Waste Water

Question 4-16 (see below)

It appears that the set of plans includes nothing about waste water being transported off of the site by means of a sewer ejection force main line to a point of gravity flow (somewhere in the village of Pascoag) to the Town of Burrillville Sewage Treatment Plant.  It appears that this waste water is going to have more concentrated amounts of contaminates than what is pumped out of the ground from the existing contaminated aquifer.  Is this correct?  This contaminated wastewater will run through the Town of Burrillville Sewer Lines.  What is being done to insure that the wastewater will not leach into the soils surrounding the lines that it flows through?

Response:

The well water drawn for plant use will first be treated with granulated carbon at the well head to remove organic contaminants to levels below drinking water standards.  The treated water will be pumped to the plant and stored in an onsite storage tank and then pumped to different systems of the plant as needed.  As the organic contaminants will be removed prior to use at the plant, the wastewater discharged from the plant will only concentrate any contaminants that are present in the water as its received from the treatment system.  The CREC will meet the limits required to discharge to the sanitary sewer system.

The wastewater from the CREC which will be sent to the Burrillville Wastewater Treatment Facility (“BWWTF”) and will comply with the EPA Categorical Effluent Standards for a Steam Electric Generating Facility without the need for additional pre-treatment.  Invenergy will apply for an Industrial Wastewater Discharge Permit from the BWWTF, which includes effluent discharge limits to ensure that the CREC wastewaters will not adversely impact the BWWTF or the receiving water body.  Initially and on an ongoing basis, sampling of the CREC wastewater discharge is necessary to ensure that the effluent limits established in the permit are being met.