In April 2000, the Greater Pottsville Area Sewer Authority asked D.G. Yuengling & Son Inc. to develop a wastewater pretreatment system at Yuengling's brewery at Mahantongo and Fifth streets by October 2001.
After 13 years, however, the situation hasn't been addressed to the authority's satisfaction. The authority hasn't fined America's Oldest Brewery, but the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency might, Timothy R. Yingling, executive director of the sewer authority, said Tuesday.
"I'd rather they build a pretreatment facility on Mahantongo Street than pay us a fine," Edward M. Brennan, the sewer authority's solicitor, said Tuesday.
"There is no official pretreatment plant there but there are things we're doing to try to treat it internally," Bob Seaman, plant manager of the Mahantongo Street brewery, said Tuesday.
Pretreatment is a process used in reducing or eliminating contaminants in industrial wastewater before discharging it into the sewer.
"That's the basic concept," Seaman said.
While Yuengling has a wastewater pretreatment system at its brewery at 310 Mill Creek Ave., built in 2000, it doesn't have one at its brewery at 501 Mahantongo St., built in 1831.
Joseph A. Brahler, the authority's pretreatment program coordinator, said he inspects the wastewater system at the Mahantongo Street brewery "at least three times a year." He said Tuesday there isn't a pretreatment system in place there that's acceptable.
"D.G. Yuengling & Son Inc. is considered in significant noncompliance in accordance with the Authority's Pretreatment Program administered by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for not complying with the Authority's Administrative Compliance Order," Yingling said in a letter written Monday.
While the sewer authority has put legal notices in the newspaper every year to inform the public about the matter, its board of directors hasn't fined Yuengling.
"Maybe we're trying to be nice guys," Brahler said.
Brennan said that's correct. He's an attorney from Pottsville who has been solicitor for the sewer authority since 2000.
"We always try to work with companies to get their compliance. Simply fining them isn't solving the issue," Brennan said Tuesday.
The sewer authority is governed by the EPA.
"They're the ones that can fine them. EPA periodically checks on us and we report back to them. So, really, we're the boots on the ground here for EPA, but if there's going to be a major fine levied, it's going to be from EPA," Brennan said.
Brahler said his patience is wearing thin.
"They have to comply or they're going to be fined," he said of Yuengling.
"I think the EPA is running out of patience. From a legal aspect, they know we've been doing what we can," Brennan said.
The authority has asked EPA for help in dealing with Yuengling previously.
In December 2002, Yuengling agreed to pay a $110,000 penalty to settle an EPA complaint over Clean Water Act violations regarding the limits on pH and metal discharges to the local wastewater treatment facility, David Sternberg, spokesman for the EPA office in Philadelphia, said Tuesday.
A few months ago, the authority asked EPA for help regarding the wastewater pretreatment system issue, according to Brahler and Brennan.
"We do not comment on enforcement matters unless we take an action," Sternberg said when asked about that Tuesday.
"Yuengling is going to have to spend some money to build a plant," Brennan said.
Brennan wasn't sure what such a project would cost, but he said the engineering plans for a proposed pretreatment plant would have to be approved by the sewer authority, as well as federal and state agencies.
Colleen Connolly, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Environmental Protection's Northeast Regional Office, said DEP doesn't get involved in these matters.
"This is a matter between the local sewer authority and Yuengling. They have their own pretreatment ordinance that Yuengling has to follow, but we're trying to encourage the two sides to come together to work something out here," Connolly said Tuesday.
Seaman had no comment when asked if Yuengling had a plan to respond to the violation.
"My general comment is 'no comment' because there's a lot of things in play here, including the sewer authority and the EPA certainly has opinions on it. I think a 'no comment' is appropriate. I think it should be settled by the regulatory entities that it should be settled by," Seaman said.
The next meeting of the sewer authority's board of directors is slated for 7 p.m. April 24 on the third floor of City Hall.
Report card
The discharge from the Mahantongo Street brewery is, for the most part, in compliance with the authority's standards, according to a report card Brahler has on file showing data from May 2012 to September 2012.
That's one of the reasons he hasn't pushed the authority's board of directors to fine the brewery.
"They've been good boys and girls up there," Brahler said.
There are occasional problems with pH, which is a measure of acidity; phosphorus; and "BOD," Yingling said.
For example, the brewery's daily discharge should be not less than 5 or greater than 10 on the pH scale. On Aug. 15, 2012, the sample tested was 11.24, according to the data Brahler had on file.
The brewery's daily discharge should not contain more than 10 milligrams per liter of phosphorus. However, on Sept. 15, 2012, the sample taken contained 10.4, according to the data Brahler had on file.
The authority also keeps an eye on Yuengling's "BOD" levels.
Wastewater often contains organic materials that use oxygen. The amount of oxygen consumed by these organisms in breaking down the waste is known as the biochemical oxygen demand or BOD, Yingling said.
The brewery's daily discharge should have no more than 2,252 pounds of BOD, Yingling said, but in a sample taken Aug. 15, 2012, it was at 3,261. On Sept. 15, 2012, it was 2,622.87, according to the data Brahler had on file.
On average, the brewery discharges 122,000 gallons of wastewater per day, Yingling said.
"We don't have a problem with how much wastewater the brewery discharges per day. They pay for that. That's not the issue," Yingling said.
The bottom line is Yuengling must install a wastewater pretreatment system to the authority's satisfaction. That's the only thing Yuengling hasn't done in terms of compliance with the April 2000 order, according to Brahler and Yingling.
"The Mahantongo plant doesn't put out the volume that the plant in Mill Creek does. But that wastewater still has to be pretreated. The sewage plant is designed to treat household sewage basically. You have to pretreat wastewater from the brewery. They have to do certain things to lessen the impact of the commercial effluent on the sewage plant. Without going into the science of it, it's not your standard municipal sewage," Brennan said.
The order
The sewer authority made the matter known to the public in a legal notice published in the March 29 edition of The Republican-Herald.
Seaman did not offer much comment on the matter when contacted by email that day.
"The public notice in The Republican-Herald is fairly self-explanatory and complete. I assume that the GPASA has satisfied their obligation for public notice so we really have no comment on the issue," Seaman said March 29.
The Republican-Herald submitted a Right-To-Know request to the authority April 3, seeking a copy of the April 2000 compliance order and other details regarding the violation.
In recent years, the Greater Pottsville Area Sewer Authority has been making efforts to reduce the amount of discharge into its sewer system.
For example, in February, the authority spent $25,000 to do a study to make sure 230 property owners in Pottsville were in compliance with the state-mandated stormwater/sewer separation project.
The sewer authority has been concerned about discharge from the Mahantongo Street brewery as far back as 1999, when the brewery violated a wastewater discharge permit for pH levels, copper, lead and zinc, according to information provided by the sewer authority Tuesday.
In response, on April 20, 2000, Brahler made an effort to encourage Yuengling to install a pretreatment system by authoring an "Administrative Compliance Order."
Brahler listed numerous reasons why Yuengling had to comply with the order. They included:
- The Greater Pottsville Area Sewer Authority is charged with the construction, maintenance and operation of the sewer system and treatment works.
- To protect the sewer system and treatment works, the Greater Pottsville Area Sewer Authority administers a pretreatment program.
- Under this pretreatment program, D.G. Yuengling & Son Inc. was issued a discharge permit.
- The discharge permit contained numerical limits on the quality of pollutants which the brewery could discharge and self-monitoring requirements.
On Tuesday, Yingling said the brewery hasn't complied with Order No. 5:
"D.G. Yuengling & Son Inc. shall engineer, purchase and install an equalization tank and combine all of your outfalls together in order to effectively pretreat, as necessary, the brewery's wastewater stream by Oct. 31, 2001."
The "Administrative Compliance Order" gives the authority's board of directors the right to impose penalties.
"Failure to comply with the requirements of this order shall constitute a further violation of the sewer use ordinance and may subject D.G. Yuengling & Son Inc. to civil or criminal penalties such as other appropriate enforcement response as may be appropriate."
No fine structure is listed.