The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is proposing more stringent limits on the bacteria level in water that the Haines wastewater treatment plant releases into Lynn Canal.
Wrangell faces a similar requirement to reduce the bacteria count in its wastewater discharge. A cost estimate this past spring put the price at $12.5 million to add equipment and upgrade the Wrangell facility to disinfect the treatment plant’s outflow.
A section of the Federal Clean Water Act allows waivers for wastewater treatment plants to operate with a lower level of treatment, avoiding expensive operations while diluting their discharge into large mixing zones of open water. Several coastal communities in Alaska, including Haines, Sitka, Petersburg, Skagway and Wrangell, have such waivers.
However, the EPA and state Department of Environmental Conservation are working to bring those wastewater plants into compliance with current environmental standards. The agencies notified Wrangell late last year that it had five years to meet the bacteria levels, which likely will involve adding a disinfection system to the treatment plant.
Haines is the next community on the waiver update list.
The Haines permit was last issued in 2001 and expired in 2006. The renewal delay was caused by a permit backlog, but Suzanne Skadowski, an EPA spokesperson, said the agency is “now striving to reissue permits every five years and Alaska facilities are a top priority.”
In May, the EPA proposed to reissue the Haines permit with new pollution limits and more testing requirements. The agency has determined that too much bacteria is going into marine waters.
Dennis Durr, the Haines borough water and sewer plant manager, said the biggest change in the draft permit is “asking for potentially chlorinating and dechlorinating wastewater” in order to comply with state water quality standards.
Even without necessarily having to chlorinate the wastewater, the additional testing, lab work and treatment processes could be a huge cost to the borough, Durr said.
Once a permit is issued, Haines has five years to comply with the new regulations. “It would take some time, (but) I don’t think anything is impossible,” said Durr.
In its comments to the EPA, the borough emphasized the potentially prohibitive costs to making the changes.
Skadowski said that cost is not an allowable consideration under the law when setting limits. Federal funds are available for communities to upgrade their wastewater treatment operations, though the grants are competitive and the amount of money available is limited.
Alaska’s coastal communities are home to more than a third of the U.S. wastewater plants still allowed to treat their sewage at the lowest and most basic level, called primary treatment, which is essentially removing solids and organic matter. As of now, there is no disinfection at the Haines or Wrangell plants.
According to EPA’s analysis, the mixing zone used in Haines is no longer adequate. Wrangell discharges its wastewater into Zimovia Strait, where it is mixed and diluted by strong flows.
Yet to come, the EPA said, are new draft permits for Skagway, Sitka, Petersburg and Ketchikan.
New permit requirements also are expected for Anchorage’s wastewater treatment operation as the EPA works to bring current all of its discharge permits.
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