The Sierra Club has taken a state court’s rejection of its July lawsuit against the city of Columbus for dumping sewage into central Ohio’s waterways to the 10th District Court of Appeals.

The environmental watchdog claims Columbus violated the Clean Water Act because the city’s two wastewater treatment plants – Jackson Pike and Southerly – are over capacity, and as a result dumped three billion gallons of raw sewage directly into the Scioto River last year.

“It’s cheaper to dump sewage right into the river than building a sewage plant and treating it,” said Pat Marida, chairwoman of the central Ohio Sierra Club. “We want Columbus to stop breaking the law.”

Sanitary sewer overflows are an issue with the Sierra Club. According to court documents, sanitary sewer overflows “refer to an overflow, spill or release of wastewater from a sanitary sewer system.”

She said Columbus has at least 106 monitored sanitary sewer overflows, but the actual figure is closer to 900.

Marida said city officials agreed to spend $500 million to remedy sewage troubles. Rather than fixing the existing problems, the city is using the money to build new sewers in the Lockbourne area to appease developers who want to build only where sewers exist.

She said sewage has backed up into the basements of 10,000 private homes in Columbus over the past five years.

“There are probably many more than 10,000 backups because people don’t know if they should or could report them,” she said. “The city routinely denies responsibility. We think it should be Columbus’ obligation to pay because it keeps them honest.”

She said the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency is ineffective in enforcing the law.

“The last two OEPA heads have been affiliated with industry,” she said. “They are very industry friendly. The Ohio Sierra Club wants to take authority from the OEPA because they aren’t enforcing the law.”

Jim Leach, spokesman of the OEPA, said the Sierra Club and most environmental agencies hold the misconception that the OEPA is friendly with industry.

He said the OEPA enforces environmental violations of the law “within the mandates that we have.”

Leach said the OEPA has given the city of Columbus until 2005 to correct sanitary sewer overflows.

Greg Davies, spokesman for the Columbus director of public utilities, said it is financially and physically impossible to fix Columbus’ 4,000 miles of sewers overnight.

He said the city was aware a sewage problem existed and went to the regulating body of the OEPA for guidance before the Sierra Club got involved.

“The city of Columbus recognizes there is a problem,” he said. “Numerous cities across the country have a problem … Clearly we wouldn’t spend a half billion on something if it didn’t need fixed.”

Davies said 10,000 private residence sewage backups probably have occurred over the last five years.

He said the Sierra Club is quick to accuse the city without assessing the situation, when in reality a plumber or the city has to examine the problem to determine who is at fault.

Davies said the city checks reported sewage overflows and the Lockbourne sewer addition should help to alleviate problems in that area.