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County staff urges public meeting and formal comments on DEP draft Foley Mill discharge permit
Summary
Taylor County staff recommended the county request a public meeting and submit technical comments on a newly posted DEP draft permit that would allow wastewater discharges at the Foley Millold outfall; staff highlighted missing flow controls, monitoring gaps and a 30‑day comment deadline and sought board approval to prepare the request and comments.
County staff briefed the Board of County Commissioners on Feb. 2 about a recently posted draft permit from the state Department of Environmental Protection that would allow treated wastewater to be discharged at the Foley Millold outfall, and recommended the board request a public meeting and submit technical comments.
Chet, the staff presenter, told commissioners the draft permit was released last Thursday and that state rules provide a 30‑day written comment period from the date the county first received the draft. He said he recommends that the commission "make a request for [a] public meeting and make comments," and that county staff will draft the proposed comments and a meeting request for the board to review two weeks later.
Chet flagged several technical concerns. He said the permit ties discharge to a river‑gauge threshold—"there's gotta be 2.7 feet of water up there in the stream for them to discharge"—but lacks a maximum daily discharge limit and contains no described mechanism to prevent large "slug" discharges on days when the gauge is above the threshold. He also summarized monitoring requirements proposed in the draft: upstream and downstream surface‑water sampling (one site about 800 meters upstream and one about 100 meters downstream of the old outfall) and additional groundwater wells with quarterly monitoring, including newly added parameters for lead and turbidity.
Staff noted the draft makes the required groundwater study a condition of the permit (to be submitted within 120 days of permit issuance), rather than requiring the study before issuing the permit. Chet said the agency modeled impacts assuming a maximum modeled discharge and concluded that, under that modeling, dissolved‑oxygen impacts would be acceptable at the 2.7‑foot background flow used in the analysis; Chet said the county should press for stronger assurances and clearer, enforceable flow‑control and monitoring conditions.
Residents and commissioners raised concern about interim lagoon storage and flooding risk. One resident asked, "Where is the water being stored?" and staff replied it is stored in lagoons and that, during extreme storms, "they would probably have a problem" with overflow. Multiple speakers said the river has recovered since discharges stopped in late 2021; staff cited DEP sampling showing recovery by October 2023.
The board gave staff direction to prepare a request for a public meeting and to draft the county's technical comments. Staff said it would circulate draft comments to commissioners by the board's next meeting so the county can meet the comment‑period deadline.
Next steps: staff will prepare and circulate a formal request for a DEP public meeting and a draft comment letter for board review, targeted for the board packet two weeks prior to the comment deadline.
