New Alaska water quality rules are coming. Here’s what that could mean for wastewater systems.

The Anchorage Water and Wastewater Utility building (AWWU)

New rules for wastewater are connected nan sky for Alaska. The EPA has fixed nan state’s Department of Environmental Conservation six to 12 months to update nan state’s h2o value standards, and nan state’s largest wastewater strategy says caller rules could coming challenges.

The updated standards will supply a much meticulous estimate of really overmuch food Alaskans eat, said Gene McCabe, nan h2o section head astatine nan Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation.

“So nan basal premise present is, is that you know, nan food unrecorded successful nan water, and if location are definite pollutants successful that water, they will, complete their lifetime, sorb those pollutants into their bodies,” McCabe said successful a telephone interview. “And past erstwhile humans eat them, of course, past we sorb those pollutants that are successful nan food into our bodies.”

Some pollutants mightiness sound familiar, for illustration mercury and arsenic. Others are a spot much exotic, for illustration tetrachloroethylene and dimethyl phthalate. Some travel from business processes. Tetrachloroethylene, for instance, is utilized successful barren cleaning and successful immoderate automotive brake cleaners. 

But immoderate others — for illustration dimethyl phthalate and different phthalate chemicals — show up each complete nan place, including galore people’s homes, said Mark Corsentino, nan wide head for nan Anchorage Water and Wastewater Utility.

“It tin beryllium successful cosmetics. It’s successful laundry detergent. It’s successful plastics,” Corsentino said successful a telephone interview.

Not to mention food and moreover immoderate bottled water, positive immoderate elastic PVC pipes.

Corsentino is successful complaint of nan largest wastewater strategy successful Alaska. He’s responsible for making judge nan wastewater discharged from nan city’s h2o strategy into Cook Inlet complies pinch nan rules. And he’s concerned that nan caller rules could require screening wastewater for phthalates, which require costly precocious curen to region from nan water.

States each complete nan state are moving connected updating their h2o value standards. Washington State precocious went done a akin process besides driven by an upward revision to nan food depletion rate. And definite pollutants are causing headaches arsenic nan authorities implements stricter standards laid retired by nan EPA successful 2022.

“PCBs was astir apt nan astir vexing chemic for us,” said Melissa Gildersleeve, who oversees h2o value standards for nan Washington Department of Ecology.

PCBs are polychlorinated biphenyls. They’re now severely restricted successful caller products, but they show up successful a ton of older products for illustration pigments and coolant for electrical transformers. They’ve posed a peculiar problem successful nan Spokane area, Gildersleeve said, and while h2o curen plants tin region a batch of PCBs, they’re not really designed to do so. 

“So, you know, a batch of our activity has been astir trying to find nan eventual root of nan PCBs,” she said.

And erstwhile they find it, they spell aft nan source. For example: earlier this year, Washington authorities officials petitioned nan EPA to tighten limits connected PCBs successful user products.

Gildersleeve said it’s a akin communicative pinch phthalates, nan chemicals that nan folks successful Anchorage are worried about. Even integrative cups and tubing utilized to return samples tin lend phthlates to nan water, she said.

“That’s wherever a batch of our implementation is oriented, is it conscionable really search down wherever those sources are,” she said.

And Corsentino, pinch Anchorage Water and Wastewater, said root power should beryllium nan attraction successful immoderate effort to trim really overmuch nan chemicals show up successful wastewater.

For his part, McCabe, nan h2o section head astatine nan Alaska DEC, said he’s little concerned that stricter limits will airs a problem for wastewater operators. He said he’s been successful touch pinch wastewater authorities astir nan state, and erstwhile they brought up chemicals that tin leach from pipes, nan section took a person look astatine really they’re regulated crossed nan country. Just a fistful of wastewater accommodation look circumstantial limits for those pollutants arsenic a information of their wastewater permits, he said.

“And nan only accommodation we recovered were from very, very ample cities, multimillion-population cities, truthful we weren’t really seeing them from nan aforesaid type of organization that we spot present successful Alaska,” McCabe said.

But for now, McCabe and chap officials astatine nan Alaska DEC are still moving connected what nan state’s caller h2o value standards should look like. He says he’s hopeful nan section will beryllium capable to merchandise draught standards for nationalist remark later this summer.