St. Helens Proposes Local Limits for Wastewater Pollutants

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

March 28, 2018

St. Helens, Ore. - The City of St. Helens is proposing to set local limits on 13 pollutants that could cause interference, pass through, sludge contamination, or worker health and safety problems when those pollutants are discharged into the City’s sewer system. The proposed limits apply to industrial and commercial wastewater discharges.

If approved, St. Helens will impose a local limit on the levels of arsenic, cadmium, chromium, copper, cyanide, lead, mercury, nickel, oil and grease, pH, selenium, silver, and zinc that industrial and commercial businesses can discharge into the sewer system. Depending on the pollutant, these proposed local limits are based on protection of aquatic life and human health, protection of worker health and the sewer collection system, and prevention of sanitary sewer overflows.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) lists all these pollutants as potential pollutants of concern (POCs) and setting local limits is one way that municipal wastewater treatment facilities can support the federal Clean Water Act of 1972.

The City is required by federal law to periodically evaluate the need to implement and/or revise local limits to discharged pollutants from its industrial pretreatment program. The City performed its most recent evaluation in 2017 and determined that setting local discharge limits would benefit the operation of the wastewater treatment plant facility and the health of the Columbia River.

If the local limits are approved, it will require modification and/or reissuance of existing wastewater discharge permits issued to industrial users by the City.

The City of St. Helens is accepting written comments on the proposed modification to its wastewater pretreatment program. Written comments must be received by 5 p.m. on Monday, April 23, at St. Helens City Hall, 265 Strand Street, in order to be considered. The mailing address is: City of St. Helens, PO Box 278, St. Helens, OR 97051.

After the public comment deadline, the City will send the proposed modification to Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) for approval. After DEQ review, the proposal is forwarded to the EPA, and, barring any public or EPA comments that would warrant reconsideration, DEQ will issue a final approval and incorporate the modification into the City’s National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit.

Anyone interested in learning more about establishing local limits on pollutants can read the EPA’s Introduction to the National Pretreatment Program on their website: https://www3.epa.gov/npdes/pubs/pretreatment_program_intro_2011.pdf. 

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For further information regarding the proposed modification to the City’s pretreatment program, please contact Wastewater Treatment Plant Operator III/Pretreatment Coordinator Johnny Leavy at 503-397-2344 or johnnyl@ci.st-helens.or.us.