Wastewater issues on SV’s table

SPRING VALLEY — Spring Valley’s water treatment plant has been working well with the anti-scalent treatment, and the new reverse osmosis membranes are ready to be installed.

“Most of the week will be taken up with replacement,” city engineer Jack Kusek said at this week’s council meeting.

Kusek expects the membranes to be replaced later this month, which should take four to five days. The treatment plant must be operational during the switch, so it will be a slow and planned process.

The city is also working on various concrete projects at the wastewater treatment plant. City employees are repairing the stoop and steps that have deteriorated after decades of use. They are also replacing a concrete slab to the grit chamber.

In other water treatment business at the meeting, the council announced it is finally operating its wastewater treatment plant with a MPDS permit after months of wrangling. The city lost its permit after not filing the proper paperwork in time and has been operating without one.

The city engineer has been working to have the permit reinstated, but the new permit came with several new special conditions, including monitoring levels of ammonia. Kusek said the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency used to just give waivers, but it’s making cities work for them now.

“They’re just not issuing the permit,” Kusek said at Monday’s meeting.

Kusek said the city will not meet ammonia standards, which states wastewater runoff must have less than 3.3 milligrams per liter of ammonia in March through May and September through October, 3 milligrams per liter from June through August and 3.8 milligrams per liter from November through February.

In the past this was never tested because the IEPA assumed the river would be enough to dilute the ammonia, but the agency is now requiring cities to prove it. Kusek didn’t believe the city would have any problems making its case.

High levels of ammonia in the water can lead to rapid plant growth and possible toxicity to fish, Kusek said.

Kusek said he has almost completed a draft proposal for cleaning up the city’s wastewater sludge using enzymes. He hopes to have the contract awarded in March and begin using the enzymes in April. The city has about 72,000 cubic yards of sludge in the treatment plant lagoon, and it’s causing the city to be out of compliance with suspended solid levels.