Lawton officials surprised by news of ammonia in effluent

Treatment processes at the City of Lawton wastewater treatment plant are in full compliance for the first time in a long time, despite a Notice of Violation imposed Tuesday by the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality (ODEQ).

City officials are responding to the news that the wastewater plant has been cited for “discharge without a permit,” with the primary issue being high ammonia concentrations found in East Cache Creek. The notice is in reference to an incident on July 7, when eight fish found were dead in East Cache Creek near Walters’ Sultan Park, located 25 miles south of the wastewater plant. The notice included data from June 22 to July 8, indicating effluent (treated water discharged from the plant) ammonia concentrations ranged from 14.3 to 21.5 milligrams per liter, exceeding ammonia toxicity threshold for fish.

Monthly requirements for ammonia should be 2 parts per million (or milligrams per liter), while the weekly average is 3 parts per million.

David Hastings, wastewater treatment plan superintendent, said plant officials were surprised by the news about ammonia levels, something he said would have been due to a lack of biological activities in the plant’s treatment processes. The news was surprising because the city’s indications from its reports is that the plant is meeting mandated treatment levels and was back in full compliance with treatment mandates as of Saturday (July 27).

“Something happened July 8,” Hastings said, adding plant officials aren’t certain exactly what the reason is for the higher-than-permitted ammonia levels when the June report dates indicated levels were within mandates, but theorized that factors such as hot temperatures and low water flow in East Cache Creek could be at play.

While the plant’s monitoring indicates it is in full compliance, Hastings said the facility “still is in a vulnerable state” because Phase I construction activities still are under way. That work is keyed toward modernizing and repairing the aging plant, and it sometimes calls for some processes to be taken offline. The work is expected to continue for eight to 10 more months, Hastings said of the first of three phases of upgrades that the City of Lawton will be spacing out over years to improve the plant.

This marks the second time in recent months the City of Lawton has received a Notice of Violation about its wastewater plant.

In April, ODEQ issued a notice alleging illegal discharges into Nine Mile Creek (which flows into East Cache Creek). ODEQ said discharge monitoring reports showed 19 violations of discharge since December, six each associated with ammonia, total suspended solids and five-day carbonaceous biochemical oxygen demand; and one for dissolved oxygen. All four are measurements specified for effluent.

In addition, an ODEQ inspector responding to citizen complaints found two instances of seeing water with the gray appearance and odor of sewage, indicating the plant “was only providing partial secondary biological treatment.”

Dustan Stapp was among those who noticed color and odor problems in East Cache Creek.

Stapp said he and his wife enjoy fishing and used to swim in the creek as youngsters. On a recent visit to fish, Stapp said he noticed the water was black “and dead fish everywhere.”

“It smelled like sewer,” he said, adding that as a plumber, the creek reminded him of water that is pulled out of sewers.

Stapp said others have told him sewage was being dumped into the creek upstream, adding he remembers his late grandfather warning him to stay out of the creek “because they dump sewer in there.” A one time critic, Stapp said he now is concerned.

“That creek overflows and goes into the park, it gets into other water sources, lakes, other stuff around here,” he said. “It’s been polluting everything in this region.

“I’m glad something is being done about it. It doesn’t affect them; they’re upstream. It affects everybody down this way.”