The Oregonian
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Proposal would OK release of wastewater

A DEQ permit would grant Oremet access to two waterways on the premise the treated water would help the environment

Wednesday, August 23, 2000

By Brent Hunsberger of The Oregonian staff

Can an industry's wastewater actually help the environment?

Oremet and the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality think so. The state is proposing to issue a permit that would give the Albany titanium producer two miles of a creek and 375 feet in the Calapooia River to dilute its wastewater.

The reason? The treated wastewater -- containing ammonia, chloride, metals and other solids -- provides flows for fish in a creek that otherwise dries up each summer, state officials said. Alternatives, such as piping wastewater to the larger Willamette River two miles away, are too expensive or difficult, officials said.

The permit, now out for public review, would be the first issued under a new state rule that suspends water-quality standards for qualified industries and city sewage plants whose discharges dominate streams in summer.

But the permit is headed for a fight.

River-protection advocates claim the proposal skirts the intent of the federal Clean Water Act and reverses a 1995 settlement that one group forged with DEQ

to force Oremet to meet pollution standards at the end of its discharge pipe. They also criticize DEQ for not testing how Oremet's wastewater threatens salmon in the Calapooia, which state officials consider one of the most polluted rivers in the upper Willamette River Basin.

Oremet pumps 1.5 million gallons of wastewater a day into Oak Creek, but state officials won't know how it affects the Calapooia until the company completes studies in two years.

"DEQ has still not forced this company to get all the information together it needs," said Nina Bell, an attorney with Northwest Environmental Advocates. "They don't even know what the temperature impacts to salmon are, even though this (permit) application was submitted in 1995."

Oremet regularly violates its wastewater permit, which expired in 1996 but was administratively extended by the DEQ. Since December 1998, the agency has fined Oremet $35,365 for exceeding titanium, zinc, fluoride, solids and oil and grease limits 60 times. The company received two more citations this year covering 14 additional violations.

In April 1999, Oremet's wastewater tested toxic to flathead minnows and water fleas, suggesting it could be dangerous for other organisms, although state officials suspect the test was an anomaly. Even if the permit is approved, Oremet suggests its ammonia and chloride discharges could have long-term effects on water life in Oak Creek.

Most states give city sewage and industrial plants mixing zones in waterways, where they can dilute wastewater without violating water-quality standards. Oregon's rules call for mixing zones to be "as small as feasible" and in the immediate area of the discharge.

In 1991, the Northwest Environmental Defense Center sued the DEQ, claiming it violated its own rules by allowing Oremet a mixing zone along two miles of Oak Creek except during low flows.

The agency later determined that it issued Oremet's permit in error, according to a 1994 internal memo. It settled the lawsuit by ordering Oremet to meet pollution standards at the end of the pipe, except during high flows.

In 1997, the agency amended its rules to allow alternative mixing zones, in part to aid Oremet, which employs 500 people. Oregon Metallurgical Corp., now known as Oremet, is owned by Allegheny Technologies, which also owns Wah Chang, a Millersburg manufacturer of exotic metals and chemicals, such as zirconium and hafnium.

The new rule allows larger mixing zones for existing plants if they show that their wastewater can benefit the environment and isn't immediately lethal to water species.

"Practically no discharges can meet water-quality standards at the end of their pipe," said Barbara Burton, the agency's senior policy analyst who wrote the rule. "We've attempted to get folks out of smaller streams when practical. But there are circumstances where a facility has already been built, it's been there for a long time, and it's too far from a receiving stream."

Agency officials said Oremet's proposed permit imposes tighter limits on lead, chloride, zinc, chromium and nickel, improving its discharge.

The company also plans to separate its storm water from its wastewater, dilute its wastewater with ground water and recapture half of its chloride waste, state records show.

"This permit is one of the toughest in the state," DEQ permit writer Bryson Twidwell said. "But with their source reduction and changes in their waste stream, they can do it. I have complete faith in them that they can meet it without violations."

The agency based the permit on the company's studies, which found that its wastewater created stable flows in Oak Creek, which had been disrupted by the construction of Interstate 5.

The studies found that the creek's wetland attracted blue heron, red-tailed hawks and osprey and contained a more diverse community of mayflies, stoneflies and other macro-invertebrates than existed upstream of Oremet's discharge.

"It is quite comparable to a natural stream," Oremet spokesman Jim Denham said. "Without Oremet's discharge, you wouldn't be able to support that diversity."

But the creek's shallow channel, warm water and shadeless banks keep salmon and trout away. The studies found only fish accustomed to cooler or warmer water, such as sculpin and redside shiners.

"It's not a great stream upstream or downstream," Burton said. "But it's better upstream than downstream."

Oremet explored other ways of ridding its wastewater, including pumping it into Albany's sewage and storm-water systems, buying city water to boost Oak Creek's flows, and even piping wastewater two miles to the Willamette or Calapooia rivers, according to DEQ records. The company ruled out all other options because of a lack of cooperation from other parties and costs, some of which exceeded $2.5 million.

"They proved infeasible for lots of reasons, not just expense," Denham said.

Albany public works engineer Mark Yeager said city officials worried about the wastewater's corrosive effects on underground pipes. The city also opposed diverting water to Oremet because it expects population growth to exceed water capacity in 20 years.

"We don't have extra water to give them," Yeager said.