Combined Sewer Overflow (CSO) has a big impact on local surface water quality in the Capital Region. Water Justice Lab and collaborating researchers and organizations are exploring the past, present, and future of this phenomenon and its impact on the Hudson and its tributaries.
Dr. Jennifer Cardinal of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute brought us this fascinating story about engineering, water safety, and shared resources, which we are excited to share here. This short essay is part of Dr. Cardinal’s ongoing research on this topic, which also involves exploring cities with green infrastructure to imagine climate change-related storm water mitigation in Troy. Stay tuned!
“RIVERS ARE NATURAL SEWERS”: PALMER RICKETTS AND A BRIEF HISTORY OF TROY’S COMBINED SEWER SYSTEM
By Jennifer Cardinal, published here on April 7, 2025; This is an excerpt from a work in progress, printed with permission of the author.
Troy, NY has a combined sewer system (CSS), which means our sewage and stormwater runoff travel through the same pipes. This means that every time we get heavy rainfall, we may experience a combined sewage overflow (CSO) event. When this happens stormwater overwhelms the system and sewage and stormwater are released into the Hudson River/Mahicannituck untreated. Climate change conditions have increased the instances of intense rainfall, leading to more CSO events. To dig deeper into the history of our CSS infrastructure, I visited the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute archives at Folsom Library to learn about the engineer who established this system at the turn of the century.
Former RPI president (1901-1934) Palmer Ricketts served as the Engineer of Troy’s Public Improvement Commission for several years starting in 1889. Ricketts advised the Public Improvement Commission that the combined sewer system (CSS) was the only economically feasible way to construct sewage infrastructure in Troy. In the context of the growing city of Troy at the time, his defense of the CSS centered on financial and technical challenges to separating the system: “The city is thickly built up long the Hudson river for a distance of about eight miles, and the case is further complicated at times by 15 or 20-foot floods, which back water in the sewers, overflowing some of the streets nearly half a mile from the river, and by the two large streams flowing through part of the city to the river.”[i] In 1905 when the city sent a request to the State Department of Health to construct more sewer lines because of the growing population, and Ricketts recalls that the “city was informed it could not extend its sewers without agreeing to provide a system of sewage which would keep the sewage proper separate and distinct from the surface water, as well as disposal works ‘for the purpose of purifying sewage’.”[ii]
This disagreement between Ricketts and the State Department of Health extended beyond the Troy city limits as Ricketts became an outspoken opponent of stream pollution legislation attempting to protect the Hudson waterway. The Burlingame Bill[iii]intended to mandate that upriver communities take responsibility for treating sewage before releasing it into the Hudson River. Ricketts not only opposed the proposed legislation, he wrote and distributed a pamphlet titled, Sewage and Common Sense (1909) in which he made the case that “rivers are natural sewers” and it would be ridiculous to treat water both as it goes into the river, and as it comes out again in downstream communities who use the water for drinking.[iv] His position throughout centers the indispensable expertise of engineers. Aside from what he argued was an unnecessary expense for cities like Troy, he was concerned that engineers would be left out of the conversation in favor of the State Commissioner of Health, arguing,
No city of the state discharging its sewage into a large body of water should have its growth arrested and be otherwise harassed regarding its sewage disposal until a board of competent engineers, not subject to the Commissioner of Health, has reported upon the necessity, feasibility, and cost of a treatment plant. And the opinion of such engineers upon the advisability of compelling any city to treat its sewage should have great weight, even if it does not settle the question.[v]
In addition to publishing his position on sewage and stormwater management in the Troy Times, Ricketts distributed the pamphlet to select politicians and prominent engineers at the time. In personal correspondence civil engineer Rudolph Hering praised the pamphlet, writing to Ricketts, “I am very glad indeed that your sensible and rational view is uttered from so high an institution of learning and so near the headquarters of the State Board of Health.”[vi]
As this story unfolded between 1909-1910 editorials in newspapers in the Capital Region argued for cities to unite against what they considered the imposition of a costly burden,[vii] and they praised the expertise of Ricketts, claiming, “President Ricketts of the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute has shown clearly, from an engineering standpoint, that the alleged necessity for the bill is a dream”.[viii]
From downstream in New York City, editorials suggested downstream communities affected by the “defilement of public watercourses” unite to support the bill.[ix] They raised the issue of conflicting expertise, with engineers like Ricketts who claimed it was an unnecessary expense in disagreement with “industrial chemists who testified that probably more money can be made by being clean and healthy than Prof. Ricketts can save for Troy by preserving its asserted right of being dirty itself, and a nuisance and threat to its neighbors”.[x] Ultimately the bill failed, and Troy still has a combined sewage and stormwater system.
[i] Item: Sewage Disposal and Common Sense May 28, 1909. The Palmer C. Ricketts Papers, Collection AC3, Box 30, Folder 3, Institute Archives and Special Collections, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, New York.
[ii] Ibid.
[iii] Bill No. 1280, also referenced as Wood-McKenzie [Mackenzie] Bill
[iv] Item: Sewage Disposal and Common Sense May 28, 1909. The Palmer C. Ricketts Papers, Collection AC3, Box 30, Folder 3, Institute Archives and Special Collections, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, New York.
[v] Ibid.
[vi] Rudoph Hering to Palmer Ricketts, August 16, 1909, The Palmer C. Ricketts Papers, Collection AC3, Box 30, Folder 3, Institute Archives and Special Collections, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, New York.
[vii] Troy Times April 15, 1910, The Palmer C. Ricketts Papers, Box 22, Institute Archives and Special Collections, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, New York.
[viii] The Troy Times, May 6, 1910, The Palmer C. Ricketts Papers, Box 22, Institute Archives and Special Collections, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, New York.
[ix] New York Times April 16, 1910, The Palmer C. Ricketts Papers, Box 22, Institute Archives and Special Collections, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, New York.
[x] Ibid.
