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ALKAI Consultants contract develops into Fort Lewis Agreement to Pretreat Hazardous Wastes
6/7/2007 12:00:00 AM
OLYMPIA, Washington, June 7, 2007 (ENS) - The Washington Department of Ecology and Fort Lewis have agreed to eliminate potential discharges of hazardous wastes to the Fort's wastewater treatment plant.
The memorandum of understanding signed Tuesday outlines the steps and timeline Fort Lewis will follow to develop and implement a pretreatment program for any industrial wastes generated by the Fort and other potential sources that use the garrison's wastewater treatment plant - Madigan Army Medical Center, McChord Air Force Base, Camp Murray, the American Lake Veterans Administration Hospital and Clover Park district schools.
The state agency and Fort Lewis officials agree that intercepting and pretreating industrial wastes is important because the Fort's wastewater treatment system was not designed to handle hazardous waste.
A pretreatment program will intercept, capture and appropriately manage industrial wastes, providing an even stronger measure of protection.
"Protecting and restoring the health of Puget Sound is a top priority for Governor [Christine] Gregoire and Ecology, and this agreement will help eliminate potential sources of industrial pollution to an already fragile ecosystem," said Department of Ecology Director Jay Manning.
Since the Fort Lewis wastewater treatment plant services five other sources, Manning says this agreement has the potential to protect Puget Sound from the pollution of a city-sized population.
Fort Lewis and Ecology had previously agreed in principle on the need for a pretreatment program at the military installation.
For that reason, Fort Lewis began working on design of such a system in September 2006 and hired a professional engineer in December to start the assistance and inspection component of such a program.
"We are seriously committed to preserving the land and water for which we've been given stewardship responsibility," said Colonel Cynthia Murphy, Fort Lewis garrison commander.
"We've long been an environmental leader in Washington state and among defense establishments, and this agreement teams us with the Department of Ecology to protect the natural resources of this beautiful region," she said.
Under the cooperative agreement, Fort Lewis will identify, sample and inspect all sources of industrial wastewater currently discharging to the Fort's treatment plant. Then, through the issuance of discharge permits or other administrative controls, Fort Lewis will limit discharges to the treatment plant to those pollutants that the plant can effectively treat and control.
The Fort will ask the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to amend its current National Pollution Discharge Elimination System permit to incorporate the pretreatment program.
Located about 10 miles southwest of Tacoma, Washington, the Fort was named after Meriwether Lewis of the Lewis and Clark expedition. With 25,000 soldiers and civilian workers, it is one of the largest military reservations in the United States.
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