ASHTABULA TOWNSHIP —
An anticipated increase in production at Cristal Global’s two plants will mean more treated wastewater, and contaminants, will enter Lake Erie if a permit is approved.
The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday held a public hearing on the draft wastewater permit under review by the agency. John Schmidt, engineer for the Ohio EPA, and Kristopher Weiss of the Ohio EPA Public Interest Center, conducted the hearing at the Ashtabula Township office. No members of the public entered comments on the record.
Rick Hughes, environmental supervisor for Cristal Global, said the company’s plans to increase its production of titanium dioxide by 25 to 30 percent, necessitating a modification of the existing permits.
The permit covers wastewater that comes from a variety of processes, sanitary drains and groundwater runoff at Cristal Global’s two Millennium Inorganic Chemicals facilities in the township. The sanitary flow is treated at a package plant on the facility, and a wastewater treatment plant provides for neutralization and settling of solids before discharging the water into Lake Erie. Discharge is at the FirstEnergy A/B Plant, where the water is forced through a disperser as it enters the shared discharge channel into the lake.
Schmidt said Cristal Global is seeking a consolidation of two existing permits into one and an expansion of the permits’ combined maximum daily flow rate from 7.4 million gallons to 10 million gallons.
Hughes said the Ohio EPA suggested that the individual wastewater permits for Plants 1 and 2 be combined into one permit in order to provide greater flexibility in treating wastewater during heavy-flow episodes, such heavy rainfalls. A pipe between the two plants would be constructed to redirect wastewater from the over-burdened plant to the treatment resources at the other plant.
Schmidt said the diversion pipe, which will be added to an existing above-ground pipe rack, will require a permit to install. Hughes said the company has already received its EPA permit pertaining to the impact the increased production will have on air emissions.
The additional wastewater entering the lake will increase the amount of contaminants entering Lake Erie. Hughes said the water contains suspended solids and dissolved minerals from the inorganic plant and “certain dissolved metals.” A full list of what’s in the water is at the website epa.ohio.gov/dsw. Select “NPDES Permits” from the first pull-down list, then follow the links to search for Ashtabula County permits.
Citizens who want to make a comment by mail need to submit it to the Ohio EPA, Division of Surface Water, Attention: Permits Processing Unit, P.O. Box 1049, Columbus 43216-1049. Residents can email those comments to dswcomments@epa.state.oh.us.
Weiss said the comment period ends Aug. 30.
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More contaminants headed into lake if permit approved
Cristal Global says production boost means more discharge
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