Joint utility asks Cowlitz County to adopt updated pretreatment policy to protect plant and collection systems
Get AI-powered insights, summaries, and transcripts
Subscribe
Summary
Joe Jordan, general manager of Turwa, told county commissioners that updated pretreatment limits (based on a Gibson Olson study) establish daily maximums and monthly averages, add VOC discharge 'levels' based on King County guidance, and clarify permitting and right-of-entry language; the county must adopt the update (likely by ordinance) for it to take effect.
Joe Jordan, general manager of Turwa — the joint municipal utility authority that serves the cities and water districts in the region and Cowlitz County — presented an update to Turwa's pretreatment policy and asked the board to adopt it.
Jordan said the revisions respond to new data and a technical study by Gibson Olson that recalculated local discharge limits to protect the plant's biological treatment processes while allocating capacity fairly between current users and future growth. "The original policy ... was first adopted in 2012, and there has been no updates since that time," he said. Jordan said the updated approach introduces daily maximums and monthly average limits (giving 'wiggle room' for occasional spikes) and does not create new regulatory authority but refines existing parameters.
Jordan summarized three main elements: commercial wastewater discharge permits (managed by Turwa for Beacon Hill, Kelso and Cowlitz County; Longview manages its own permits), annual industrial-user surveys to identify new large dischargers, and updated local discharge limits for pollutants of concern (including BOD, TSS, ammonia and selected metals). He noted Turwa currently manages 82 active commercial-user permits while Longview has about 161, and that the authority operates a roughly 26,000,000-gallon-per-day activated-sludge treatment plant.
On volatile organic compounds, Jordan said Turwa incorporated King County's VOC 'discharge levels' as guidance; he emphasized these are levels rather than hard permit violations and that exceeding them would trigger corrective actions rather than an immediate permit violation. He said that a past industry issue drove the addition of VOC guidance and that the industry worked with Turwa to reduce discharges.
Jordan asked the county to adopt the updated policy; county staff said they will work with legal to determine whether an ordinance or resolution is required and that, because the county code references the pretreatment policy (chapter 15.15 in county code), the county will likely proceed with an ordinance and a public hearing. Jordan also noted that the City of Longview has a public hearing scheduled for the proposal on Thursday and that all Turwa entities must adopt the policy for it to take effect.
No vote was taken; staff will return with a draft ordinance and public-notice timeline for the board's consideration.