By JEREMY PAWLOSKI
Nov. 29, 2000 (Albuquerque Journal)--The high cost to meet proposed stricter federal rules for water quality is driving the city to look at alternatives to disposing treated wastewater in the Rio Grande, the city utilities director said Tuesday.
"The mother of invention is necessity," Utilities Director Larry Webb told the Utilities Commission. "All of a sudden we've had a lot of necessity thrown on our lap."
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recently released two draft permits that outline water quality requirements for treated wastewater, or effluent, the city is allowed to put in the river. The proposed requirements limit the amount of arsenic and fecal coliform bacteria that can be released.
The city has been cited numerous times in the past few years for not meeting the current fecal coloform limits.
Fecal coliform bacteria comes from warm-blooded animals and is used as an indicator to determine whether other animal-derived pathogens are in the water and can cause diseases such as cryptosporidia and salmonella.
Webb said after the meeting that one alternative to disposing effluent in the Rio Grande would be to reinject treated effluent into the city's aquifer. El Paso and other cities use effluent that meets drinking water standards, he added.
According to a Utilities Commission memorandum, it would cost Rio Rancho anywhere from $14 million to $90 million in equipment costs and up to $7 million in yearly operating expenses to meet stricter effluent standards that are being proposed by Sandia Pueblo.
The pueblo has told city officials of its intention to impose these stricter wastewater discharge guidelines on Rio Rancho, according to the memo.
"Their guidelines, especially for mercury and arsenic, are extreme, and the latter is based on drinking water standards, not wastewater standards," the memo states.
Exploring alternatives for disposing of effluent will be a good start toward increasing the long-term sustainability of the city's water supply, Webb said.
Utility commissioners will take action next month on a proposed resolution that will allow the city to "examine alternative uses of its treated wastewater effluent," according to Utilities Commissioner Herb Bowman.
"The associated costs for the design, permitting and licensing, construction, funding and implementation of alternate effluent uses and facilities should be investigated as expeditiously as possible," the proposed draft resolution states.
Rio Rancho currently can discharge up to 200 fecal coliform bacteria units per 100 milliliters on a 30-day average and 400 on a seven day average.
The EPA's proposed permits limit fecal coliform bacteria counts to 100 units per 100 milliliters on a monthly average and 200 on a weekly average.
In the long run, it's not going be cost effective for the city to dump effluent in the Rio Grande, Bowman said during the meeting.
"Discharging into public waters gets more and more difficult and more and more costly," he said.
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