Renewed EPA wastewater permits require Alaska communities to reduce bacteria in discharge

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is re-issuing wastewater discharge permits to the southeast Alaska communities of Haines, Sitka, Skagway, Wrangell, Peterburg, and Ketchikan requiring the facilities to significantly reduce the levels of bacteria they discharge into local marine waters.

Permits for Haines, Sitka, Skagway, and Wrangell are being reissued today, and permits for Peterburg and Ketchikan will be reissued in early 2025.

Currently, the discharges from the wastewater facilities are not consistently disinfected and contain high levels of fecal coliform and enterococcus bacteria.

Since the 1980s, the EPA has used its authority under Section 301(h) of the Clean Water Act to issue permits to these and three other Alaska communities sparing them the requirement to conduct “secondary” treatment of their wastewater as most communities in the U.S. do.

EPA only can waive secondary treatment for certain wastewater facilities that discharge to oceans or saline estuaries, and such permits issued by EPA must comply with all state and federal water quality standards, receive concurrence from the state in which the permit is issued, and comply with several other criteria designed to protect human health and the environment.

When Alaska revised its water quality standards for bacteria in 2017, it became clear that renewed EPA permits would need to require the wastewater facilities to disinfect their discharges to meet these updated standards, which are intended to protect marine waters for recreational and subsistence uses.

As a condition of concurrence on the permits, the state has mandated that the reissued EPA permits require the facilities to meet the new standards within five years.

The new bacteria limitations will require capital investments to provide disinfection of the discharges. EPA funds and the state administers the Clean Water State Revolving Fund that provides low interest loans to communities seeking to upgrade wastewater facilities.

Copies of the renewed permits and other supporting information are available at the links below:

NPDES Permit for Wrangell Wastewater Treatment Plant in Alaska