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What kinds of pollutants are in the rivers? Where do they come from?

03/13/2017  |  BY cancelprint_rfw

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Fort Wayne’s rivers are affected by multiple sources of pollution. The main categories are sediment, nutrients, bacteria/pathogens and chemicals.

Many Midwestern cities, such as Fort Wayne, collect both rainwater runoff and sanitary wastewater in the same set of sewer pipes called “combined sewers.” Sometimes when it rains, combined sewers do not have enough capacity to carry all the rainwater and wastewater or the sewage treatment plant cannot treat all of the combined flow. In this situation, the combined wastewater overflows, and in Fort Wayne’s case, it goes into one of the three rivers – creating a combined sewer overflow (CSO).

Fort Wayne is now investing in construction projects to reduce the amount of combined sewage that goes into our rivers and streams.