Looming sewer decree could cause spike in water bills

Michael Riggs works to repair a sewer line in the 5400 block of Pardee Street in Houston, TX on Saturday, June 11, 2016. Michael Riggs works to repair a sewer line in the 5400 block of Pardee Street in Houston, TX on Saturday, June 11, 2016. Photo: Tim Warner, For The Chronicle Photo: Tim Warner, For The Chronicle Image 1 of / 5 Caption Close Looming sewer decree could cause spike in water bills 1 / 5 Back to Gallery

Years of Houston's cracked, clogged or flooded sewer pipes belching raw waste into residents' yards and city streets have City Hall facing a federal decree that sources say could force the city to invest $5 billion in upgrades.

As in dozens of cities across the country, the looming Environmental Protection Agency mandate likely will force Houstonians to pay sharply higher water bills to fund the improvements.

Many of Houston's sewer overflows reach local bayous and breed bacteria. These violations of the Clean Water Act create health risks severe enough that experts advise against swimming in local waterways, 80 percent of which fall short of water quality standards for fecal bacteria.

Rather than face a lawsuit from the EPA, which enforces the Clean Water Act, city officials have spent the last few years negotiating a so-called consent decree, a binding agreement that specifies projects aimed at reducing spills by upgrading pipes, ramping up maintenance and educating the public on how they can avoid clogging Houston's 6,700 miles of sewers, such as not pouring grease down the drain.

Mayor Sylvester Turner acknowledged the negotiations are "significant" and said he has discussed the decree directly with EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy.

"We are not opposed to making improvements, but we want the costs to be reasonable and spread out over the next 20 years so we can avoid any dramatic spiking of ratepayer rates," Turner said. "Negotiations are ongoing on all fronts."

Brent Fewell, an environmental consultant and former top official in the EPA's water division, said Houstonians should expect to pay more, noting some cities under consent decree have seen rates increase two to 2.5 times.

The decree would be only the latest state or federal mandate forcing Houston to upgrade its sewer system, which has lagged since the city's postwar boom and even resulted in a "sewer moratorium" that restricted the city's growth in the 1970s.