Sludge Watch ==> Raleigh NC: City overapplies sludge for years - now wants pollution waiver

[Maureen Reilly]

Sludgewatch Admin:

This is a shocking situation.  Massive sludge overapplication. The state 
knows about it.
Now there is groundwater contamination...and the City doesn't want to 
remediate.

A similar situation exists outside Barstow California, where sewer wastes 
were overapplied and didn't have the required permits from San Bernardino 
County.  Now there is nitrate contamination of groundwater there, too.

Sludge spreading can cause huge environmental and health damages.  There 
needs to be a stop to putting these contaminated wastes on farm soils.   
Enforcement of environmental regulations is a start, since cities are 
polluting with impunity.

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Published: Oct 02, 2007

Raleigh wants cleanup waiver
Faces $80 million bill in sewage mess

Wade Rawlins, Staff Writer


Pollution from treated sewage would leak for decades into the Neuse River 
under a plan the city of Raleigh wants the state to approve.
Raleigh officials are asking for a waiver from state rules that would 
require an $80 million cleanup of widespread groundwater contamination 
around its Neuse River sewage-treatment plant. The city argues essentially 
that time and nature will eventually scrub the fields and groundwater of 
pollutants.

For years, workers at the plant spread too much treated waste sludge on farm 
fields around the plant, despite warnings from the state. The city was 
eventually fined and ordered to develop a cleanup plan. Now, the groundwater 
beneath more than 1,100 acres of fields is contaminated with high levels of 
nitrates, which can harm humans and trigger fish kills downstream near the 
coast.

Since the problem came to a head in 2002, the state suspended the city's 
permit to spread more sludge on the fields. The city has spent more than $40 
million improving the operation of the plant and has turned a higher 
proportion of the plant's sludge into fertilizer and compost. Some treated 
waste is trucked to Duplin and Sampson counties and spread on farms there.

But city officials say ringing the entire site in southeastern Wake County 
with hundreds of wells to collect and treat the groundwater would cause a 
financial hardship, costing nearly $80 million.

Instead, city leaders propose to spend about $8 million to build 40 recovery 
wells. That would clean up 20 acres nearest housing subdivisions close to 
the plant.

The city wants natural degradation to gradually clean up the areas where 
monitoring wells show the highest concentrations of nitrogen -- amounts up 
to 18 times the maximum allowed under state law. Some of those fields border 
the Neuse River.

City officials say the approach poses no risk to public health because 
nearby residents have been hooked to municipal water and the contamination 
will be monitored. High levels of nitrates in drinking water can be toxic to 
infants, who have undeveloped digestive systems that can't break down the 
pollutants. As a result, oxygen levels fall in the blood, leading to a 
condition known as blue baby syndrome.

"There is no public health impact for spending tens of millions of dollars 
on a remediation system," said Steve Levitas, a lawyer representing the 
city.

But some residents near the spray fields say the city is skirting state 
environmental standards.

"They were issued a permit, and along with that permit came a lot of rules 
and regulations about how they should conduct their business," said Phillip 
Douglas, a retired electronics engineer who lives near the plant. "One of 
the rules prohibits natural attenuation, which means letting nature clean up 
your mess. When they messed up and found out how much money it's going to 
cost to clean it up, they want a variance."

Douglas, who opposes the city's plan, said state regulators should be the 
guardians of the state's water quality and should not take cost into 
account.

The state Division of Water Quality is taking public comments through Oct. 5 
on the city's request for the waiver from state rules. The state 
Environmental Management Commission, a 19-member panel appointed by the 
governor and legislative leaders, is expected to hear Raleigh's request in 
November.

City's rationale

Raleigh contends its plan would keep it below its limit for nitrogen 
discharge into the river. It has sharply reduced its nitrogen discharges in 
the past decade, so it has unused discharge capacity. Jay Zimmerman, 
regional supervisor for the state's aquifer protection section, said the 
city's approach has technical merit because of the practical complications 
of trying to remove groundwater from the overall site.

"The way I have explained it is if they were discharging 500,000 pounds of 
nitrogen into the river, whether or not it was the right thing for the 
river, they would be in compliance with their permit," Zimmerman said. 
"We're not saying it's the best choice."
He said the city had not considered another alternative -- to clean up the 
most contaminated areas in addition to the areas near subdivisions.

Dean Naujoks, the Upper Neuse Riverkeeper, an environmental advocate, said 
state environmental regulators should not give the city a waiver because the 
pollution will harm the river.

"Raleigh's groundwater pollution contributes more nitrogen per year to the 
Neuse River than the towns of Apex, Benson, Butner, Cary, Clayton, Wake 
Forest and Zebulon combined," Naujoks said, noting that Johnston County 
could be added in, too, and Raleigh would still be the leading nitrogen 
polluter. "The bottom line is they should be required to offset their 
nitrogen pollution that is entering the river from contaminated 
groundwater."

In addition to being harmful to infants, nitrogen causes excessive algae 
growth, which can rob the water of oxygen as it dies and cause fish kills, 
hampering sport and commercial fishing. The Neuse has shown stress 
downstream from too much nitrogen-rich treated sewage and fertilizer runoff 
from farms.

Since massive fish kills in the 1990s, which led to the Neuse's being 
classified as sensitive to nitrogen, state environmental officials have 
tried to reduce the amount of nitrogen entering the river from 
sewage-treatment plants and farming by 30 percent. The city of Raleigh has 
sharply reduced its nitrogen discharge into the river.

"We don't like to have any more nitrogen in the Neuse than we can help," 
said Walter B. Hartman Jr., city manager of New Bern, which is near the 
stretch of the river where fish kills have historically occurred. "We're not 
throwing stones. We just need to take a close look at it -- make sure there 
is not a better way."

http://www.newsobserver.com/news/story/723119.html