wastewater systems and ensure proper maintenance of residential septic systems.

We need to prevent manure pollution by enacting moratoriums on new or expanded industrial-scale livestock operations; banning livestock waste lagoons, especially in flood-prone areas; enacting policies to stop manure from factory farms from flowing into waterways upstream from our beaches; and encouraging livestock operations to raise animals on rotational pasture.

We must continue to protect wetlands, which reduce beach contamination by absorbing floodwaters and filtering out pollutants. State and local protections for our remaining wetlands are increasingly urgent after the Supreme Court decision in Sackett v. EPA erased Clean Water Act safeguards for many of them.

We can continue to expand and improve beach/river/lake testing to identify waterways where pollution puts public health at risk and ensure the safety of the public.

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Any sewage spills near you? Let us know your swimming plans for the summer and stay safe out there!