Two members of the Little Juniata River Association went before Tyrone Borough Council earlier this week to express concerns about discharges into the river and sewage plant capacity in the future.
\nThe Association\u2019s Bill Anderson expressed concerns about the effluent coming out of the plant as well as concerns regarding algae. He told council he had samples taken of the river and had requested the state\u2019s Department of Environmental Protection to do the same.
\nAnderson expressed concern about \u201cthe overload of biochemical oxygen demand\u201d coming into the plant. He noted the American Eagle Paper Mill has been in violation of its permit.
\nThe mill has a set monthly limit for the amount of BOD it is allowed to discharge under a permit issued by the Borough of Tyrone. A public notice appeared in The Daily Herald in January about industrial user violations involving the mill. The increased BOD coincided with an increase in production at the mill in August of last year.
\nAdministrative fines were imposed on the mill\u2019s operators and the public notice said that the mill is taking preventative measures to correct the violation in accordance with Tyrone Borough\u2019s enforcement response plan. The mill has been installing equipment to help bring them back into compliance.
\nThe mill plans to have 10 bio towers in place to reduce the BOD and have it returned to below the permitted monthly limit. The towers are used to consume the biochemical oxygen demand as the water goes through the tower. The procedure allows the amount of BOD to be reduced when it shows up at the treatment plant. Team Ten, LLC President John Ferner previously told The Herald the efforts are being undertaken at a cost of about $600,000.
\nFerner was asked about environmental concerns regarding the biochemical oxygen demand.
\n\u201cThere\u2019s nothing hazardous about it,\u201d said Ferner. \u201cIt\u2019s just that the amount increases the cost to treat it to the borough.\u201d
\n The mill\u2019s permit allows it to discharge 5,700 pounds a day. Ferner said the discharge has been running at 6,500 pounds (as of mid-February). He said when all ten of the bio towers are up and running the BOD should be reduced to 4,000 pounds a day.
\nAt Monday\u2019s meeting, Anderson said he knew the mill was doing something about the BOD issue but he contended, \u201cThe river is suffering at the moment \u2013 there will be a biological effect.\u201d
\nAnderson also voiced another concern during the public comment period at the meeting.
\n\u201cWe are very concerned that the capacity at the plant has been overcommitted,\u201d said Anderson.
\nHe cited Tyrone Borough\u2019s decision to sell capacity to the Northern Blair County Regional Sewer Authority in 2004. He noted the capacity would help facilitate growth and development in the watershed area.
\nAnderson claimed, \u201cThis will affect and intensify every storm we get here in Tyrone.\u201d
\nAnderson said if Tyrone continues to \u201cfacilitate the development in the Pinecroft area of the Little Juniata\u201d, the next flood would create water a foot higher in the downtown area than the one that hit the town in September of 2004.
\nNulton and the Borough\u2019s consulting engineer responded to Anderson\u2019s concerns and those expressed by Association member Gary Miller.
\nNulton said he had met with DEP at the plant earlier on Monday and detailed some of the issues the plant has had. Myers detailed the plant\u2019s capacity capabilities.
\nNulton told The Daily Herald on Thursday of this week that the plant had encountered problems with bacteria and sludge was not settling properly. Nulton explained the problem involves filamentous or \u201chairlike bacteria.\u201d
\nHe said the bacteria can be seen through a microscope and chlorine is used at the plant to deal with it. He noted the chlorine does not go into the river. He said the bacteria causes the effluent being discharged to have a cloudy appearance.
\nNulton said the discharge is still within permit limits.
\n\u201cIt takes a good week to turn it around and it\u2019s starting to look better,\u201d said Nulton.
\nA press spokesperson for the DEP, John Repetz, confirmed the agency\u2019s visit to the plant earlier this week.
\nRepetz said, \u201cThe (bacteria) problem was discovered middle or late last week. The Fish and Boat Commission took some samples over the weekend. (A DEP official) went out on Monday and took some additional samples.\u201d
\nRepetz said when he talked to a DEP official from the Altoona District office earlier this week the results of the tests were not yet known.
\n\u201cFrom what he told me, apparently it looked like (from) the samples the Fish and Boat Commission took, things were well within the permitted limits,\u201d said Repetz.
\nRepetz said the local DEP official told him the bacteria problem was under control and it was getting better.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s just a matter of time before the cloudiness clears up,\u201d said Repetz.
\nNulton also addressed concerns regarding algae and noted the river is full of algae around the area of the Ninth Street walk bridge.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s everywhere (around the bridge), there\u2019s nothing like that at the plant.\u201d
\nHe said one reason things may be more noticeable is \u201cthe river flow is so low.\u201d
\nNulton pointed out the issues are \u201cnot a surprise to DEP and the state\u2019s fish commission.\u201d He said Tyrone is scheduled to have an expert who deals with domestic wastewater treatment and pulp paper come to the plant. He said he is hopeful the expert can advise him on how to do certain things differently.
\nIn regard to capacity sold to Northern Blair, Nulton said it has been figured into the plant\u2019s calculations. He said when there are expansions or growth such as the proposed Wal-Mart in Antis Township; the Borough has to sign off on the project stating it has the capacity to handle it. He reiterated comments made by Myers at the meeting by stating that flow from Wal-Marts are generally low.
\nHe also said decisions about growth are made at other levels such as by the county, other townships, etc. He explained the waste plant deals with treating what comes in as long as it is within permitted levels or a permitted substance.
\nNulton said the plant is authorized for 16,000 pounds of BOD per day and currently is taking in about 12,000 pounds. He said the plant has a capacity of 13 million gallons a day and currently treats about seven million gallons a day.
\nIn a brief follow-up interview yesterday regarding the paper mill\u2019s efforts to reduce the BOD, Nulton said he had been told eight bio towers were in place and up and running. He said the mill had remained out of compliance in January while the status for February was still unknown. The paper mill\u2019s Ferner was out of town on Friday and unavailable for additional comment.
\n\u201cIn my 28 years, there are very few times that DEP has been here,\u201d said Nulton. \u201cThese things happen because we have an industry in town.\u201d
\nNulton said he would welcome a visit by Mr. Anderson to the plant.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Two members of the Little Juniata River Association went before Tyrone Borough Council earlier this week to express concerns about discharges into the river and sewage plant capacity in the future. The Association\u2019s Bill Anderson expressed concerns about the effluent coming out of the plant as well as concerns regarding algae. He told council he […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-41570","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news-in-the-tyrone-pennsylvania-area"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41570","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=41570"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41570\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=41570"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=41570"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=41570"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}