Timeline of dispute over phosphorus limits
July 31, Ohio Environmental Protect Agency issues draft renewal permits for Montgomery County and the City of Dayton proposing numeric phosphorus limits
Sept. 7, City and county submit joint comments in response to proposed phosphorus restriction s, asking for a delay in implementation until a river water study completes
Dec. 22, Ohio EPA issues a notice denying the request to reconsider or delay setting the limits
January, City and county file a joint appeal challenging the state’s order
Dayton and Montgomery County have filed a joint appeal challenging new state restrictions imposed on phosphorus discharge at their wastewater treatment plants.
In order to comply with the state requirements, the city and county would have to spend about $2 million on facility and treatment upgrades — costs that would be passed along to their rate-paying customers, officials said.
The city and county appealed the Ohio EPA’s requirement that their treatment plants along the lower Great Miami River discharge no more than 1 milligram per liter of phosphorus between July and the end of October. The standard is a seasonal aggregate.
Dayton’s and Montgomery County’s wastewater treatment plants require discharge permits to operate, and the state included the limits as part of their recently issued permits. Montgomery County has about 82,000 wastewater customer connections, and Dayton has about 55,000.
The city and county have asked the Ohio Environmental Review Appeals Commission to direct the state to delay establishing limits until a river study is finished.
The study will measure and evaluate the phosphorus discharge contributions of wastewater treatment plants belonging to 15 local jurisdictions.
Pat Turnbull, Montgomery County’s director of environmental services, said there is no guarantee the new limits would substantially reduce phosphorus concentration in the lower Great Miami River, especially since he asserts agricultural run-off is likely the primary cause of the build up.
Turnbull said he fears the state could move to set lower limits in the future if they do not see river conditions improving, which could require the city and county to spend tens of millions of dollars or more in facility improvements.
“To go down the path of the lower limits in the future, you’re talking tens to hundreds of millions of dollars,” he said. “My guess is it would be more than $100 million for both facilities.”
But Ohio EPA spokeswoman Dina Pierce said the technical data clearly shows that the city and county are the largest contributors of phosphorus during typical summer months.
But Turnbull said the $2 million investment or potentially more would not help the plants achieve lower phosphorus limits if the Ohio EPA orders them in the next permit cycle several years from now.
Turnbull said a study of the lower Great Miami River in the early 2000s indicated that run-off from farming and agricultural activities accounted for the lion’s share of nutrient pollution, which includes phosphorus concentration.
He said setting limits may not improve water quality if agricultural contributions are not addressed.
Turnbull said he is unaware of any grant funding to assist with funding the investments needed to comply with the state restrictions.
“There would be some rate increase necessary for any of these improvements,” he said. “And if we make a $100 million investment at our plants, and the problem hasn’t gotten any better, how is that being good stewards of the public’s dollars.”
Tammi Clements, the director of Dayton’s water department, said the city, county and 13 other local jurisdictions want time to collect and study scientific data about the river to determine effective strategies and counter measures to improve water quality.
“We really want to … get the science, understand how low we need to go and what are we trying to meet, so those investments are only made once,” she said.
The Ohio EPA based its phosphorus limits on a 2010 river study that was unable to produce a reliable model of the river, she said.
The Ohio EPA does not understand the science of the river well enough to justify setting phosphorus limits, she said.
Clements said the study may determine that remediation from agricultural operations would be the best way to address nutrient pollution. Farmers can construct buffers and follow other best management practices to reduce the amount of run off, she said.
For years, Clements said, the city and county have worked with the agricultural community to decrease their phosphorus contributions.
“Our ask was never don’t give us a limit, we’ve asked for a delay in giving a limit until a time when the EPA, when it has full access to all of the data, will have better standing in terms of justifying or defending the limits they give,” Clements said.
The Ohio EPA has agreed to work on the river study with the local communities and will review sampling and testing practices.
“The current actions are intended to address observed conditions during dry weather flows,” said Pierce, the agency spokeswoman.
She said many cities and industries in Ohio already adhere to the 1 milligram per liter discharge limit and found it economically and technically feasible to achieve.
The water-quality study is expected to wrap up by the end of 2016 or early 2017. The city and county have about three years to fully comply with the EPA permit limits, state officials said.
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