PORT TOWNSEND — The state Department of Ecology will take public comments about the renewal of a wastewater permit for the Port Townsend Paper Corp. at a meeting tonight.
The meeting begins at 6:30 p.m. at the Elks Lodge, 555 Otto St., and is part of the comment process that ends
June 21.
“This hearing is to discuss the regular reissuance of a permit,” said Ecology section manager Garin Schrieve.
“We normally would not schedule a public hearing for this kind of permit renewal, but everything that the mill does is a matter of public interest.”
The permit is designed to protect water quality by controlling how much pollution can be discharged into an open waterway, in this case, Port Townsend Bay.
National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permits are required for industrial facilities that discharge wastewater to a bay or a river, according to an Ecology fact sheet.
Schrieve said the permits are issued for five years, but the Port Townsend mill’s last permit was issued in 2004 and expired in 2009. A labor backlog in Ecology caused the delay, Schrieve said.
Permits that are not addressed in a timely manner by Ecology stay in place until a new permit is granted or denied.
According to an Ecology fact sheet, there are several “significant” changes since the last permit was issued, including a new pH limit for the sanitary treatment plant, a compliance schedule for removal of sludge buildup from the treatment pond and development of a stormwater pollution prevention plan.
The new permit also requires a treatment-efficiency study of the treatment pond with a specific requirement to address minimization of odors from the pond.
Schrieve said the regulations are to prevent an excess of organic matter from tree waste from going into the waterway.
Such an excess can decrease the water’s oxygen content and harm the fish population, he said.
The permit covers all the wastewater discharges from the mill, and its proposed cogeneration project would have minimal impacts to the wastewater treatment system, according to Ecology, which would require a dry scrubber system to reduce the solids entering the treatment pond.
The Port Townsend mill’s $55 million, 24-megawatt biomass cogeneration expansion originally was expected to be put into operation last month, but work on the facility has been delayed until 2014 or 2015, the company said after a Dec. 10 state Court of Appeals ruling that sends a suit filed by five environmental groups to the state Supreme Court.
The suit — filed by PT Airwatchers, No Biomass Burn, the Olympic Environmental Council, the Olympic Forest Coalition and the World Temperate Rainforest Network — urges the requirement of an environmental impact statement prior to construction of the expanded facility that burns wood waste to create electricity.
The National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit discussed tonight is not related to the inert-landfill permit that is under dispute between the mill and the Jefferson County Health Department.
That will be addressed Aug. 20-21 in Ecology’s Tumwater office.
Comments about the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit can be submitted by email to PTPC.comments@ecy.wa.gov or by mail to Stephanie Ogle, Washington Department of Ecology, P.O. Box 47600, Olympia, WA 98504-7600.
Jefferson County Editor Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at cbermant@peninsuladailynews.com.
