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EAST PALESTINE -- Days after the federal Environmental Protection Agency approved a work plan to allow Norfolk Southern (NS) to treat hazardous wastewater on-site to remove vinyl chloride and other contaminants and be disposed of off-site as a non-hazardous waste, East Palestine Water Superintendent Scott Wolfe asked the village government to consider permitting the municipal wastewater plant to receive some of that treated water during Monday's village council meeting.
Wolfe and Ohio EPA Water Quality Supervisor Bill Zawisk both said wastewater at the new NS facility would be treated to "drinking water standards" and then hauled off-site for disposal in trucks or, under Wolfe's proposal, some of it piped into the East Palestine wastewater plant via a series of pumps and a hard tap-in to the village's sanitary lines by Norfolk Southern.
"I would like the council to move forward with looking at our wastewater plant taking this water," Wolfe said. "This would go directly into our sanitary system once it's treated. It would run through their plant and into more tanks at the plant where it would be stored. From there the water would be tested. If water samples indicate the water is clear, then it would be hauled off site in trucks or discharged directly to us. We just want to make it publicly known that the village is exploring this possibility."
Wolfe said the water would be "very clean" and while the village does not have the capability to take all the water, taking some it would reduce the truck traffic on the village roads. He went on to explain the process in which the village would utilize to accept only a certain amount of the discharge. The early plans are to use a VFD (variable frequency drive).
"The pumps would essentially have a like throttle. You would have a flow meter to show how many pounds you are accepting," Wolfe said. "You would have the ability to say 'okay, we can take x amounts of pounds this day or we can't take x amount of pounds this day. You have control over how much you do actually accept."
Wolfe further explained that the water would be treated twice if accepted by the city -- once by Norfolk Southern and then again by the village.
When asked by East Palestine Mayor Trent Conaway if the EPA was comfortable with the plans and proposed discharge into the village sewer system, Zawisk said that while the EPA is neither promoting or discouraging the idea, they are confident in the ability of the NS facility to render the derailment wastewater non-hazardous.
"What I want to make really clear here is Ohio EPA, U.S. EPA and Norfolk Southern have no preference in where this water goes. It has to be treated, that's our regulatory requirement, and it has to be managed. You are purely an option," Zawisk said "The Ohio EPA reviewed the treatment system, and minus the treatment for chlorine and fluorine, it's basically a drinking water treatment plant. And it has multiple levels of redundancy. I've worked at Ohio EPA since 1989 and we've approved many groundwater clean-up plans using these same techniques. Some plants have several techniques but this thing has all of them, so from a treatment standpoint we are very comfortable."
Zawisk also said that in order for NS to discharge directly into the village sanitary lines, an additional permit is required, but ultimately permission from East Palestine will make or break the plan.
"There's a real distinct process in how this works," he said. "To discharge to the sewer they have to have two things -- they have to have a permit from us and, the second thing is, independently from whether we issue a permit or not, they need your permission to tie into the sewer."
Council said it would consider the proposal and announced a statement would be posted to the East Palestine Information Facebook page to acknowledge it is considering the proposal.
Council also announced a statement concerning its intention to enact a special tax exemption for all assistance paid out to residents by Norfolk Southern would also be posted to the page directly after the meeting and moved forward with the first of three required readings needed to pass the ordinance. Residents who received financial support and reimbursements from the railroad will receive a 1099 from the IRS considering the payments income. Without the exemption, any amount received by residents from the railroad would be subject to 1.5 percent under the village's current tax code. The state of Ohio has already made railroad assistance tax exempt from Ohio taxes and a proposal to do the same at the federal level has been presented.
In other matters, council approved a resolution to hire the economic development firm of Bricker Graydon at a cost $150,000 a year to help revitalize the village in the wake of the rail disaster. Also, Interim Village Manager Traci Spratt announced that the city's siren and warning system for inclement weather cannot be repaired to working condition and that a new system will cost upwards of $40,000, which Norfolk Southern has agreed to pay for.
selverd@mojonews.com