NC0020737_SOC Status Report_20191226

December 26, 2019
Derek Denard
North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality
Water Quality Division
1617 Mail Service Center
Raleigh, NC 27699-1617

Subject: January 2020 Status Report for Pilot Creek WWTP
Mr. Denard,
The City of Kings Mountain holds NPDES Permit NC0020737. After receipt of the extended
Special Order of Consent (SOC) by the Environmental Management Commision, Pilot Creek has
submitted quarterly Status Reports; informing the State, of ongoing efforts ma de to reduce
thallium in the collection system for the City of Kings Mountain. These reports will be
submitted quarterly until May 31, 2020, as stated in the Scheduled Activity section, Section 2.
(b).
Coremetech and City of KM Tl data to date:
The following monthly data has been collected from June 2018 until November 2019 regarding testing
results for Cormetech and the POTW’s effluent sampling events:

0
0.02
0.04
0.06
0.08
0.1
0.12
0.14
0.16
0.18
Jun. 2018Jul. 2018Aug. 2018Sept. 2018Oct. 2018Nov. 2018Dec. 2018Jan. 2019Feb. 2019Mar. 2019Apr-19May-19Jun-19Jul-19Aug-19Sept. 2019Oct. 2019Nov. 2019mg/LCoremetech vs. KM
Coremetch Tl Results
KM Tl Results
City of Kings Mountain WWTP
Pilot Creek
PO Box 429
Kings Mountain, NC 28086
Coremetech Progress Reports:
Cormetech continues to submit monthly status reports to the City which contains their plans in reducing
thallium at the facility. All reports have been received by the Pretreatment Department on-time.
Additional Information regarding Cormetech:
An employee at Cormetech admitted fault in falsifying flow s in 2016 and 2017. Aft er the EPA completed
an investigation on the employee, he admitted to falsifying flows on five different occasions during this
timeframe in order to maintain compliance with IUP#032. The City of Kings Mountain’s WWTP was
found in violation of arsenic during these times. The POTW was unaware of these violation coming from
Cormetech due to the reports submitted did not show results as non-compliant. After the POTW
received the correct flows, a NOV along with a penalty in the amount of $127,000.00 was issued to
Cormetech. Cormetech was also put under an SOC with increased monitoring frequencies for arsenic
and thallium.
Below is a table listing the flows that were originally reported along with the correct flows and arsenic
values:
Date Correct
Flow (MGD)
Reported Flow
(MGD)
Arsenic
Value
(mg/L)
Arsenic
Limit (lbs)
Arsenic
results (lbs)
Non-
compliant
TRC
exceeded
7/6/16 0.060 0.0452 4.600 2.0 2.30 YES
7/13/16 0.065 0.0202 4.561 2.0 2.47 YES-TRC
9/28/16 0.065 0.0289 4.173 2.0 2.26 YES
3/8/17 0.100 0.0486 3.571 2.0 2.98 YES-TRC
6/14/17 0.115 0.0421 3.547 2.0 3.40 YES-TRC

The City of Kings Mountain’s Pretreatment department immediately begin an investigation. Daily flow
checks were completed from October 22, 2019-December 27, 2019. A pretreatment employee visited
the site daily (Monday-Friday) to gather this information f or comparison to the reported flows from
Cormetech. Weekly samples were also taken to ensure the data reported by Cormetech was relatively
close to the data collected by the City. The City has purchased a flow monitoring device to periodically
check flows coming from Cormetech.

The annual inspection for Cormetech was completed on December 13, 2019. During this inspection the
inspector found lack of labeling on piping in the pretre atment area. The inspector requested proper
labeling and an updated schematic drawing of the pretreatment area at Cormetech.

Our Pretreatment department will continue to monitor Cormetech closely to avoid another situation as
mentioned above.

Improvements to the POTW

The POTW has purchased pH monitoring devices for three of our main pump stations. This will allow the
pretreatment department to directly locate pH issues when needed and give the ability to quicker locate
the user at fault. We are currently working with a vendor to install pH and DO monitoring in all three of
our aeration basins. DO and pH monitors will be purchased to install in each basin of the POTW.

The City of Kings Mountain’s POTW is working with Power Conversion Technology LLC. to update our
SCADA at the facility. This will allow con tinuous direct monitoring on all processes at the plant.

Pilot Creek WWTP continues to operate the belt press as much as possible to remove metals in the
system(s). The City of Kings Mountain is in the process of having internal components of our #3 and #4
clarifiers replaced for optimal performance in these areas. We are still waiting on a couple of quotes to
complete this project.

If you have any questions, feel free to contact me anytime.
Sincerely,

Richelle Meek
City of Kings Mountain
WWTP Superintendent/ORC/Pretreatment Coordinator
[e-mail]
Office #: [phone]