Turwa seeks Cowlitz County adoption of updated pretreatment policy to tighten wastewater controls

Joe Jordan, general manager of Turwa, told the Cowlitz County Board of Commissioners that Turwa’s operating board has approved an updated pretreatment policy and asked the county to adopt the changes through local ordinance and a public hearing.

"The updated pretreatment policy has been approved by the Turwa operating board," Jordan said, describing changes meant to protect Turwa’s treatment processes, collection systems and staff while allowing predictable rules for local businesses and industries. The policy updates include new daily maximums and monthly average discharge limits, local limits based on a Gibson Olson study, and incorporation of King County volatile organic compound (VOC) discharge levels as guidance for corrective action.

Jordan said the revisions are not intended to create new authority but to make limits “more defensible” by relying on representative data and engineering analysis. He explained that the new limits split what had been a single numeric limit into a daily maximum and a monthly average to provide predictable compliance “wiggle room” typical in modern permit writing. Jordan also said Turwa added VOC levels—treated as levels that trigger corrective action rather than immediate permit violations—after an industry incident exposed gaps in previous policy language.

Turwa manages commercial user discharge permits for Beacon Hill, Kelso and Cowlitz County and oversees industrial‑permit coordination with the Washington State Department of Ecology. Jordan said Turwa currently has 82 active commercial permits (Longview manages its own 161 permits) and eight large industrial permits that Ecology primarily regulates. Turwa’s work includes annual industrial‑user surveys to identify new dischargers and site inspections under clarified right‑of‑entry language in the policy.

County staff told commissioners the pretreatment provisions were previously adopted into county code and that legal will draft an ordinance or resolution for board consideration and a required public hearing. "Because we adopted this per ordinance as part of the county code in chapter 15," staff said, legal will return a prepared ordinance or public‑hearing package.

If the board approves the ordinance after the public hearing, the updated pretreatment policy would become enforceable locally as part of the county’s implementing regulations for wastewater discharges.