Black Warrior Riverkeeper Talks EPA Suit, Kamtek Settlement

TUSCALOOSA, AL — It's been a busy week for Black Warrior Riverkeeper Nelson Brooke, as the environmental advocacy group joined a coalition of others in suing the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), while also reaching an amicable settlement with Kamtek in Birmingham.

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On Tuesday, the group joined with several other advocacy organizations in suing the federal agency for failing to set limits on chemicals like cyanide, benzene, mercury, and chlorides found in wastewater discharge from U.S. oil refineries, chemical plants, and factories that manufacture fertilizer, plastics, pesticides, and nonferrous metals.

Black Warrior Riverkeeper points out that The Clean Water Act requires the EPA to limit discharges of industrial pollutants based on the best available wastewater treatment methods and to tighten those limits at least once every five years.

"For the chemical plants, it addresses direct discharges to the river, as well as the indirect discharges to the [Ed Love Water Treatment Plant]," Brooke told Patch on Wednesday. "So, any direct discharges from the facilities occur upstream of [the University of Alabama] campus and the River Walk. Then the discharge to the wastewater treatment plant is going to occur on the main sewer line that runs along the river. Another piece is if there's a sanitary sewer overflow, if raw sewage spills out of that collection system pipe, anywhere between those facilities and the wastewater plant down on the west side of town, then that means untreated chemicals, in addition to sewage, are being spilled out to area streams and the river to where people are recreating."

Indeed, the lawsuit against the EPA claims the agency has never set limits for many pollutants and has failed to update the few decades-old limits on the books. These include limits set almost four decades ago for oil refineries, plastics manufacturers, and fertilizer plants.

Here are some quick facts provided in the lawsuit

• Due to outdated pollution control technology standards, 81 oil refineries across the country discharged 15.7 million pounds of nitrogen and 1.6 billion pounds of chlorides, sulfates, and other dissolved solids into waterways in 2021.
• Twenty-one nitrogen fertilizer plants discharged 7.7 million pounds of total nitrogen, which causes algae blooms and fish-killing “dead zones”
• The EPA estimates that 229 inorganic chemical plants dumped over 2 billion pounds of pollution into waterways in 2019.

"Hunt Refining Co. is such a massive facility and its discharges are into the river just downstream of Oliver Lock and Dam," Brooke told Patch. "There are a lot of people recreating on that stretch of river for dozens of miles downriver. It's kind of mind-boggling that these loopholes have existed for so many decades for such big, nasty facilities like oil refineries and chemical plants. If we're successful, then that would have an outsized impact on everyone's health and well-being."

KAMTEK SETTLEMENT

While the status of the EPA lawsuit has numerous groups waiting for a response from the federal agency, Black Warrior Riverkeeper — in a rare instance — says Kamtek is working to address its pollution issues instead of fighting the accusations in federal court.

Black Warrior Riverkeeper says Kamtek discharges process wastewater to Jefferson County’s Five Mile Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant, which then discharges into Five Mile Creek — a tributary of the Locust Fork of the Black Warrior River

Black Warrior Riverkeeper staff attorney Eva Dillard said in the announcement on Wednesday that immediately after the group sent Kamtek a Notice of Intent to Sue in March 2022, the company asked for an opportunity to correct the violations without litigation.

"In the 21-year history of our organization sending Clean Water Act lawsuit notices, that request was a first," she said. "We were happy to sit down with Kamtek and work toward an agreement about the best ways for the plant to improve their treatment of toxic pollutants. We wish every facility in the watershed were this receptive to our concerns.”

Brooke concurred, saying that in most similar cases, the companies or polluters will wait until the eve of the 60-day deadline of the notice to take any action — if they respond at all.

Kamtek, however, reportedly considered the claims made by Black Warrior Riverkeeper and informed them that they had already been addressing some of the issues raised, but would also work to fix the problems identified by Black Warrior Riverkeeper.

"In this case, Kamtek, instead of saying 'see y'all in 60 days,' they acknowledged the issues and said they were working on them, but y'all also raised some interesting points," Brooke said. "Kamtek said they really would rather not go the lawsuit route, so can we give them time to do due diligence? That's really our intent is to spur action to get the perpetrating polluter to clean up its act."

Brooke then said Kamtek has agreed to pay for a $62,000 supplemental environmental project through the Freshwater Land Trust, in addition to reimbursing Black Warrior Riverkeeper $15,000 for attorneys' fees.

Also with addressing its treatment operations, Black Warrior Riverkeeper insists that Kamtek has increased the staffing of its wastewater operations so that there is a dedicated operator at the plant every day.

What's more, the company is also retrofitting an on-site lab at the plant — to the tune of $530,000. These improvements will allow the operators to collect and analyze wastewater samples in near real-time, providing the company the means to detect if their wastewater is not meeting permit standards prior to discharge and make the appropriate corrections before the wastewater is discharged to the Five Mile Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant.

“Holding industrial wastewater dischargers like Kamtek accountable to Clean Water Act categorical pretreatment standards for toxic pollutants limits the amount of ratepayer-funded treatment necessary to discharge compliant wastewater into Five Mile Creek," Brooke said. "The plant discharges into Five Mile Creek near Fultondale and upstream of Brookside, where locals and visitors alike access the creek for recreation such as swimming and canoeing with Five Mile Creek Canoe & Co.”

Brooke said Kamtek has a scope of work that they have been undertaking, so Black Warrior Riverkeeper plans to maintain communications with the company about where they are in their process.

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