NC0020737_Status Report_20171003

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September 28, 2017
Derek Denard
P.O. BOX 429 • KINGS MOUNTAIN, NORTH CAROLINA 28086 • 704-734-0333
North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality RECEIVED/NCOEWWR
Water Quality Division
1617 Mail Service Center OCT U 3 2017
Raleigh, NC 27699-1617 Watc_`.r Quality
Permitting Section
Subject: October 2017 Status Report for Pilot Creek WWTP
Mr. Denard,
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).
The following has taken place between Steag Energy Services and Pilot Creek WWTP (POTW) in
order to reduce/monitor thallium in the facility and POTW effluent.
july 191h, 2017
Received Steag's July thallium report. As required, Steag continues to submit monthly reports
on their efforts in reducing thallium in their discharge. The following graph contains the inhouse
data analyzed by Steag from the POTW.
• •• �.......
••••
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• hA• Ato101WiYW) • E/71u to Rice looby —o—'Lint Ehl—Gry'A*A JPPb)
........ PW WAI"A W POTW 400 ......... LVW. (fff lA to Rives icvbU
The Historical City

July 20th, 2017:
PPA (Priority Polltant Analysis) completed at Pilot Creek.
Pretreatment inspection with Wes Bell.
Non -compliances for Steag since last SOC report:
8/8/17- Failure to notify POTW within 24 hours of becoming aware of violation in July.
8/23/17- Steag failed to meet the required detection limits on their permit.
8/29/17- Semi-annual sampling took place at Steag SCR -Tech; Steag exceeded zinc permit limit
of .210 mg/L, results yeilded 0.995 mg/L. NOV was issued on 9/25/17.
August 22"d, 2017
Meeting with Steag reps at 10:00am at the Kings Mountain facility. This meeting was held to
discuss the PPA results obtained in the July sampling event. Steag wanted to get an update on
the City's future plans with the SOC and what these results could yeild. Steag's major concern
is the City will not receive the SOC extension, which in turn could run Steag out of the city and
possibly force them to close their doors.
August 29th, 2017
Completed SOC extension request and submitted to NC DWR. Return receipt incidcates the
document was received on 9/6/2017.
As stated in the Justification Letter of this request, The City of Kings Mountain and Steag have
made future plans which would need some time (two years at least) to complete. The
projected intent for the WWTP include:
• Re -opening the #2 system at the WWTP
• Allowing time for the power generating company to start-up and monitor their
discharge (500,000 gpd) in hopes of reducing the amount of thallium in the POTW
effluent.
• Cleaning and repairing all three basins at the WWTP. By removing some of this older
sludge, we believe this will also remove high amounts of thallium from our system.
Steag has also adopted some future plans at their facility, they are as follows:
• Installing a pilot unit to try reverse osmosis on their wastewater stream. This trial
should reduce the volume of wastewater which contains thallium and may allow
treatment of the concentrated wastewater to capture more thallium along with other
metals.

• Steag is working with a team of engineers to install a polishing sand filtration system.
September 12th, 2017
Meeting held with Steag to discuss the SOC extension request submitted. Steag informed the
POTW that they are wanting to introduce more chemicals for thallium treatment. Prior to use,
Steag will provide the POTW with the SDS for that particular chemical for approval.
September 18th -22nd, 2017
Pilot Creek has cleaned all diffusers in all three basins. Some of the diffuser legs were bad so
they were replaced. All diffusers have new sleves which will allow better air flow.
Pilot Creek will continue to run the belt press and monitor thallium as required. Meetings
between Steag and the City will continue to take place in order to address this thallium issue at
hand.
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]