Endicott plans for sewer plant fix

At the most recent town council meeting July 18 in Endicott, a representative with the Department of Ecology was present to discuss issues with the town’s sewer plant. The plant has been having issues with violations on monthly reports, and the town now needs to work to bring it into compliance.

“We’ve had some issues with our sewer plant for about the past year,” said Town Clerk/Treasurer Laura Jones. “We’re trying to solve that issue and get it taken care of.”

Jones said the violation issues have stemmed largely from extreme runoff related to this past winter. The plant, she said, was not designed to handle that much flow per day.

“This past winter we had a huge runoff going through,” she said. “We’re still seeing some of it.”

The discharge monitoring report (DMR) is submitted by the town each month, and Mayor David Bilow said via email that many things are included in that report.

“A number of sewer plant parameters are collected throughout the month and many are included in each DMR,” he said. “One purpose of the report is to show if our facility is properly treating influent and therefore discharging effluent that meets our ‘Town of Endicott National Pollutant Discharge Permit’.”

Mayor Bilow said the violations stemmed from the town failing to meet reporting, effluent and design limits as stated in the town’s permit.

Diana Washington with the Department of Ecology spoke at the meeting about the importance of getting the plant in compliance.

In response, the town hired Casie Mongie, a level two sewer plant operator out of Cheney, to work with Washington and Mike Isaacs, maintenance supervisor, on the issues.

Mayor Bilow said the town is taking steps to move toward compliance.

“The town responded to DOE outlining the actions it would take to comply with our permit. That response included several changes in the monitoring, reporting and running of our sewer plant,” he said. “Additionally, we will now include in our town council meetings a status report so that all will be aware that the monitoring and reporting requirements are being met.”

Jones said that as of right now, the town is waiting to move forward.

“We’re waiting on a response from the Department of Ecology,” she said. “We’re hoping to have a meeting with them next week to get a plan of action.”

Mayor Bilow echoed this and said the town will “be in the process” of implementing DOE requirements soon.

“We are working diligently to improve the running of our sewer plant operation, and to satisfy all the monitoring and reporting requirements specified in our permit,” he said.