DOE fields questions about former Alcoa site

Wednesday, 07 October 2009

Application of wastewater to proceed BY JAMIE HENNEMAN S-E Staff Reporter The Department of Ecology Industrial Permitting Section was in Addy last week to field questions from residents about the DOE plan to let the former Alcoa plant (now known as Northwest Alloys) discharge wastewater to alfalfa fields bor¬dering the site. The magnesium smelter that employed 325 people closed in 2001 due to “high production costs and unfavorable market conditions,” according to in¬dustry reports. Over 30 residents, many of them neighbors to the plant, attended the Oct. 1 meeting to find out how this special one-time permit of wastewater from the plant could affect them and the area landscape. DOE Industrial Section Unit Supervisor Kim Wigfield ex¬plained what the current situa¬tions is at the plant and how letting NWA irrigate immediately could prevent an environmental situation. Permit in 2003 “In 2003 we issued NWA a state waste discharge permit to apply wastewater to the alfalfa fields that border the plant,”  Wigfield explained.  “Although the plan was for the land appli¬cation to be temporary because the hope was to sell or restart the plant, NWA had to apply for a permit renewal in 2008 be¬cause neither or those things happened,” Wigfield said. “How¬ever, due to some complaints we received about the irrigation, we held off renewing that permit until we could do further inves¬tigation. We asked NWA to vol¬untarily discontinue discharging the water in the fall of 2008, which they did. As a result, the holding ponds at the plant are now full and will overflow if the water is not discharged.” Wigfield said NWA expects an additional 30 million gallons of water via precipitation in the coming year that would cause an overflow of their ponds, po¬tentially ruining reclamation work already done. The excess water could also increase water levels below an area called the “environmental landfill” and cause the contamination of sur¬rounding groundwater. Wigfield said DOE will let NWA turn the water on as soon as possible, since the corpora¬tion shouldn’t incur damage due to DOE delays. “Due to funding cuts, we have been really overloaded and we don’t want to see an environ¬mental situation due to inac¬tion,” she said. Questions from the community Many community members had questions about exactly how the discharge process would work and the effect on their neighboring properties. Neighbor Lois Greenman said she is concerned that runoff from the irrigation could get into her domestic well, since it ap¬pears the irrigation has already caused a boggy area on her property. Other attendees, like neighbor and Stevens County Commis¬sioner Merrill Ott, had questions about the permitting process that seems to be letting NWA have special privileges in re¬gards to meeting regulations. “You are telling us that there is no interconnection between aquifers in this area, but an¬other branch of Ecology insists that there is and therefore won’t issue any new water permits. Why should NWA be able to irri¬gate when there are local people who have been waiting in line for 19 years?” he asked. Wigfield said DOE is not is¬suing the plant a new water permit and that the industrial permitting section is “completely different” than regular water rights. Ott was also concerned that the DOE permit does not ad¬dress the Stevens County Growth Management Plan that requires the protection of wet¬lands. An area near the NWA alfalfa fields could be classified as a wetland under county regulations. Wigfield said DOE would check on it and include a provi¬sion that NWA meet any county regulations or setbacks per¬taining to wetlands. Other attendees were skepti¬cal about the safety of discharge water coming from the plant, in¬cluding a man who said he filed a complaint with DOE in 2003 over high Ph levels in the south ditch of the plant. “In the water we’re floating things that looked like cow dung,”  the man said. “I’ll tell you it was terrible looking stuff.” The man claimed he had the ditch water tested on his own and it showed high levels of ar¬senic and acetone. Wigfield said she remembered the complaint, but couldn’t re¬member the outcome and would look into it. She did note that the water many people are concerned about, the water from “Pond 3,” will not be used to ir¬rigate at this time. “When the plant was func¬tioning, all of the wastewater was reused in the smelting process and no wastewater was discharged,”  Wigfield said.  “When the plant closed, the water used in processing was stored in pond 3,” she ex¬plained. “That water will not be used in this application and NWA has submitted a separate application for that pond.” Addy area dairy farmer Pete Rausch had different concerns. “I am a livestock person who applies animal waste to my land and if we keep putting regula¬tions on operations that safely discharge like wastewater treatment plants or farms, we are going to open a real can of worms,” he said. “I don’t want people from out of the area to come in here and make for an unpleasant working environ¬ment.” Chides DOE for de¬lay in application process Mark Hopkins, who is cur¬rently helping to farm the alfalfa fields, agreed. “Call me crazy, but it seems like if DOE would have gotten the application process done sooner, we wouldn’t have to have a meeting about applying irrigation water out of season,” he said. Although no one from NWA was at the meeting to answer questions, representatives from the independent firm that does their environmental planning and consulting were on hand. Steven Venner from Cascade Earth Sciences said the testing at the plant and its monitoring wells occurs quarterly at that the teams at CES go over the data with “a fine tooth comb.” “CES has worked for North¬west Alloys since 1994 and we oversee the land application system along with testing rec¬ommendations and water appli¬cations,” said Venner. “The ap¬plication of this wastewater and its beneficial nutrients is not just about what the crop needs for maximum yield, but what are we able to discharge so it doesn’t hurt the crop or the groundwater but provides a beneficial reclamation process. As far as the quality of the hay goes, we have it tested and it looks good. You can get a luxury of consumption of certain min¬erals without causing harm.” The quarterly testing done by CES includes water and soil samples collected independently by NWA and then sent to CES for analysis. Although CES per¬sonnel are not in the field over¬seeing the collection, Venner said it would be hard to be de¬ceitful about samples. “If someone were trying to sneakily submit a false sample, I would know it by looking at the data,” he said. “As an inde¬pendent firm, our reputation is on the line here, so we are pretty careful about how the data is processed and recorded.” Venner said CES cannot de¬termine for certain how much longer the hay fields can be used before a rotational crop may need to be put in, but that they are carefully monitoring it. “We will be watching the fields, but there is no data out there that shows how much longer our current process will work,”  Venner noted.  “The fields won’t die overnight, but as they show a decrease in yield, we will know it is time to change the management plan.” Darren McCanna, who also farms the hayfields for NWA, said the fields currently yield six tons of alfalfa to the acre. At the close of the meeting, Wigfield suggested NWA could start irrigating the next day, but that there would be opportunity for public comment before a re¬newal permit is officially issued. For more information, call the DOE at 360-407-6931.

Last Updated ( Wednesday, 14 October 2009 )