Nitrogen from sewage-treatment plants, along with other nutrient
sources, are known to trigger plankton blooms that lead to
dangerous low-oxygen conditions in Puget Sound — a phenomenon that
has been studied for years.
Nitrogen sources used to
predict future water-quality in the Salish Sea Model
Map: Washington Department of Ecology
Now state environmental officials are working on a plan that
could eventually limit the amount of nitrogen released in sewage
effluent.
The approach being considered by the Washington Department of
Ecology is a “general permit” that could apply to any treatment
plant meeting specified conditions. The alternative to a general
permit would be to add operational requirements onto existing
“individual permits” issued under the National Pollutant Discharge
Elimination System, or NPDES.
The general permit would involve about 70 sewage-treatment
plants discharging into Puget Sound. Theoretically, an overall
nitrogen limitation would be developed for a given region of the
sound. Treatment plant owners could work together to meet that
goal, with the owner of one plant paying another to reduce its
share of the nutrient load.
The Manchester Wastewater Treatment Plant has done it again,
earning a perfect performance award for compliance with its state
water-quality permit.
The Manchester plant, operated by Kitsap County, remains ahead
of the pack, being the only sewage-treatment plant in Washington
state with a perfect score since the Department of Ecology launched
its Outstanding Performance Awards program in 1995. That’s 23
years.
Port Townsend Wastewater Treatment Plant has maintained perfect
performance for 20 years, and six plants have reached that level
for 10 consecutive years. For this year alone, 111 treatment plants
achieved perfect scores — about a third of all the plants in the
state.
UPDATE, March 10, 2016
I’ve added links for three previous reports related to the
degradation of pharmaceuticals and personal care products.
—–
Concerns are growing about medications and person-care products
that pass through sewage-treatment plants and into Puget Sound,
where the chemicals can alter the physiology and behavior of fish
and other organisms.
Almost everywhere scientists have looked, they have found drugs
that people have either flushed down the drain or passed through
their bodies. Either way, many active pharmaceutical compounds are
ending up in the sewage at low levels. Conventional
sewage-treatment plants can break down up to 90 percent or more of
some compounds, but others pass through unaltered.
Now, researchers are working on a process that would use
specialized bacteria to break down pharmaceutical compounds at
existing sewage-treatment plants. The idea, developed by
researchers at the University of Washington, is ready for a limited
pilot project at one of the treatment plants in the Puget Sound
region.
Heidi Gough, left, and
Nicolette Zhou with a table-top sewage-treatment plant in the
lab.
UW photo
Studies into this issue began more than 20 years ago, when it
became clear that all sorts of compounds were passing through
sewage-treatment plants and getting into the environment. Among the
early findings was that male fish exposed to artificial
birth-control hormones were changing into female fish. Later
studies showed that common antidepressant medications seemed to be
changing the behavior of fish, making them easier targets for
predators.
In addition to estrogens and antidepressants, researchers have
found blood thinners, cholesterol-reducing drugs, various heart
medications, several hormones and painkillers, along with caffeine,
cocaine and various cosmetic and cleansing chemicals.
A study funded by the
Environmental Protection Agency looked for 56 active
pharmaceutical compounds in sewage effluent from 50 major treatment
plants around the country, finding significant levels of many
compounds.
A new study by NOAA’s Northwest Fisheries Science Center and the
University of Washington looked at 150 compounds coming from two
sewage treatment plants in Puget Sound. They were Bremerton’s plant
on Sinclair Inlet and Tacoma’s plant on Commencement Bay. They also
tested the local waters along with juvenile chinook salmon and
Pacific staghorn sculpin to see if the fish were picking up the
compounds.
According to a
NOAA news release, the study “found some of the nation’s
highest concentrations of these chemical compounds and detected
many in fish at concentrations that may affect their growth or
behavior.” For additional reporting on that study, check out the
Kitsap Sun story by Tristan Baurick and the
Seattle Times story by Lynda Mapes.
These chemicals could be having effects on various animals in
the food web — from benthic organisms that live in the sediments to
marine mammals — but more study is needed. Complicating the
situation is that multiple pharmaceutical chemicals may work
together to create different effects, depending on their
concentrations and the affected organism.
Many people would argue that we have enough information to
dramatically increase our efforts to remove these compounds from
wastewater going into Puget Sound. Drug take-back programs have
been started in many cities and counties throughout Puget Sound to
encourage people not to flush unused pills down the toilet or
drain. See the
Take Back Your Meds website. Still, Washington state has yet to
develop a comprehensive statewide program that would cover
everyone.
Meanwhile, nobody can say what percentage of the drugs going
into the treatment plants were dumped down the drain versus being
excreted from the human body. But it wouldn’t matter as much if the
chemicals could be eliminated at the sewage-treatment plant.
More than a decade ago, Heidi Gough of the UW’s Department of
Civil & Environmental Engineering began working on the development
of bacteria that could break down these chemicals of concern. She
and her colleagues have isolated cultures of bacteria that can
break down triclosan, an antimicrobial; bisphenol A, a plasticizer;
ibuprofen, an anti-inflammatory drug; 17β-estradiol, a natural
hormone; and gemifibrozil, a cholesterol-lowering drug.
The process of isolating helpful bacteria and boosting their
numbers could theoretically be used to break down almost any
chemical of concern. To be suitable, the bacteria must 1) break
down the target chemical to a very low level, 2) grow well in
common growth media without the target chemical, 3) break down the
chemical even when other nutrient sources are abundant, and 4) work
quickly within the normal rate of sewage treatment.
Nicolette Zhou, a former UW graduate student, worked with Heidi
to successfully develop a bench-top treatment plant to test the
process. Nicolette also produced a computer model of how the
operation would perform at a large-scale treatment plant. She
completed her analysis and received her doctorate degree last fall.
Her latest findings are now awaiting publication in a scientific
journal.
Degradation of triclosan and bisphenol A by five bacteria,
Pub
Med.
Cultivation and characterization of bacteria capable of
degrading pharmaceutical and personal care products, Pub Med.
Other systems have been proposed for breaking down complex
pharmaceuticals, such as advanced oxidation or other chemical or
physical treatment. But biological breakdown offers the most hope
in the short term,
because it is how most
sewage-treatment plants workcan be implemented quickly without
major modifications and appears to be economical on a large
scale, Nocolette told me.
In a large-scale system, the first step would be to identify the
specific contaminants to be reduced and then select the bacteria.
Some bacteria will break down multiple chemicals, she said.
The bacteria would be grown in a tank and be fed into the sewage
digestersreactors,
preferably in a continual flow. Multiple chemicals of concern might
require several tanks for growing different bactieria.
If the process is successful and adopted by many treatment
plants, an alternative process could be developed. Instead of
growing the bacteria onsite, where conditions could be difficult to
control, all sorts of bacteria could be grown in an industrial
facility. The industrial plant would isolate the actual enzymes
needed to break down the chemicals and ship them to the treatment
plants. The enzymes could be stored and fed into the treatment
process as needed.
The research into this treatment process has progressed to where
the next step is a small-scale pilot project at a sewage-treatment
plant in the Puget Sound area, Nicolette said. A portion of the
actual wastewater would be diverted to the pilot plant, where
sewage would be subjected to the specialized bacteria and tested
for the level of treatment.
Ultimately, more studies are needed to establish a safe
concentration for the various chemicals that come from
pharmaceuticals and personal-care products. That way, one could
culture the appropriate bacteria and establish a reasonable
effluent limit for chemicals going into Puget Sound.
A record number of sewage-treatment plants in Washington state
fully complied with state water-quality requirements in 2014, with
128 plants winning the coveted Outstanding Performance Award from
the Department of Ecology.
The number of sewage-treatment
plants recognized for meeting all water-quality requirements grew
from 14 in 1995 to 128 last year.
The awards program has reached its 20th year, and the Manchester
Wastewater Treatment Plant in South Kitsap remains ahead of the
pack. It’s the only plant with a perfect score every year since the
program began.
In the first year of Ecology’s awards program, only 14 plants
across the state were recognized as doing everything right, but
that number has grown nearly every year.
Last year, 128 winning treatment plants — more than a third of
all the plants in the state — passed every environmental test,
analyzed every required sample, turned in all reports and allowed
no permit violations.
“The talents of our professional operators are critical to
successful plant operations and protecting the health of
Washington’s waters”, said Heather Bartlett, manager of Ecology’s
Water Quality Program, in a news release. “It is
an honor to recognize their contributions with these awards.”
Kitsap County officials are rightly proud of the perfect record.
Five years ago, in an article in Treatment
Plant Operator magazine, lead operator Don Johnson said the
success of the Manchester plant could be credited to the dedicated
wastewater staff and support from all levels of county government.
Don, who retired last year, has been replaced by Ken Young.
The magazine article may tell you more than you want to know
about the design and operation of the Manchester plant. The plant
was a modern facility when Ecology’s awards program was launched 20
years ago, and it has been kept up to date through the years.
Johnson stressed that treatment-plant operators should always be
prepared for new developments.
“My advice is for them to remain adaptable and up to date,” he
said. “There are many changes in the industry, and it’s important
to pursue energy efficiency and create reusable resources.”
Reaching the 20-year mark deserves some kind of celebration for
the Manchester plant. I would suggest organized tours of the
facility, public recognition for all the plant workers through the
years and maybe a slice of cake. So far, I’m told, no specific
plans have been made.
Port Townsend’s treatment plant has had a perfect score for 19
of the 20 years, missing only 1997. Meeting the perfect standard
for 16 of the past 20 years are two plants owned by the city of
Vancouver — Marine Park and Westside.
Kitsap County’s Kingston plant has received the award for nine
straight years. The county’s Suquamish plant, which is regulated by
the Environmental Protection agency because it is on tribal land,
has met all permit requirement for 15 years straight. (EPA does not
issue awards.)
Jimmy Fallon and Bill Gates together make an interesting
combination. One is about finding new ways to solve serious world
problems, while the other is looking for new ways to surprise and
delight people.
Bill gates recently challenged Jimmy Fallon to the “ultimate
taste test” involving two glasses of water. Jimmy would try to tell
the difference between bottled water and sewage effluent from an
innovative treatment plant built in Sedro Woolley, south of
Bellingham. As you’ll see from the video, there was a bit of
trickery involved.
In his blog,
“Gates Notes,” Bill Gates describes the Omniprocessor, designed
by Janicki Bioenergy of Washington state. A video on that page
(shown here) demonstrates how the processor works, with an ending
in which Gates drinks water that had been in the form of human
feces just minutes before.
Gates makes the most of this humorous but deadly serious issue,
knowing that one of the greatest health threats in the developing
world is contaminated drinking water — and that a machine could
help solve the problem.
The Omniprocessor burns dried human waste as fuel to dry more
waste as it comes into the plant, providing an endless supply of
fuel that can be burned at a very high temperature, thus
controlling air emissions. The drying process produces steam, which
can run a generator for electricity. The water vapor is cooled and
goes through a final filter to produce clean drinking water.
I’ve read many articles written about the Omniprocessor over the
past month, but Mark Stayton of the
Skagit Valley Herald wrote the most informative piece I’ve
seen.
A working prototype is scheduled to be fabricated this spring in
Dakar, Senegal, West Africa, and go into use soon after. Graphics
and photos are available on the Omniprocessor home
page.
I’ll be interested to see how this entire operation works in
practice. Not much is said about getting the waste to the machine.
Apparently, some locations have trucks that pump out latrines and
then dump the untreated waste someplace else, risking contamination
to groundwater or surface water. Transportation of the waste/fuel
might be less of an issue in cities with inadequate
sewage-treatment plants, but I don’t know how efficient trucks
would be in rural areas, where roads are often a problem.
Anyway, I will try to keep you informed about the Omniprocessor
and similar technology in the months to come.
Washington Department of Ecology is pushing ahead with its plan
to create a “no-discharge zone” for Puget Sound, which would
prohibit the discharge of sewage from boats, even those with a Type
II marine sanitation device. Check out my story last week in the
Kitsap Sun, Feb. 19 (subscription).
Proposed no-discharge zone
for Puget Sound
Washington Department of Ecology
For many people, it is disconcerting to think about mobile
toilets traveling everywhere in Puget Sound and discharging their
waste anywhere and at any time.
Kitsap Public Health District has gained a reputation for
tracking down sources of pollution and getting them cleaned up. If
you have a failing septic system, for example, you are expected to
get it fixed. Many of the Dyes Inlet beaches between Bremerton and
Silverdale were reopened to commercial shellfish harvesting, thanks
in no small part to these persistent efforts to clean up bacterial
pollution.
Sewage-treatment plants still discharge some bacteria, despite
advanced treatment processes. Consequently, shellfish beds are
permanently closed around treatment plant outfalls, with the
closure zone dependent on the level of sewage treatment. And when
there are sewage spills, long stretches of beach may be closed to
shellfish harvesting for 10 days or longer.
When they are working properly, Type II marine sanitation
devices aboard boats are fairly good at killing bacteria, although
levels are still above state water-quality standards. Less certain
is what happens to human viruses, including hepatitis, that may not
be killed. In addition, marine toilets release chemicals — such as
chlorine, quaternary ammonia and formaldehyde — into the water.
It’s not hard to see why the goal would be to eliminate
discharges of boater waste into Puget Sound, assuming that
sufficient pumpout stations exist for people to offload their
waste. Pumpout stations are connected to sewage-treatment systems,
which do a better job of disinfection and remove most solids that
can contribute to algae blooms and low-oxygen conditions.
“We want to reach out and invite comments, questions and
suggestions over this draft proposal. We’re working with boating,
shipping and fishing leaders, and now is the time for broader
perspective and feedback. Everyone who lives here has a vested
interest in a healthy Puget Sound.”
Her approach leaves the door open to some creative solutions for
getting everyone in compliance with the no-discharge zone. As I
showed in
last week’s story, the no-discharge zone could be a hardship
for some tugboat and fishing boat operators. One estimate for
converting a tugboat is $125,000.
Ecology’s solution so far has been simple: Give those without
holding tanks three years to install the tanks and plug up theirs
discharge pipes.
Other solutions may be possible, although they could create
administrative burdens for Ecology. What about the idea of creating
an exemption for boats that have no holding tanks? Boat owners
could pay an annual fee for the exemption, and the money could go
into a fund to assist owners with the cost of conversion. Maybe a
conversion should be required, if necessary, at the time a boat is
sold. It’s just an idea.
When applying for an exemption from the no-discharge zone, boat
owners should agree to discharge treated wastes at a safe distance
from the beach. Maybe they should be required to know where
certified shellfish beds are located and stay even farther
away.
I realize these ideas would complicate a simple plan, and maybe
there are better ideas. In general, I believe that a reasonable
solution should be proportional to the problem. We should not kill
a rat with heavy explosives, while ignoring the cost of
repairs.
I hate to be the voice of doom, but low-oxygen conditions in
Hood Canal have never been worse — if you can believe the data
gathered since the 1950s, alongside more intense monitoring the
past several years.
In the southern portion of Hood Canal, you only need to go down
about 30 feet to begin to see stressful oxygen levels in the range
of 2 milligrams per liter. For current conditions at Hoodsport, go
directly to the Hood Canal Dissolved Oxygen Program’s website,
which lists data sent back from the Ocean Remote
Chemical Analyzer (ORCA).
Sea creatures are beginning to show signs of stress, according
to scuba diver Janna Nichols, who described her findings to me
Wednesday after a dive in Hood Canal. She talked about fish
“panting” as their gills moved in and out rapidly. Some fish,
shrimp and other sealife had moved into shallower water. Watch
Janna’s
video of a wolf eel and other visuals she captured on the
dive.
When low-oxygen conditions are that close to the surface, the
danger is that a south wind will blow away the surface layer and
bring low-oxygen water right to the surface, leaving fish with no
place to go.
Of course, I have no desire to see a massive fish kill, but we
already know that fish are probably dying in deep water due to the
stressful conditions. I collect this information and offer these
reports so that people can alert researchers when something
happens. Being on the scene when fish are dying could provide
important information about the nature of the low-oxygen problem.
For details, please check out my stories in the Kitsap Sun
Sept. 7 and
Sept. 15 as well as the more technical report
from Jan Newton on Sept. 7 (PDF 320 kb).
The phone number to report fish kills or oil spills is (800)
258-5990 or (800) OILS-911
If you haven’t heard, the worst low oxygen conditions normally
occur in the fall after a summer of burgeoning numbers of plankton,
encouraged by nitrogen and sunlight. By fall, much of the plankton
has died and dropped to the bottom, where decay consumes the
available of oxygen.
While there are plenty of natural sources of nitrogen in Hood
Canal, computer models have demonstrated that human inputs from
septic systems and stormwater can push things over the edge in the
fall.
Officials are hoping that a new sewage-treatment plant in
Belfair will begin to reduce the inputs of nitrogen into Lynch
Cove. Another treatment plant is being planned in Potlatch.
Stormwater upgrades also are being proposed for Belfair and other
areas.
The orange triangles represent
this year's composite oxygen levels for the south half of Hood
Canal. The latest reading, near the end of August, is the lowest
ever seen.
The city of Seattle and King County have signed legal agreements
to reduce the annual discharge into Puget Sound of nearly 2 billion
gallons of raw sewage mixed with stormwater.
The agreements follow legal actions by the federal Environmental
Protection Agency, according to information released today. See
EPA’s news release.
We’re talking about “combined sewer overflows” or CSOs, which
occur in many older cities where stormwater and sewage get mixed
together in antiquated piping networks. At lows flows, all the
water gets treated, but at high flows the mixed wastewater exceeds
the capacity of the pipes and gets dumped into Puget Sound.
I’m surprised it has taken this long to come to terms with the
problem in Seattle and King County. For 14 years, Bremerton
officials have been working to resolve their CSO problems, costing
sewer customers some $54 million, according to city figures.
I’m sure Bremerton officials have chafed at the idea that while
they were rushing to address the problem, other cities were going
at a relatively slow pace. It took a lawsuit by the Puget
Soundkeeper Alliance to get Bremerton to clean up its waters. But
once city officials agreed to do the work, they have never looked
back.
I called Bremerton Public Works Director Phil Williams to ask if
the city had completed the task.
“We’re done,” he told me. “We’re now in compliance. It has been
a long and expensive process… We are really proud of the work we
have done.”
Bremerton residents will be paying high sewer bills for many
years to pay off loans to complete the work, he said, “so I guess
it’s never really over until it is paid for.”
EPA’s news release does not include an estimate of the cost for
Seattle or King County. But it does point out that the city manages
92 CSO outfalls and King County 38. Those are far more than the 15
or so that Bremerton had to contend with.
In 2007, Seattle’s system overflowed an estimated 249 times and
King County’s system overflowed an estimated 87 times. Untreated
sewage flowed into Lake Union, Lake Washington, the Duwamish River
and Puget Sound.
Why didn’t Puget Soundkeeper Alliance go after Seattle or King
County or other older cities that operate CSO systems?
For one thing, I understand that the overflow data for Bremerton
was easily acquired and dropped into the lap of the Puget
Soundkeeper. Violations of the federal Clean Water Act were easily
proven.
Phil Williams, who was not in Bremerton at the time, speculates
that Bremerton was perhaps an easier legal target than the larger
governments across Puget Sound.
Leaders in the alliance told me years ago that they intended to
take on other cities when they were finished with Bremerton, but
they never did.
“I’m glad to see the bigger players taking this on,” Phil told
me. “I am rather pleased that I’m not the one to solve the problems
the size of those they will have to face.”
Under the EPA compliance order, Seattle needs to prepare an
overflow emergency response plan, a plan to ensure the collection
system is cleaned systematically, a plan to create more storage in
the collection system, a plan to reduce the number of basement
backups and a plan to reduce the number of dry weather
overflows.
This is not a simple engineering problem, and once the planning
is done, there will be more expensive work to complete. For
additional information, check out
Seattle’s Combined Sewer Overflow Reduction Plan.
King County’s task is easier. The county must submit a plan to
observe and document some of King County’s CSO outfalls after a
rainfall event to ensure there is no “debris” being discharged. The
order requires King County to upgrade the Elliott West CSO
Treatment Plant to ensure treatment of overflows before release.
That deadline also is March 2010.
For more info, check out King
County’s Combined Sewer Overflow Control Program.
NOTE (Thursday, 7:35 a.m): When I first wrote this entry
yesterday, I was willing to offer odds that Seattle would not
complete its planning by the deadline. Feeling more optimistic
today, I’d like to say that I’m sure that Seattle can get it done,
but it will take some focus and money. I’ve taken down my bet.
UPDATE, June 5, 2009:
A
Victoria Times-Colonist editorial raises several key questions
about the sewer plans and says the government should not rush into
the project.
———————
The Bainbridge Island sewage spill, estimated at 140,000
gallons, was blamed on a break in a 32-year-old pipe buried in the
beach and subject to saltwater corrosion.
Before final repairs, a
temporary band slowed the flow of sewage
Kitsap Sun photo by Tristan Baurick
While Bainbridge Island cleaned up its sewage today, the city of
Victoria — which has been dumping raw sewage into the Strait of
Juan de Fuca for decades — took steps to clean up its mess as well.
Regional officials took action on a plan to build a series of four
sewage-treatment plants at a cost of $1.2 billion. Progress, yes,
but work is still years away. More about that in a moment.
Damage to the environment in and around Bainbridge Island’s
Eagle Harbor is expected to be temporary, according to Larry
Altose, spokesman for the Washington Department of Ecology, who was
quoted in a
Kitsap Sun story by Tristan Baurick.
“As awful as a sewer release sounds, the impact of this size of
spill is short-term,” Altose said, noting that sunlight and other
organisms will quickly kill or eat most of the sewage contaminants
within days.
Ecology could fine the city up to $10,000 a day for the spill.
The city’s response and track record with maintenance can be
considered.
“We can fine, but that’s not the point,” Altose said. “The point
is to have lessons learned and have the proper steps for
prevention.”
One lesson that everyone has been learning over the past few
years is that sewer lines buried in the beach are trouble. We all
know why they were installed there in the first place — because it
is cheaper to build in the beach than to clear a route through
trees and across ravines in the uplands.
Sewer lines in the beach are a problem that many cities must
face, and they should be inspecting buried pipes on a regular
schedule. We’ll see what Ecology’s investigation turns up with
respect to Bainbridge Island’s maintenance.
Meanwhile, Bremerton and Poulsbo also face issues with worn-out
pipes, and we don’t yet know what the solution will be. Bremerton,
if you recall, has proposed a boardwalk that can support a vacuum
truck to maintain the pipe after it is replaced in the beach
(Water Ways, Sept. 22, 2008). That design is under scrutiny by
the Army Corps of Engineers and other state and federal
agencies.
As for Victoria, city officials maintained for years that they
should be allowed to discharge raw sewage into the Strait of Juan
de Fuca, because the swift waters dilute the pollution. Three years
ago, the Minister of Environment for British Columbia said that was
no longer acceptable and that treatment systems would be required
for the municipalities of Colwood, Esquimalt, Langford, Oak Bay,
Saanich, Victoria and View Royal, all under the Capital Regional
District. Continue reading →
