Toccoa City Commission Reviews Local Wastewater Discharge Limits

The Toccoa City Commission reviewed local limits for wastewater discharge at their work session Monday.

City Manager Billy Morse said for the city to operate its industrial pre-treatment program, the discharge permit at Eastanollee Creek must be renewed on a five-year basis and requires review of the industrial limits to ensure the industrial contributions don’t interfere with the wastewater treatment operation.

Morse said the current local limits were established in 1997.

“The current local limits were established in 1997,” said Morse. “Over time, water quality regulations for receiving streams have tightened. Nutrient limits for ammonia and phosphorus have been added to our discharge limits.”

Consulting firm Carter and Sloope Engineers looked at the local limits and how they apply to current customers in Toccoa.

According to consulting engineer Alex Wiseman, their recommendation involves lowering multiple pollutant limits and adding nutrient levels for ammonia and phosphorus.

He said these recommendations would not affect any existing customers and the proposed limits were approved by the Environmental Protection Division.

Morse said these limits are in place because the state only allows so many elements in the wastewater streams.

“There’s so many elements that we can put into the wastewater stream, in other words we’ve got to treat it to the point where we have to take a lot of that stuff out,” said Morse. “But they allow some of those chemicals to pass through and get into the stream. They want to make sure that it doesn’t kill the fish or those kind of things. So there’s a list of limits that every community that has a wastewater system has and they’re all a little different depending on how big the plant is or how big the stream is.”

He added that because some industries produce certain elements, they must be a part of the pretreatment program to ensure they deal with their waste properly.

“Now all of our industrial customers are in the industrial pre-treatment program,” said Morse. “Some industry deal with say zinc more than others so they have to be in the industrial pre-treatment program to make sure that they deal with that zinc so we don’t have to deal with it. Every five years, the state makes us re-evaluate the program, look at those limits and it’s turning out, and this is statewide, especially with ammonia and phosphorus, they’re adding those. We’ve never had to deal with those before and then they’re changing the limits on all the other stuff.”

In Toccoa, there are two wastewater plants, including Toccoa Creek on Scenic Drive and Eastanollee Creek. Morse said that while both plants are affected by these limits, Eastanollee Creek is impacted more because that’s where all the industrial pre-treatment customers’ waste goes.

The EPD is currently taking public comment regarding these local limits. Anyone who wants to give feedback can do so at epd.georgia.gov.