On May 14, 2009, Washington State Department of Ecology issued a draft modification NPDES (National Discharge Elimination System) permit and fact sheet.  The draft permit and fact sheet addendum are available on-line at http://www.ecy.wa.gov/programs/wq/permits/central_permits.html.

Comments are due by June 14, 2009

Send comments to:
    Department of Ecology, Central Regional Office,
    15 West Yakima Avenue, Suite 200,
    Yakima, WA 98902,
    Attention: Cindy Huwe

Send email comments to Cindy Huwe at: chuw461@ecy.wa.gov.

The purpose of the modification is:

• To add monitoring for chlorine to the NPDES. Chlorine would be used to reduce unexpectedly high levels ammonia.
• To add some aspects of OHA’s settlement agreement to the permit such as increasing surface water monitoring during April, May, and June for turbidity and Total Dissolved Solids from monthly to bi-weekly for monitoring sites SW-7, 8, & 9 downstream on the east side of the mine and at three sites on Marias Creek Rd.
• To add grease and oil monitoring for water in and out of the treatment facility, the lack of which was an oversight from the original permit.
• To add another round of chronic and acute testing since the first one was not conclusive.

Issues:

• There is no disclosure of the impacts of increased chlorine on aquatic organisms. The public has a right to know the impacts of decisions before they are made. Ecology should show that adding chlorine to the environment is less harmful than other methods of reducing ammonia levels such as biological treatment, artificial wetlands or adding additional zeolites to the treatment facility. An AKART (All Known and Reasonable Technology) should be done.
  
• The engineering report for this NPDES modification was approved in February 2009 and includes a modification of the point of discharge of Outfall 002 from the storm water infiltration pond to from a pipe at the top of riprap on the hillside above Gold Bowl Creek. Ecology has wrongly considered this change in discharge point a minor modification since the change has previously caused erosion and slope instability, in violation of permit limits and so not covered under 40CFR122.63. There is no documented justification or cause for not using the stormwater pond to infiltrate discharge of Outfall 002.
  
• The effluent fails the acute toxicity testing if any aquatic test organism has less than 80% survival in 100% effluent. The toxicity tests conducted in September 2008 showed no survival (100% dead) in 100% effluent. Based on these results, additional monitoring should have taken place but did not.
  
• The modification fails to include other provisions of OHA’s settlement monitoring that are west of the mine. According to the settlement agreement water quality monitoring similar to NPDES requirements will be conducted on SW-5, 10, & 11 also. These monitoring points should also be included in the modified permit.
  
• Detection limits for a number of toxic metals are too close to, or in some case even higher than, relevant standards. These detection limits should be lowered and included in the permit and monitoring reports.