|
|
|
|
|
For Immediate Release June 5 , 2006 Clean Water Advocates Praise Local Municipality Efforts to Protect Water QualityPrairie Rivers Network, the Illinois Chapter of the Sierra Club, and Friends of the Fox River are praising the City of Sandwich for agreeing to disinfect the wastewater discharged from the City’s Sewage Treatment Plant. The plant is currently exempt from federal disinfection requirements. The plant, which treats domestic and industrial wastewater from the City of Sandwich, discharges its treated wastewater to Harvey Creek, a tributary to Little Rock Creek. The federal permit required to discharge this wastewater—known as an NPDES permit—is currently undergoing a once every five year review and renewal. The agreement regarding disinfection came during the public process associated with the renewal process. “We are very pleased that the City has agreed to address the concerns of local residents,” said Jean Flemma, Executive Director of Prairie Rivers Network. “This is the kind of cooperative public process that the Clean Water Act fosters, allowing us to improve water quality and our communities.” Under the Clean Water Act, municipal dischargers are required to disinfect their wastewater, which can include pathogens and other bacteria, unless they receive an exemption from doing so. In the late 1980’s, Illinois EPA began exempting many, if not most, municipal dischargers from the disinfection requirement because of the concern that commonly used disinfection methods of dumping chlorine into wastewater was having significant impacts on aquatic life in the streams where discharges were occurring. In addition, IEPA concluded, frequently erroneously, that people were not using the streams where discharges were occurring so human exposure to pathogens was not a concern. In the case of the Sandwich plant, the exemption from requirements to disinfect has been in effect since 1990. When the NPDES permit came up for public review this year, Prairie Rivers Network, Friends of the Fox River and the Illinois Chapter of the Sierra Club questioned whether the exemption was still appropriate for several reasons. Of particular concern, many people are known to recreate on Big Rock Creek, downstream of the Sandwich treatment plant’s discharge. At the same time, new techniques that have been developed mean that heavily chlorinated wastewater, which would harm fish and other aquatic life, need not be discharged as a by-product of disinfection. Based on concerns expressed by Prairie Rivers Network, Friends of the Fox, and Sierra Club, the new disinfection techniques, and discussions with IEPA staff, the City has concluded that it is appropriate to disinfect wastewater. The City plans to install a new system to disinfect wastewater using ultra-violet light that will begin operation in two years. The incremental cost in operations that will be required to implement this technology is a small price to pay for a cleaner, safer river, and a healthier community. |
|