Village tardy in submitting discharge reports

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By Dan King
Whitehall is behind on submitting the Discharge Monitoring Report for the wastewater treatment plant, dating back to the month of June.
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) issues permits to wastewater plants throughout the state, in order to establish an acceptable level of pollutant discharge into state water supplies. In the case of Whitehall, the state water is the Champlain Canal.
All wastewater plants must submit a Discharge Monitoring Report to the state DEC, which illustrates the monitoring and reporting of waste discharge. Each report is due on the 28th of the following month and Whitehall submitted the June report after the July 28 deadline.
When a municipality, like the village of Whitehall, falls behind on the reports it can cause problems within the DEC’s Division of Water (DOW).
Due to a growing number of towns and villages slacking on the timeliness of the reports, the DOW decided to up the ante on its enforcement process. The DOW now sends notices of violation to wastewater facilities that are not submitting the reports in a timely and accurate manner. From the notice of violation, additional action can be taken, if a treatment facility proves to be a repeat offender.
The letter to Whitehall from DEC Environmental Engineering Technician Andrew Luce states, “Continued late submission of the monthly DMR is a violation of your SPDES permit and the Environmental Conservation Law. Continued unexplained or unjustified late submission may result in legal action by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation.”
Mayor Peter Telisky received the letter on Aug. 25 and spoke with officials at the wastewater plant, explaining the importance of submitting these reports in a timely manner.
For the time being, DEC has not taken any action against the village regarding the late submission of the DMR, but state officials said that it is an ongoing issue.
“The Village of Whitehall submitted the June 2014 DMRs for both the WWTP and the WTW after the July 28 deadline,” Lori Severino, media relations for New York DEC said, “Subsequently the Village was issued a separate Notice of Violation for each late submission. This is an open enforcement matter at this time and we cannot comment further.”
On Monday, wastewater officials, along with Public Works Supervisor Don Williams and Mayor Peter Telisky took the Whitehall Times on a tour of the facility. The officials reassured that despite the late submission of the June report, the pollution prevention was running at peak efficiency and the water being discharged into the Canal appeared crystal clear