Treated wastewater would go into strait
A state agency is taking comments on Benicia’s request to reissue a permit to discharge treated water into the Carquinez Strait, John H. Madigan, water resources control engineer, said.
At the same time, he said, the city has asked the California Regional Water Quality Control Board San Francisco Bay Region to rescind a cease-and-desist order it had imposed after the city had violated an earlier permit.
That request is under consideration, Madigan said, “because the discharger would comply with new limits proposed in the tentative permit.”
Benicia’s permit application comes under the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System, he said.
Madigan said the city’s treatment plant provides secondary treatment of domestic, commercial and industrial wastewater from Benicia, its businesses and its 28,000 residents.
The water board’s staff has prepared a tentative permit that would comply with both the Clean Water Act and the Porter-Cologne Water Quality Control Act, he said.
If the permit is issued, the city would be allowed to discharge treated wastewater into the Carquinez Strait about 500 feet offshore south of its wastewater treatment plant and a mile and a half west of the Benicia Bridge, he said.
The city was the subject of a March 12, 2008, water board cease-and-desist order that noted Benicia’s operation couldn’t comply with cyanide effluent limits.
At that time, the city was given a timetable to come into compliance, including a deadline of Aug. 1, 2015 to submit documentation that confirmed its operations complied with effluent limits. Madigan said the application indicates that would be the case under the proposed permit.
However, before the board makes its decision on the application request, which will take place at its June 11 meeting, the public must have time to comment on the permit.
Those who object may petition the board under the Water Code; however, those objections would be limited to raising only “substantive issues or objections that were raised before the board at a public hearing or in timely submitted written correspondence,” Madigan said.
Documents related to the tentative permit are available for examination and copying at the board office, 1515 Clay St., Suite 1400, Oakland. It’s also available on the board’s website, www.waterboards.ca.gov/sanfranciscobay.
Those interested have until 5 p.m. May 12 to submit comments to the board at 1515 Clay St., Suite 1400, Oakland, CA 94612. Staff comments on the public’s submissions and documents will be posted on the board’s website one week before its meeting, Madigan said.
The board’s meeting on the matter will start at 9 a.m. June 11 in the auditorium of the Elihu Harris Building, 1515 Clay St. Comments also will be heard at that meeting.
Leave a Reply