Stopping Sewage Overflows in Harrisburg, PA

As Pennsylvania’s capital considers plans for reducing combined sewage overflows, several cities – small and large – provide examples of successful infrastructure upgrades to end sewage overflows.  At least 700 cities and towns across the country have antiquated and leaky combined sewage and stormwater systems, including Harrisburg, Pa., which released 1.1 billion gallons of sewage and stormwater into the Susquehanna River in 2021.  Over the last three decades, dozens of cities have built effective infrastructure upgrades to reduce or eliminate their combined sewage overflows, including by building underground storage tanks.  As Harrisburg faces a new federal deadline to end its sewage overflows, Capital Region Water can look to the examples in this report as case studies on how it could solve its overflow problem.