I wake up to the radio in the morning, which means that sometimes I don't really wake up when the alarm goes off. I drift in and out of sleep, catching random parts of various radio stories. Today was one of those mornings. Until I heard Bill Redlin talk about Washington DC's problem with sewer overflows. My eyes flew open.

Combined sewer overflows, or CSOs, are a problem facing many communities across the country. Combined means that both sewage and rain go to the same treatment plant. When it rains and the wastewater treatment plant can't hold the increased load, the sewer systems are designed to overflow sending polluted stormwater runoff and raw sewage into rivers and streams.

The local NPR station in Washington, DC, WAMU, has a program called Youth Voices. It teaches high school students to create stories for the radio, and encourages them to do stories on issues impacting their communities. The story I heard this morning about sewer overflows was part of this program. You can listen to it here.

If you listened to the story, you'll find that fixing the problem can be expensive. That's why we think a good first step to fixing the problem is alerting people when there are sewage overflows so they (and their pets) can atleast avoid the places where there are overflows so that they don't get sick.

If you think this makes sense, check out this video and tell us how you feel about sewage in your water.