Sludge Watch ==> Hamilton - sets stricter sewer use limits - but companies can buy their way out

[maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca]

Sludgewatch Admin:

It is great to see cities set up 'sewer use bylaws'.  But are they 
meaningful?
Toronto's sewer use bylaw is concentration based...so if you have excessive
contaminants...dilute and discharge!

This is reflected in the fact that other than mercury, the levels of heavy 
metals
have not significantly decreased in Toronto sludge since the bylaw was 
passed.
Some metals,  like copper...continue to increase.

And as you see from this story..Hamilton continues to allow companies to 
discharge wastewater
far in exceedence of the limits.   Hamilton and Toronto have some of the 
most contaminated sludges
in Ontario.  Copper levels in Hamilton sewage sludges have sometimes 
exceeded the limits for land application.

...................................................


http://www.hamiltonmountainnews.com/hmn/news/news_624508.html

City boss foresees 'minimal' fallout from stricter sewer limits
Bylaw to now regulate 25 organic compounds
Richard Leitner, Mountain
Jul 21, 2006

The city manager responsible for policing Hamilton's sewer intakes says it's 
too early to tell how stricter bylaw regulations will affect local industry.

Dale Millar, superintendent of regulatory services, said he expects 
"minimal" impacts from new sewer-use bylaw limits for heavy metals and 
organic compounds, but won't know for sure until his staff conducts more 
field tests.

"We don't anticipate that many companies will be affected," he said.

"Because the parameters haven't been in the bylaw previously we haven't done 
any extensive amount of sampling for them, so this is what we'll be 
undertaking at this point."

Approved by council last week, the newly revised bylaw sets more stringent 
limits on seven heavy metals and now includes 25 previously unregulated 
organic compounds.

But the changes don't touch, for now at least, the city's 30 special 
"overstrength" agreements that allow sewer users to pay a fee for exceeding 
bylaw limits. One such agreement, with VFT Canada Inc., which distills coal 
tar from the steel industry, allows phenol at 1,000 times the bylaw maximum.

Mr. Millar said he's not sure if VFT's agreement will be affected by new 
limits on previously unregulated polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons -- an 
organic compound found in coal tar that has been linked to development and 
reproductive problems and birth defects.

Unlike phenol, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons aren't broken down by sewage 
treatment processes and can wind up in the food chain, according to a 
consultant's report prepared in support of the bylaw changes.

"I can't say at this point, really," Mr. Millar said of the impact on the 
agreement with VFT, which has been in place for decades.

"We'll be going out and sampling not only the overstrength companies but a 
number of other companies that we monitor, just to ensure they're in 
compliance with the new limits," he said.

"There will have to be some lab work done to get these new tests up and 
running, and once that's done we'll start doing some sampling on the 
industries we suspect might have some issues with these parameters and 
enforce the bylaw, just as we have always done on any parameters that aren't 
in compliance."

Mr. Millar said the revised bylaw's effect on eight dumps that discharge 
into the sewer is also unclear.

A respirometry study on leachate from five city dumps found no impacts on 
the Woodward Avenue sewage treatment's biological processes, but didn't 
consider whether the discharges might violate the new sewer-use limits, he 
said.

"There again, I really can't say at this point," Mr. Millar said. "We 
haven't done any testing and I don't believe (the) waste management 
(division) has done any testing for those parameters as well."

The bylaw changes lower the limits for seven of 20 previously regulated 
heavy metals: cadmium, copper, lead, mercury, molybdenum, nickel and 
selenium. The 25 newly regulated organic compounds include PCBs, benzene, 
trichloroethylene and pesticides like DDT and chlordane.

According to a staff report, the changes reflect that the toxins "are not 
degraded, transformed or removed" by the sewage treatment process.

As a result, they are either discharged into receiving waters or wind up in 
the sewage sludge that is converted to "biosolids" for use as fertilizer on 
farm land -- a practice that could see them enter the food chain.

An accompanying consultant's report shows the Woodward Avenue plant's 
biosolids have in the past exceeded provincial standards for three of 11 
regulated metals: copper, molybdenum and selenium.

Hamilton's bylaw changes largely mirror sewer-discharge limits adopted by 
the City of Toronto four years ago, with some exceptions.

The limit for lead -- a heavy metal that in higher concentrations can damage 
nervous and immune systems and kidneys -- will still be double Toronto's 
despite being cut by more than half, to two milligrams per litre.

As well, the maximum for chromium, another heavy metal which can cause 
liver, nerve and kidney damage and in some forms is carcinogenic, is 
unchanged, remaining two and a half times Toronto's limit.

Toronto's bylaw also includes two additional organic compounds found in 
detergents suspected of affecting the hormone systems in a number of 
organisms, including fish.

The Hamilton bylaw changes are the final installment of a three-phase review 
that began in 2002 following years of persistent criticism of the city's 
sewer practices.

The first phase introduced new limits for chloride and sulphate that 
initially threatened to cut off discharges from the Taro industrial dumps in 
Stoney Creek.

An ensuing legal tiff led to operational changes at the sites, since 
purchased by Alberta-based Newalta Corp., which the city says have seen 
discharges meet the bylaw limits for those two parameters since last August.

The second phase considered treatable contaminants like oil and grease, 
suspended solids, phosphorous, nitrogen, phenols and biological oxygen 
demand, and left those limits untouched.