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Changes to Mound City Sewer Discharge Limits

By Matthew Leaf

01/13/2014

(KTNC) -- Mound City will have to make changes to meet new, more stringent, EPA minimum water quality criteria as the city prepares to apply for a new lagoon discharge permit.
Brock Pfost with White Cloud Engineering discussed the new criteria with the Mound City Council last week. The new criteria concern new limits for ammonia and disinfection and were outlined in a letter from the Missouri Department of Natural Resources. Mound City’s current discharge permit expires in October, but Pfost says the application for a new permit will have to be submitted in March and there are things the city needs to do to prepare for the new standards.
Pfost said Mound City does a good job of meeting current permit limits, failing just nine of 28 tests in the past four years. However, he said the city would have failed half the tests under the new limits.
As the city pumps all its wastewater, Pfost told the council they need to reduce inflow and infiltration as much as possible. He discussed various treatment options, but said the DNR prefers land application with zero discharge. Pfost estimated one acre would be needed for each one thousand gallons per day of discharge. He said aeration is unlikely to meet the new ammonia levels.
Pfost also told the council that the DNR expects sewer rates to be as high or higher than water rates. Federal and state grants and loans require water and sewer rates to be at two-percent of low-to-moderate income levels, or approximately $50 for the average user of 5,000 gallons of water. Mound City’s current sewer rate is approximately half that amount.
Pfost designed and built Mound City’s water treatment plant.

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