[C]lean water advocates are expected to meet this month with state and Cabot Creamery representatives to discuss possible alternatives to a controversial wastewater disposal practice.
Advocates lauded the move as a step toward revising the state’s indirect discharge permit program, which allows Cabot Creamery to spray up to 90 million gallons of wastewater from its Cabot manufacturing plant over agricultural land each year. The company says it actually releases 37,000 gallons each year.
Critics say the practice has been shown to harm the state’s waterways. The Vermont Agency of Natural Resources has issued the discharge permits to Cabot for years and has said the impact to the state’s waterways is nominal.
“Based on what we’ve seen, we lack confidence that the ANR is protecting the public trust through the IDP [indirect discharge permit] program,” said James Ehlers, executive director of the clean water advocacy group Lake Champlain International. “We feel there is insufficient monitoring, and we point to empirical evidence that IDPs do, in fact, have an impact on water quality, despite representations of the program to the opposite, given that, of the two of the streams monitored [for effects of Cabot Creamery’s discharges] … both have shown increased nutrient loads.
“The representation from ANR is that, because of the, quote, ‘stringency of the program,’ that there are no impacts on water quality,” Ehlers said. “We believe the empirical evidence shows otherwise.”
Water quality surveys showed slightly elevated nutrient loads compared to past years in the two streams monitored under Cabot Creamery’s permit, Ehlers said. Though the increase was not large, the ANR is charged with improving the quality of the state’s water bodies, he said.
Ehlers and others have criticized the indirect discharge permit awarded in the past to Cabot Creamery, on the grounds that it allows wastewater to be sprayed on over 500 fields that drain into more than 300 waterways, while requiring only two streams to be tested for adverse impacts.
Critics say the composition of the wastewater being discharged by Cabot has changed since the plant stopped producing cheese.
Doug DiMento, the corporate communications director for Agri-Mark, the entity that operates under the Cabot Creamery name, says the company has listened to the concerns of advocates who attended a public hearing Aug. 31 for renewal of Cabot Creamery’s indirect discharge permit permit.
“Since the hearing, we’ve gotten a number of calls from people who feel like they can help with this issue, and so we’re investigating that,” DiMento, said. “We’re trying to investigate in a scientific way to see what may work, if anything. Maybe what we’re doing right now is the best thing we can do, I don’t know. But people have raised some alternatives and made some suggestions, and we’re taking a look at those.”
Agri-Mark representatives will conduct “a stakeholder process” facilitated by Montpelier-based Stone Environmental “to let us see if there’s any feasible alternatives to what we do with our wash water.”
The wash water under consideration contains residue from dairy processing machinery and storage tanks, and includes remnants of dozens of cleaning products, according to ANR documents.
Several people at the August hearing in Cabot called for the ANR to review the feasibility of installing a dedicated wastewater treatment plant at the Cabot Creamery facility.
Officials at the time said a treatment plant had already been ruled out in the 1990s because its output would have overwhelmed whatever nearby waterbody would have received it.
Audience members countered that wastewater treatment technology has improved significantly over the past 25 years.
An engineer at a Massachusetts-based wastewater treatment firm established by prominent UVM professor John Todd said the necessary technology exists.
“Absolutely there’s a technology that can treat the wastewater from the Cabot Creamery,” said Max Rome, an engineer and project manager at John Todd Ecological Design. “There’s definitely a way to treat that effluent before it gets sprayed on fields, or instead of spraying it on fields. I think the only issue is, how much does it cost?”
Other, perhaps more appropriate treatment methods may also exist, Rome said, and in some instances dispersal of dairy wash water across fields “may not be a bad solution.”
George Desch, deputy commissioner of the ANR’s Department of Environmental Conservation, said the possibility of a wastewater treatment plant as an alternative to spraying effluent is “definitely” going to be a point of discussion between Cabot Creamery and Vermont’s regulatory officials.
“Whether that’s feasible or not, I can’t respond – there is work that was done decades ago, but there were comments at the hearing to the effect that the technology has changed,” Desch said. “I think that’s certainly worth looking at, and I think that is something we’ll want to talk with them about.”
The state will also discuss additional monitoring and analysis of the effects of the creamery’s wastewater, potentially as revisions contained within its permit renewal, Desch said.
At the meeting between stakeholder groups, creamery representatives and state officials, Desch said, he plans to “see where we can reach some common ground to improve the permit, and move forward with it.”
Asked to specify what improvements he’d seek, Desch said, “the comments at the hearing pointed out the need for additional environmental monitoring of what was going on, sampling of discharge, those kind of improvements.”
Desch said he’s uncertain when the meeting will take place, but said it’s expected this month. Ehlers said his and other advocacy groups have been asked by Agri-Mark representatives to attend.
The DEC is reviewing and responding to all comments made on Cabot Creamery’s permit renewal application, said DEC environmental analyst Bryan Harrington.
Harrington said a final determination on the permit “won’t be anytime soon,” and said he couldn’t provide a firm date beyond that estimate.
CLARIFICATION: Cabot releases 37 million gallons of wastewater on farmland each year, but has a permit to spray as much as 90 million gallons.
