One of the greatest steps forward for human health in the twentieth century was the technological advancement of water and sewerage sanitation (U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 1999).  Certain wastewater treatment system designs compromise this step forward in public health because of malfunctions occurring within the treatment system during wet weather conditions.  Those wastewater treatment systems that most commonly malfunction under these circumstances are known as combined sewer systems.  These manage sanitary sewerage from homes and businesses, and combine this with storm water sewage by running both kinds of effluents through the same piping system.  Currently there are approximately 43 million Americans in 1,100 communities that are served by combined sewer systems (EPA, 1995).  August 10, 1989 marked the issuance of the National Combined  Sewer Overflow Control Strategy by the Environmental Protection Agency.  The strategy attempts to address issues that arose from combined sewerage system malfunction.  The Environmental Protection Agency projected in May of 1995 that the costs from this abatement project for the 1,100 communities served nationwide by combined sewers would cost approximately $41.2 billion.  These costs are incurred at a local level (Speir & Stephenson, 2002), a level that many communities can not afford.  Many towns across the United States are now exploring alternative treatment methods that have more affordable budgets and provide communities with benefits that reach far out side of just providing sewerage treatment.  This webpage explores these alternatives already practiced elsewhere, and investigates their viability in the context of Portland , Maine , as a way to deal with wastewater issues that Portland currently faces.