The Village of Essex Junction has agreed to pay the state $22,625 in penalties for the release of nearly two million gallons of non-disinfected wastewater into the Winooski River last year.
The Department of Environmental Conservation’s Compliance and Enforcement Division said the village wastewater treatment facility accidentally released a total of 1,954,853 gallons of treated, but non-disinfected wastewater in two separate incidents in August 2013.
According to a news release, the water was supposed to be treated with the disinfectant hypochlorite before being released. Workers doing construction in the plant’s control room bumped a dial on the console, which led to the discharge of 559,505 gallons of non-disinfected water into the river on Aug. 2.
An employee corrected the dial but the same event happened the next day, resulting in the release of approximately 1,395,348 gallons into the river, the news release said.
The village notified the Agency of Natural Resources of the Aug. 3 event, but did not notify the agency of the Aug. 2 event, the release said.
In an unrelated incident, a tank containing sodium bisulfate used for de-chlorination had not been refilled, and the level dropped below the pump suction line during the morning hours of Oct. 28, 2013, causing the facility to release approximately 70,000 gallons of effluent above the permitted chlorine residual effluent limit, the release said.
