# Willard/Perry Sewer Plant-Discharge Update



## rjefre (Sep 8, 2007)

*Background*: Many waterfowlers stepped up and sent in comments to Dept of Water Quality about allowing a new sewer plant to discharge phosphates, nitrates and other bio-solids directly into Willard Spur. Also,the Utah Waterfowl Association filed a legal action on behalf of Utah Waterfowlers to protect this important wetland. The result was a stoppage of the sewer plant start-up operations until important questions could be answered.

*Update*: The sewage plant will begin discharging around March 1rst into a ditch going into the Spur. They will begin removing nitrogen products, but not phosphates...yet. It is expensive to remove phosphates and they have already begun taking water samples to have a baseline to monitor against in the future. If it is shown that the phosphates are not diluting to non-harmful levels, they will need to place equipment on site to remove the phosphates. This testing will take about 4 years to complete. That is a long time, but it is better than what we usually get from our government (a complete disregard for our wetland environment). They are also studying the best way to route the discharge in the future. They could pipe it north into Bear River Refuge, south into the airboat channel, or keep sending it west in the existing ditch. Either way, it all ends up in the Spur. More meetings are in the works, but for now, we have their attention and we will not roll over and allow them to pollute a vitally important waterfowl area. Someone needs to speak for the ducks, and it has to be us, you and me, paddlers, walkers, bikers, boaters, all waterfowlers need to be concerned with protecting what's left of our waterfowl areas. Thanks to all that participated!
R


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## king eider (Aug 20, 2009)

My uncle still has his injunction(sp?) pending with the cities of Willard/perry. They tried to move forward with a quick court date while my uncle was on vacation. Once the judge found that out he told the city lawyers to play it straight and come back. I have noticed the track hoe is down in the field ready to make the ditch right. I wonder how far west they are taking the ditch? Do you know R?


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## rjefre (Sep 8, 2007)

They worked out the legal issue with the ditch the other day and now it will go into the existing ditch, they will re-vegetate to parallel ditch, and they will send it right out to the Spur. This may be temporary depending on whether they decide to pump it north to the BRBR. Like I said, it will still end up in the Spur, so we will not allow them to stop the testing and monitoring. If there are measureable impacts, they will have to make things right. This corrective action would NEVER have happened if Utah waterfowlers hadn't made their voices known. Thank goodness we still have the right to question our government's decisions!!!
R


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## king eider (Aug 20, 2009)

i can tell you if the decision is to pump the water north to the BRBR the cities of perry/willard will have a legal battle on their hands. it will pretty much take a court order/eminent(sp?) domain to get passage though my uncles ground. i think the better options at this point are straight west or south to the spur channel we use to launch our boats. i do know this, i cant use the discharge water to create any ponds or the like.


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## rjefre (Sep 8, 2007)

If they decide to go north, they will use eminent domian if necessary. It would be pumped through a buried pipe, so the impacts would be fairly small. *The phosphate's impacts may not be so small however*. If this causes large algeal blooms over the Willard Spur and Bear River Bay, then the duck hunting in Harold Crane, Ogden Bay, and Bear River Refuge would suffer dramatically! We do not want to let that happen! We already have things tough enough without depleting the supply of ducks to the local WMA's.
R


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## indyrxl (Aug 22, 2008)

As far as I know work was completed on the ditch on Saturday the 19th. The plant is set to discharge tomorrow (Feb 22) according to the Engineer and Plant Operator.

The ditch will have a final touch up and be seeded once the area dries out enough to get back in there.

The Cities and the Engeering firm meets with the State on the 24 to decied what further treatment will take place at the plant to treat for the levels that are out of compliance according to that DEQ 2010 standards.

The treatment plant was designed to the 2008 standards. If you have an issue with this sewer plant you need to look in addtion to this plant at all of the other WWTP along the Wasatch front. 70% of all waste water along the Wasatch Front is discharged into the GSL.


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## Phragmites (Sep 12, 2007)

*You can't polish a turd, beavis*

I don't think there could have been a truer statement for this facility.


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## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

That's really sad fellas.

The Bear River is plagued with high phosphate levels, natural and man-made, among other pollutants. The Woodruff Narrows Reservoir just upstream from the Utah border has annual algae blooms now at such a level that subsequent low oxygen levels in the reservoir, and river below, many times prohibits the Fish & Game from planting fish in the once great fishery. The Bear is one of the major polluters to the Great Salt Lake marsh ecosystem.

And there's legislation being stirred up in many Western States to back off on discharge regulations for many substances. 

sad.....Good luck.


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## king eider (Aug 20, 2009)

The problem is Thom you are not the property owner. you are a lessee which negates a lot of your options. Is the sitla folks wanting to take on a huge costly lawsuit when your lease only brings Them[sitla] $1000/year? I dare say thats a big NO. You however could bring a wrongful claim. How deep are your pockets?  Deep enough to take on the two cities? i am willing to bet the sitla folks will dump that property as soon as they can. sitla folks are not interested in controlling wetland property. i would bet they probably will do some type of land swap with the DNR/DWR some point down the road. i know it has been talked about. good luck with the battle. i think the cities of willard/perry can see the bluff. they have spent millions on that building. i don't think a small seed harvest is going to stand in their way. Like i told my uncle when he was complaining about selling them the property and how he shouldn't have. i told him he did it right by getting top dollar. they would have taken that parcel by way of eminent domain. but like i said... Good luck that area is going to see some changes! if you do end up in court, i hope you have a lawyer who will win for you in the end.


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## Longgun (Sep 7, 2007)

Phosphates... isnt that something that GSL mineral is after?


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## indyrxl (Aug 22, 2008)

So where have you all been for all of the public commet periods? If you all are citizens of Perry or Willard you should feel bad that you are paying for a 10 million dollar WWTP and both cities also paid for close to 3 million dollars each to install the tranmission lines to the plant. So 16 million or so dollars have been spent so you all can flush your toilets and have better ground water for your children instead of flushing to your septic tanks. Hmmmm :shock: . 

I don't know if your pockets are deeper than mine, but I would be mad. Seeing all of my tax dollars wasted. :evil: 

Does anyone know what the current phosphorus levels in the GSL? What are the estimated phosphorus levels that will be discharged from the plant if it gets up and running without any additional changes? If you increase the water load into the GSL with some chemicals in it won't it decreass the percentage of over all chemicals if you are futher deluting all chemicals becasue of the increase water that enters GSL from the WWTP? Just a thought?

Has anyone looked at what the levels are that come in from the Bear River, Weber River, Jordan river? and other canal's?

How much is Central Weber Sewer District that is expanding in Far West discharging out there?

@ DN I think your uncle has made a pile of cash off of all of the projects that have gone on through out all of his propeties. He shouldn't have anything to complain about. If he wouldn't have sold the ground they would have just gone somewhere else more than likely. From the WWTP to all of the power projects how many millions did he make? Hopefully he cuts you in on it! :mrgreen:


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## rjefre (Sep 8, 2007)

The answers to a lot of these questions will be answered in the next few years. They have already begun baseline date research and when they start discharging next week, they will begin monitoring the overall levels of these pollutants. It is too late to stop the pollution from plants that are already running, and from the massively polluted Bear River, but we can start now with new stuff coming online. It's all we can do. Maybe later down the road we can insist on better water quality regulations for landowners along the Bear, and for sewage systems that dump into the GSL or the Jordan or the Bear, but wars are sometimes won with a series of small victories.
R


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## indyrxl (Aug 22, 2008)

rjefre said:


> The answers to a lot of these questions will be answered in the next few years. They have already begun baseline date research and when they start discharging next week, they will begin monitoring the overall levels of these pollutants. It is too late to stop the pollution from plants that are already running, and from the massively polluted Bear River, but we can start now with new stuff coming online. It's all we can do. Maybe later down the road we can insist on better water quality regulations for landowners along the Bear, and for sewage systems that dump into the GSL or the Jordan or the Bear, but wars are sometimes won with a series of small victories.
> R


Where are you getting all of your info on the Perry/Willard plant and where can we follow the test data of the current plants discharging? Do you know any of the plant operators that we can get this info from?


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## rjefre (Sep 8, 2007)

I am a participant in the Willard/Perry treatment plant steering committee. I have been attending the Water Quality Board meetings, ect. It's a pain in the you-know-what, but I feel that someone from the waterfolwing community needs to be a watchdog on this deal. Today I will be attending the Water Quality Board meeting at 10:30 AM. Today, the cities of Willard/Perry are asking for a hardship grant to cover the costs of the Wastewater Nutrient Removal Facility Plan. They will need at least 1.5 million to cover their costs. All of this is because they failed to plan ahead for wetland pollution and then they thought they could bulldoze the duck hunters into giving up on our insistance for clean water going into marshlands.
R


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## indyrxl (Aug 22, 2008)

Let us know what you discover at the meeting today


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## rjefre (Sep 8, 2007)

Their request was approved by a 6-4 vote. If they get all of their testing done this week, they can start discharging on March 1rst. If not, they will have to wait until the baseline data can be collected. The cities have agreed to wait if necessary. On a strange side note, I found out that the Bear River Refuge has shown interest in paying to get the outfall water piped over to them...untreated. This seems odd because they have been a very strong opponent of dumping untreated water in to the Spur. Weird.
R


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## Bears Butt (Sep 12, 2007)

I have a hard time believing the refuge would want "untreated" waste water. That doesn't make any sense. What they are probably saying is they would accept the waste water as it is under the state guidelines of 2008, which is what Willard was told to build their plant to handle.


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## stuckduck (Jan 31, 2008)

rjefre said:


> Their request was approved by a 6-4 vote. If they get all of their testing done this week, they can start discharging on March 1rst. If not, they will have to wait until the baseline data can be collected. The cities have agreed to wait if necessary. On a strange side note, I found out that the Bear River Refuge has shown interest in paying to get the outfall water piped over to them...untreated. This seems odd because they have been a very strong opponent of dumping untreated water in to the Spur. Weird.
> R


That is VERY odd.. I remember siting in a meeting with Bob Barrett and I asked about water flow and he said its not quantity of water but quality.. that is odd they would take it untreated...


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## rjefre (Sep 8, 2007)

You are correct BearsButt. What I should have said is the water would be the discharge water that comes out of the treatment plant (treated water, but not fit for wetlands). There would be no "floaties" or anything like that. As far as what the feds are trying to accomplish..time will tell.
R


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## indyrxl (Aug 22, 2008)

rjefre said:


> You are correct BearsButt. What I should have said is the water would be the discharge water that comes out of the treatment plant (treated water, but not fit for wetlands). There would be no "floaties" or anything like that. As far as what the feds are trying to accomplish..time will tell.
> R


So what else can you tell us about the meeting. Do you know where we can track the tests results of the plant? or any of the other plants? Maybe pm me some contact info if you have any, if that is the only way we can see what they are discharging.


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## rjefre (Sep 8, 2007)

Each plant does testing of its discharge makeup. I'm sure that you can contact any sewer plant and ask for their latest monitoring data. With that being said, I will still talk to the Division of Water Quality at the next meeting and see if there is an easy way for regular folks to track discharge data. Maybe there is an easy answer.
As for what else went on at the meeting, there were a lot of people from Sunrise Engineering, and Willard and Perry cities there. After the vote, I left because I had to go to work, and also because I wasn't concerned with the other projects that were aksing for money.
R


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## rjefre (Sep 8, 2007)

It looks like they won't be able to start dischargin tomorrow like they hoped. The baseline data has not been gathered yet. If they don't get it done tomorow, they may need some members of the Utah Airboat Association to get them out there and get the testing done.

On a related note: *The legislature just passed a bill that restricts citizens ability to challenge govt decisions like this one.* It now goes to the state senate for approval. The bill (HB 399) says that if you want to *challenge a govt entity regarding an environmental decision*, or get a stay against a decision, you will need to get with a surety company and post a bond. This would have priced us right out of the process with this sewer plant. The sponsor, Rep Noel from Kane County, says this is the best way to stop extreme environmentalists from shutting down things like mines and oil drilling operations. Maybe so, but in the process, he shuts down the regular citizen by making it so that only the rich or the rich organizations can challenge a goverment decision. I'm embarrased to say that I'm a Republican sometimes...this is a classic big-govt power grab and a free gimme to polluting businesses.
R


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