Time for a wastewater upgrade

If you live or recreate in the Anchorage area and have ever walked or biked along the southern portion of the Tony Knowles Coastal Trail, you may have noticed a particular odor as you crossed the driveway of the John M. Asplund Wastewater Treatment Facility near Point Woronzof. The facility processes and discharges an average of 32 million gallons of wastewater into Cook Inlet each day, and incinerates the collected solids.

When the Clean Water Act was first adopted in 1972 it required municipal facilities nationwide to treat wastewater to a degree of primary filtration that would protect against basic contaminants and prevent outbreaks of disease. Subsequent revisions to the Clean Water Act forced most facilities to further upgrade to a secondary or tertiary level of filtration. A handful of facilities were granted a permit by the Environmental Protection Agency, called a 301(h) waiver, which allows wastewater to continue being treated at the primary level. Most of these plants discharge into large bodies of tidal water in coastal areas. The Anchorage facility received a 301(h) waiver mainly because of a high level of "turbidity" in Cook Inlet caused by reduced visibility, constantly mixing glacial silt, and unusually strong tides.

The operators of the Asplund plant argue against upgrading due to capital costs and higher operating costs. Additionally, the operators claim that their processing facility, through the use of a polymer process, results in effluent as clean as some secondary treatments. However, during a dispute regarding whether to upgrade the Boston wastewater treatment plant in the 1980's, the EPA stated "advanced primary treatment was unacceptable because it would not remove enough suspended solids, organic material, or toxic chemicals." The Boston facility was forced to upgrade.

Pre-treatment procedures at the Anchorage facility do not adequately treat household hazardous wastes or industrial discharges. The current testing and monitoring program is very limited in scope, testing for only three basic indicators, and ignores pharmaceuticals, heavy metals, e-coli, persistent organic pollutants, and pesticides. Additionally, one ton of chlorine gas is released into Cook Inlet each day. Yet while Anchorage wastewater routed to the Asplund facility for primary treatment before being discharged into Cook Inlet currently ranks as the third largest point discharge site in Alaska, the effects of this discharge are largely unknown.

The Cook Inlet marine ecosystem provides countless benefits to Alaskan residents, visitors, and the Alaskan economy through oil and gas development, tourism, fishing, subsistence usage, and recreation. Cook Inlet's marine environment has been noted by scientists as among the most productive ecosystems in the world and is the site of an exceedingly productive fishery, supporting recreational, commercial, subsistence, and personal use fisheries. Herring, scallops, halibut, sablefish, ling cod and five kinds of salmon have been harvested.

State and local leadership should look beyond the temporary economic crisis towards long-term, creative solutions that will protect Alaskans' health, recreational pursuits and fish. The 301(h) waiver that allows Anchorage's wastewater treatment facility to discharge sewage treated to a primary standard is renewed approximately every five years, and the next cycle is approaching. Should the EPA decide to not renew the increasingly rare 301(h) waiver, Anchorage would be forced to upgrade. More data is needed to fully understand the ongoing impacts to our natural resources, but planning now for an eventual wastewater treatment upgrade to protect Alaska's natural resources will, in the end, save Alaskans money.

Toby Smith is the executive director of Alaska Center for the Environment.