‘Lingering, ongoing issue’
City adopts response plan for industrial waste discharge violations
Yuma has adopted a plan that outlines how the city will investigate and respond to violations involving industrial waste and other wastewater discharges.
Utilities Director Jeremy McCall presented the plan to the Yuma City Council during a Dec. 3 work session, and the council adopted it by resolution during the Dec. 4 regular meeting.
The Environmental Protection Agency requires all public treatment plants to adopt an Enforcement Response Plan as part of their approved pretreatment programs. The EPA has pointed out several times that Yuma’s ordinance does not meet the requirements of the current pretreatment regulations due to the lack of a written and defensible plan.
“It’s been an ongoing and lingering issue,” McCall said. “We’re happy we’ve made it this far in the process. It’s not something we can just author and bring to you right away. We have to go through a public hearing process and an approval process from the state.”
There is no “EPA police,” McCall pointed out. The federal agency delegates enforcement to the state, which in turn hands over the responsibility to the city.
“What they’ve done is delegate us the responsibility to take care of our infrastructure, our own staff, in the environment that we may impact regarding the sewer use,” McCall said.
The Utilities Department began developing the plan several months ago and sought input from industrial discharge stakeholders in Yuma as well as the guidance and input from the city’s Water and Sewer Commission.
The department reviewed plans from several cities. Officials found that some were “fluffed up” and decided they could achieve more with less. Ultimately, the plan they came up with is 13 pages.
The purpose of the plan is to enforce the Industrial Waste and Other Wastewater Discharges Ordinance “in an equitable and consistent manner to ensure compliance with the ordinance. Its focus is to protect public health and safety, the city’s investment in infrastructure, and the health and safety of personnel working in or on the publicly owned treatment works and the environment,” according to a staff report.
“We want to make sure we do this in a fair way,” McCall said.
However, he added, “we don’t have a lot of authority and liberties to write this as we wish. It has to have specific conditions in there.”
The plan describes how the city will investigate instances of industrial user noncompliance, cover anticipated types of industrial user violations; describe types of escalating enforcement responses the city will take for each type of violation, including time frames for each response, and identify by title the officials responsible for each type of response.
The city has 25 users, including six categorical users, 12 industrial users, seven general users. Users must obtain permits to discharge into the sewer system.
To study how the plan would impact users, the department conducted a three-year review of past violations. In 2016, two users had violations, but they would not have received enough points for a fine. Rather, they would have been given the opportunity to make corrections.
In 2017, four users had violations. Again, none would have received a fine. In 2018, one user had six violations, which would have resulted in a fine.
ADEQ has approved the plan. During a 38-day public comment period, no comments were received. After engaging stakeholders and users, the city incorporated their comments. McCall said they are “happy with it” and “everyone is in support.”
The Water and Sewer Commission discussed it at a Sept. 9 public meeting, with one of the users providing comments. The commission approved the plan on Oct. 7.
McCall, as director of Utilities Department, was then required to submit the Enforcement Response Plan to the council for approval, which it has now done.