Clean Water Advocacy - Newsroom - AMSA in the News
Monday, July 1, 2002
Volume 72, Issue 7; ISSN: 0885-7024
Federal guidelines will address anthrax 'decon water'
Jay Landers
WASTEWATER
Last fall's anthrax attacks have raised the question of what should
be done with the wastewater that results from decontamination
operations. After some utilities refused to treat wastewater
possibly containing spores of the deadly bacteria, the US.
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention (CDC), and representatives of wastewater
treatment utilities are developing a document that is intended to
allay such concerns.
The goal behind the effort is to increase the "level of confidence"
of wastewater treatment plants asked to treat the "decon water"
generated in efforts to decontaminate buildings subjected to an
anthrax attack, says Brian Frazer, a specialist with the EPA and a
member of the agency's water protection task force.
Because the decontamination process is designed to kill anthrax
spores, the EPA believes that wastewater from such operations can be
safely discharged into a utility's sanitary sewer or taken directly
to the facility for treatment, Frazer says. However, it realizes
that a treatment plant in the position of having to decide whether
it will accept wastewater from a contaminated site will probably
need to address the safety concerns of employees and the general
public.
For example, the decontamination efforts in Washington, D.C., at
the Hart Senate Office Building produced thousands of gallons of
wastewater that was stored in drums, but the District of Columbia
Water and Sewer Authority (wAsA) declined to accept the wastewater.
This decision was made because the utility was not confident that
anthrax spores had been "completely eliminated" from the water, and
it did not want to put its employees at risk, says Michael Marcotte,
WASA's deputy general manager and chief engineer. Instead the waste
was sent to Fort Detrick, in Frederick, Maryland, for treatment,
Frazer says.
In an effort to alleviate similar concerns, the document to be
developed by the EPA, the CDC, and such industry associations as the
Association of Metropolitan Sewerage Agencies, based in Washington,
D.C., will review what emergency responders should do with water
that has been used in decontamination efforts prior to discharging
it, according to Frazer. Additionally, it will discuss pretreatment
procedures that can be used to further enhance safety, he says.
Because wastewater treatment utilities have been asking for
guidance regarding wastewater contaminated by anthrax, Frazer says,
the agency wants to issue the document as quickly as possible. The
team developing the document planned to conduct a conference call in
early June and hoped to release the document in July, Frazer says.
Jay Landers