1980 Needs Survey: Combined Sewer Site Studies

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is mandated by the Clean Water Act to prepare and report to the Congress a biennial estimate of the construction cost for publicly owned wastewater treatment facilities necessary to achieve the goals of the Act. This required biannual report is known as the U.S. EPA Needs Survey. Ten combined sewer site studies were conducted as part of the 1980 Needs Survey to develop transferable criteria, principles, and relationships which could be applied nationwide to estimate the cost to construct publicly owned wet-weather pollution control facilities. The site studies were performed using a receiving water simulation program called the Continuous Stormwater Pollution Simulation System (CSPSS) and an economic optimization program called the Computer Optimzied Stormwater Treatment (COST) program. It was found that wet-weather pollution control requirements are very site-specific and that CSPSS and COST were valuable tools for quantifying removal requirements and optimal control costs.