|
DEQ gives Town until September to abide by consent order
By STEPHANIE A. JAMES/Staff Writer
Wednesday, July 16, 2008 10:58 AM EDT
The Town of Appomattox has been given a September deadline to submit a plan of action to the state's Department of Environmental Quality to resolve high copper levels at the Town's Trickling Filter Plant.
Town Manager David Garrett informed the Council on Monday of the target date.
Once an action plan is approved, the Town will have three years to come into compliance with regulations.
As the Town is working in negotiation with the DEQ on a consent order with the Town to negotiate an action plan to correct the problem.
The Town Council went into a closed-door executive session on Monday to obtain legal advice from the Town attorney in regards to coming into compliance with the Consent Order.
The town could be faced with a minimum fine of $10,000 a day if it does not get into compliance with the consent order.
According to the Town's permit, the copper discharge limit is 21 micrograms per liter.
The Town has had a problem of keeping copper levels down at the wastewater trickling filter plant since 1999, after new environmental regulations were set.
The problem is that the aggressive nature of the water causes the copper to leach from the pipes and into the wastewater.
Though there is no threat to humans, the copper filled discharge in Caldwell's Creek stream can harm fish.
The Town has been unable to consistently bring copper levels down.
Over a year ago, a temporary copper limit of 45 micrograms per liter was put into effect.
Since then the Town has come up with several possible solutions.
From April 2006 to March 2007, the monthly average copper levels were between 21.3 micrograms per liter to 33.6 micrograms per liter.
From March 2007 to May 2008, the monthly average copper levels ranged from 14.3 to 30.1 micrograms per liter.
Though the Town has been able to get the copper limits below the interim limit, the Town has struggled to keep the copper levels down below the final permit level.
The Town is scheduled to have their permit renewed in October.
There have been several options that the Town has explored to solve their copper problems.
Among current options the Town is exploring to remove metals include air stripping, chemical addition and copper removal.
Air stripping was another option involving pumping outside air through the water to get the corrosiveness out of the water.
Air stripping would cost $10,000 per well.
Another idea involves copper pipe removal, which involve remove the copper piping from homes and businesses.
In addition another idea would be copper and galvanized pipe removal, which would cost an estimated $500 to $1,000 per business or house, which would total over $1 million.
In the past as a possible solution, the town has used a sequestering agent and soda ash to make adjustments to the ph and change the hardness of the water to decrease the copper levels.
Adding soda ash costs an estimated $12,000.
But Town staff found that the soda ash did not solve the problem.
Over the past year, the Town has taken other measures to help reduce the metal levels.
Last year, the Town added a new section to the town code that limits copper piping in new buildings within the town limits.
Initially when the copper issue was addressed, officials discovered that copper was leaching from copper pipes in businesses and homes.
The problem is trickling filter plant were not designed to filter out metals, when it was first designed.
|
