Council questions industrial pretreatment permit for SISU Brewing; staff explains allocations and limits of permit

Councilors flagged the industrial discharge (pretreatment) permit for SISU Brewing during the Jan. 5 consent-calendar review and discussed the city's oversight and the potential for neighborhood impacts.

City staff explained that an industrial pretreatment permit governs what can go down the drain — controlling strength and allocations of biological oxygen demand (BOD) and other wastewater loads sent to the municipal treatment plant — to prevent exceedances under the city's DEQ permit. “This is really just trying to, manage what can go down the drain and what we receive at the wastewater treatment facility,” staff told council during the discussion.

Staff also described an allocation framework established previously by council resolution that reserved treatment allocation for existing breweries; businesses that began after that resolution (for example, Obelisk Beer) are treated as municipal/residential-load users until plant upgrades allow reallocation. The assistant city engineer said Astoria’s only current industrial users are beverage producers (breweries, cideries, distilleries) and that seafood processors discharge under separate DEQ permits directly to water bodies.

Several councilors urged careful conditioning of permits to avoid foreseeable odor or nuisance complaints. Staff noted that odor and adjacent-property impacts are outside the industrial pretreatment permit’s regulatory scope and would need to be addressed through building permits, development conditions or the municipal public-nuisance process if complaints arise. Councilors asked staff to ensure permit applicants provide consultant assurances about in-plant pretreatment systems and to include follow-up conditions if systems do not perform as promised.