NC0020737_Status Report_20170320

.; THE CITY OF KINGS MOUNTAIN
P.O. BOX 429 • KINGS MOUNTAIN, NORTH CAROLINA 28086 . 704-734-0333
March 20, 2017
Derek'Denard
North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality
Water Quality Division
1617 Mail Service Center
Raleigh, NC 27699-1617
Subject: April 2017 Status Report for Pilot Creek WWTP
Mr. Denard,
RECEI CMUDWR
NAR 2.7 2017
WaterQuality
Permitting Sedon
The City of Kings Mountain holds NPDES Permit NC0020737. After receipt of the Special Order
of Consent (SOC) by the Environmental Management Commision, Pilot Creek has submitted
quarterly Status Reports informing the State of ongoing efforts made to reduce thallium in the
collection system for the City of Kings Mountain. These reports will be submitted quarterly
until May 31, 2018, as stated in the Scheduled Activity section, Section 2. (b).
Along with the Pilot Creek staff and City employees, Steag Energy Services has made diligent
efforts in reducing the amount of thallium that is released in their effluent discharge to the
City's Wastewater Treatment Plant. As you know, Steag Energy Services is the only industry
that releases thallium to the WWTP at this time. According to permit #0032 issued by the City
of Kings Mountain, Steag is to monitor thallium at their final discharge point monthly. Steag
must also submit monthly reports on the progress they are making in reducing thallium at their
effluent discharge.
The following events have taken place since the last Status Report submitted to NCDEQ:
January 18, 2017
Lanette Plyer from Steag, emailed a letter informing the Publicly Owned Treatment Works
(POTW) of some changes that were taking place at Steag. They predict flow will increase to
100,000-200,000 gpd. Steag will begin to operate 24 hour shifts for five (5) days a week.
Employees will work on Saturdays as needed.
The Historical City

January 20, 2017- POTW received Steag's monthly progress report.
January 26, 2017 (meeting at Steag)
According to the monthly report submitted on January 20, 2017, the "Cascade" process was
leaching out thallium. The POTW asked for further details as to the meaning behind this
statement. Steag clarified this statement by stating this was the only holding tank which seems
to have the higher amounts of thallium. This is the last treatment tank of six. The submitted
report also stated the acid tanks reveal higher levels of thallium. The base & caustic tanks
reveal lower levels of thallium.
Steag began the Poly -S trial. This process has reduced thallium tremendously. The wastewater
in the holding tank was tested. Thallium yeilded 0.175 mg/L from K & W Labs and 0.0797 mg/L
from Pace Labs. Steag is concerned with the significant difference in the two results, since both
anaylsis were from the same sample. Due to turn -over at K & W, some results have been
questioned by Steag. Steag is using other labs to corroborate the analysis.
Steag requested the following to continue their trials for reducing thallium:
• Permission to release the current holding tank mention above, which contained the
Poly -S trial.
• Begin trial run with potassium permaganate. Along with the Poly -S, Steag believes using
potassium permanganate will yeild lower results than those previously obtained.
• Permission to install a Poly -S Injection System.
• Continue the use of Poly -S from this point forward in their treatment process.
A certified letter from The City of Kings Mountain was mail on January 30, 2017 to Steag, giving
permission for the above mentioned request.
February 14, 2017
POTW received an email stating the Potassium Permanganate Trial will begin once the engineer
returns from India. They projected further plant trials in early March, 2017, which would
introduce potassium permanganate into their treatment process.
February 17, 2017
Steag submitted their January/February progress report.
March 9, 2017
The following email was received from Steag (Lanette Plyer):

Richelle,
We are currently making some equipment modifications to be able to run more extensive plant trials with
the Poly S (Remotox K Ultra) since the initial plant trial with that product yielded promising results. We
should have the necessary equipment in place by tomorrow or Monday to start this extensive plant trial. The
plan is to treat our acid wastewater stream from production with the modified formulation using the Poly
S. Until we collect the data from a more extensive plant run of this product, we do not have plans to run a
plant trial with the Potassium Permanganate. Should we determine that we need to go this route, we will
certainly advise you ahead of time.
Please let me know how you want to proceed with meeting for an in-person update.
Thanks!
Lanette
March 16, 2017
A meeting was held at The City of Kings Mountain's Public Works building with Steag. This
meeting was set to discuss a Notice of Violation (NOV) that was issued on February 28, 2017 for
chlorides and thallium. Steag admitted they did not read their modified permit carefully which
contained the limit that was set for thallium. Steag was under the impression they were not
going to have a limit set until the SOC with Pilot Creek was terminated. With permission from
the State, we would like to wave this NOV due to the fact Steag is still running a trial on the
Poly -S chemical they are using. Steag plans to have this trial completed by May 1, 2017. Steag
has requested to monitor only thallium until May 1, 2017. Upon permission from the State, we
will grant this request. Steag did in-house testing on a batch with their trial run using Poly -S.
The results from this test are as follows:
Wednesday (3/15/2017) : Hourly Sample From T-9 (treatment tank)
Thallium (mg/L)
6AM
17AM
I 8M
19AM
I 10AM I 11AM
I 12PM
I 1PM
I 2PM
0.122
10.082
10.073
10.085
10.247 10.2132
10.296
10.278
10.227
All of these results are within their current IUP limit of 0.315 mg/L for thallium. Compared to
previous data Steag has provided, these results are tremendously lower. Steag believes once
the SOC is no longer in effect for Pilot Creek, they will have a difficult time meeting the limit
which can be allocated to them with Pilot Creek having a limit of 1.434g/L. Once 1.43µg/L is
put into the allocation table for Pilot Creek, Steag will not be able to discharge amthallium into
the City's collection system. Although Steag has reduced the amount of thallium in their
effluent by approximately 97%, removing it completely is going to be a challenge. Steag
continues to run trials in improving their effluent discharge.
Upon the more extensive plant trial run, a meeting will be held to determine the outcome. We
will also determine if use of potassium permanganate is needed.

Pilot Creek will continue to run the belt press to reduce the amount of thallium in our effluent
discharge.
If you have any questions, feel free to contact me anytime.
Sincerely,
Richelle Meek
City of Kings Mountain
WWTP Superintendent/Pretreatment Coordinator
[e-mail]
Office #: [phone]