Oh, The Irony....

I read an article in the newspaper the other day that I wanted to write about, and while looking for the online article to link to, I found out about a cool new tool from the Environmental Protection Agency- the 

Discharge Monitoring Report (DMR) Pollutant Loading Tool. You can search for information about water pollution sources, such as what companies are polluting waterways, and the contaminants. I did a broad search for the pollution in my EPA Region (#2, which includes New York, New Jersey, and the U.S. Virgin Islands) and got a list of the top ten facilities discharging contaminants (by weight), and the top 10 facilities discharging toxic contaminants. I was really surprised by who made the list:

A list of the top ten facility discharges of toxic compounds by TWPE (toxic weighted pound equivalent)
which is calculated by multiplying the compounds mass by its toxic weighting factor (each compound has a different TWF to indicate its toxicity).

Dupont is a chemical company, so I'm not surprised it made the list; Sugar Bay Plantation Resort is a hotel; AES Somerset is a coal fired power station; the rest of the entries are either waste water or sewage treatment plants. What the heck?

I went through the first ten pages of the 459 total pages that listed all of the facilities and found the following entries that I would have intuitively though would outrank a wastewater treatment plant: the General Motors Plant in Syracuse, NY; a nuclear power plant in Ontario, NY; Barceloneta Chemical Lab in Puerto Rico; and  a Bacardi Rum facility in Puerto Rico. Some of the facilities that made the top 10 are listed more than once with in the first few pages for having a top TWPE (see picture caption for an explanation) for more than one chemical.

I am so surprised to see the very facilities working towards cleaner waterways are beating out facilities like a nuclear power plant. However, looking at the top pollutant for the water treatment plants you notice that 6 of the 7 listed are discharging chlorine, which is used for disinfection.

But then why is the Tallman Island WPCP (water pollution control plant) listed on page 10 of 459 for a top pollutant of cyanide? And why is the Niagara Falls Waste Water Treatment Plant listed on page 8 for mercury? Also on page 8 is a water pollution control plant in Jamaica, NY for cyanide. The Ward's Island WPCP is on page 3 of 459 for discharging ammonia as NH3.

 But before I go on a tirade about it, I need to remember that I'm no expert in waste water treatment, and do not understand the nuances of the process. So I did some research  to double check myself and found that it is indeed possible to remove heavy metals from water, and there are a variety of methods to do so (here's a link to one way).

I know that waste water treatment can not remove all of the contaminants..... but I am flabbergasted that waste water treatment plants are among the top polluters for heavy metals and nasty chemicals. I'd like to know where the water originates from after contamination but before treatment. That may give some insight as to why these waste water treatment plants are discharging pollution. Another thing that must be taken into consideration is the size of the water body that is receiving the discharge- perhaps the actual concentrations of these contaminants in the water and sediment are not all that high.

If there is anyone out there with more knowledge on this subject, feel free to comment or email me with an explanation to this oddity, and I'll follow up on my blog with it.