CBJ fined for wastewater treament violations

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Friday, March 19th, 2021 11:15am

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Mendenhall Wastewater Facility. Photo courtesy of the City and Borough of Juneau

Juneau, Alaska (KINY) - The City and Borough of Juneau has been fined $64,000 by the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation for violations to its wastewater permits.

The state says discharges from the Juneau-Douglas and Mendenhall Treatment plants exceed what's allowed.

"Tt's complicated running a wastewater system, I think the issue is that we've been too easy-going about letting people flush stuff down the drain," said City Manager, Rorie Watt, in an Action Line interview. "It causes problems for us at the treatment plant so we're going to have to do some hard work to reduce what goes down the drain."

He said this means the city needs to do a better job ensuring that high-strength wastes, such as fats, oils, grease, and food waste, are kept out of the sewer system. 

The local government has hired consulting firm Tetra Tech to conduct tests on a few of the discharges to identify causes in order to recommend corrective action.

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