Crowley faces multi‑million dollar wastewater upgrades after DEQ compliance order

City Engineer Tim Mader told the Crowley City Council’s utility committee on Sept. 9 that the state Department of Environmental Quality has issued a draft LPDES discharge permit and an amended compliance order that require a multi‑phase corrective plan of action for the city’s wastewater collection and treatment systems.

Mader said the draft permit is under public review and the city expects a new five‑year discharge permit by October. “We’re expecting by the October that the city would have its new discharge permit,” Mader said.

The nut of the problem, Mader said, is more stringent discharge limits — especially for ammonia nitrogen — that the city’s 20‑to‑25‑year‑old treatment components were not designed to meet. “Ammonia nitrogen used to be in our permit at the level of…5 parts per million. That’s been reduced to 0.8 parts per million,” Mader said, adding the plant cannot reliably meet the older limit and must be upgraded to meet the new one.

Mader described a five‑phase corrective plan the city submitted and which DEQ has incorporated into an amended compliance order (compliance order number referenced in committee materials as WEC2400685). That amended order requires quarterly progress reports documenting plan, timing, cost and funding efforts. “They want corrective action that will guarantee to them that we have a plan…a timetable…we know what it’s gonna cost, and we know where the funding’s…