700-Gallon Bleach Spill Is Latest Woe For Sewage Treatment Plant
By Peak Johnson
Almost 700 gallons of a hazardous cleaning agent was spilled at the Binghamton-Johnson City Joint Sewage Treatment Facility in New York last week.
According to a press release obtained by press connects, 694 gallons of sodium hypochlorite spilled at the facility. The Department of Environmental Conservation's (DEC) Region 7 Spills Response Unit was alerted following the release.
Sodium hypochlorite is a compound of chlorine used as a disinfectant or bleaching agent. The DEC reported that the spill took place on October 19 around 8:30 p.m. None of the sodium hypochlorite was recovered and it is affecting nearby soil.
The DEC is looking into the incident and “monitoring for additional environmental impacts.”
This is not the first time that the Binghamton-Johnson facility has found itself in trouble. It was just last year when New York State auditors found that the treatment facility had been “charging users more to get less, in a report that the facility’s governing board blasted as creating ‘a false and unfavorable impression’ of the costs.”
The New York auditors found that the facility had the third-highest average cost per million gallons compared to eight similar plants in the state from 2012 to 2014, press connects reported.
“Because the plant is unable to operate all of the treatment processes, users are paying more for the sewage treatment services,” the audit report stated.
This was out of compliance with DEC discharge guidelines.
After damage in a September 2011 flood and the partial collapse of an exterior wall, Binghamton-Johnson has been unable to fully treat incoming sewage and wastewater. Three years after the September wall collapsed, work towards restoring the Binghamton-Johnson City Joint Sewage Treatment Plant began. The city council had approved a “modified consent order” with the DEC in order to add a pilot study to review a new filtration system.
“The owners should ensure the board has the resources, including a fully operational facility, to promptly meet the board’s responsibilities,” the report states. “When water quality is affected by events, including natural disasters and facility issues, the board and owners should work to avoid unnecessary costs and quickly resolve any issues that impact the processes responsible for the effective treatment of wastewater.”
New York and the plant were able to develop a deal with the department to bring it back into compliance. A $200 million, multi-phase construction project is in progress, according to press connects.