Work

Policy Brief: Addressing CSO spills

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: Sewage discharges from Combined Sewer Overflow (CSO) structures into receiving waters can prevent floods in urban areas but can also harm ecosystems and public health. In many countries there is a lack of reliable data on their operational frequency and pollution loads released. Assessing the impact of CSOs is challenging, emission-based rules that focus on the number of spills per year are insufficient to quantify environmental harm and lack of continuous information on the receiving water makes impact-based regulations hard to enforce. In this Policy in Brief we present the current status and some policy recomendations to address CSO spills.

Source: DORA Eawag (Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology (Eawag))

DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.15081106

Authors: Anta, Jose, Moreno Rodenas, Antonio, Rieckermann, Jörg, Schellart, Alma, Tait, Simon

Institutions: Universidade da Coruña, Deltares, Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology, University of Sheffield

Language: English

Topic: Urban Stormwater Management Solutions

Subfield: Environmental Engineering

Field: Environmental Science

Domain: Physical Sciences

SDGs: Clean water and sanitation, Sustainable cities and communities

Open Access status: green

Funders: European Commission, Research Executive Agency