Winter 2011 Executive Director's Message

“The permit limits for this discharge will be protective of Great Salt Lake and the waterfowl that depend on that important ecosystem”    
       - Walt Baker, State Director of the Division of Water Quality

In 1995, Kennecott Utah Copper Corporation (KUCC) and the Jordan Valley Water Conservancy District (JVWCD) forged an agreement with the State of Utah. Under this agreement KUCC and JVWCD are to remediate or “cleanup” two deepwater aquifers (Zone A & B) contaminated by mining activities on the Kennecott property.  The contamination includes high concentrations of salts, an acid plume, selenium, and mercury. The clean up, the Southwest Groundwater Remediation Project, is to help provide municipal quality drinking water to various affected areas in the Southwest Salt Lake Valley.

Kennecott is already working to remediate Zone A of the Project, which includes the acid plume. JVWCD is focusing on Zone B. That work included the construction of a 21- mile pipeline from Jordan Valley’s reverse osmosis (RO) treatment plant to Gilbert Bay in Great Salt Lake. While initially discharging up to 1.5 million gallons per day (MGD), at build out the facility will generate and discharge up to 3 MGD of byproduct into the Lake. JVWCD is now seeking a permit to discharge in two places -one is the 001 Outfall at the end of the pipeline. The other, the 002 Outfall, goes directly into the Jordan River.

So far, quite simple. But then it gets complicated. There are two kinds of water that JVWCD wants to discharge. One comes from the deepwater aquifer which is full of mining-related contaminants. The other is what’s called “lost use” water from the shallow aquifer along the Jordan River itself. This lost use water has its own special chemical brew.

On December 1st the Utah Division of Water Quality (Division) opened the 60 - day public comment period on this permit. Details about the permit and background on the Remediation Project are available online at www.deq.utah.gov/Issues/hottopics/swjvgwtp

The public is being asked to evaluate complex effluent limitations, monitoring and reporting requirements, and compliance responsibilities for a permit that will approve a system that will be in place for at least 40 years. The permit will be evaluated and renewed every 5 years. The worry is that the accumulated concentrations from all these contaminants could have significant impacts to wetlands along the Jordan River and Great Salt Lake where natural processes inevitably retain and recycle selenium and mercury.

Much will depend upon meticulous monitoring and reporting requirements, the implementation of a risk assessment protocol, and a rapid response from JVWCD and the Division to prevent impairment of the system. FRIENDS and members of the conservation community are urging the Division to implement an adaptive management approach to this new discharge. Start small, monitor the changes, and assess what steps should be taken next to protect the resource.

If your memory is as good as an elephant’s, you will recall that in August 2003, the Division issued a UPDES permit to Jordan Valley authorizing it to discharge a waste stream of reverse osmosis (RO) byproduct from Zone B into the Jordan River and the wetlands surrounding Great Salt Lake. The discharge included selenium, which is known to be toxic to bird reproduction. The public was extremely upset by this proposal. Following a series of public meetings, JVWCD returned the permit. The State then embarked on an 18 month study to determine the first numeric standard for selenium in the open waters of Great Salt Lake. Can you see where this is going?

A bird egg tissue standard of 12.5 mg/kg was the outcome of the process and was adopted by the State in 2008. A variety of alternatives for disposing of the RO waste stream were discussed but due to cost and some logistical challenges, the 21-mile pipeline was selected as the preferred alternative.

The tissue standard has not yet been converted into an effluent or water column standard for the discharge. Apparently it requires some complex translation to achieve this. However the Division would allow JVWCD to discharge the same concentration of selenium that Kennecott is currently permitted in its effluent into Great Salt Lake. It’s unclear why the Division has chosen to do this. Whatever the reason, this deserves a red flag.

Suffice it to say that the scope and magnitude of this project with its potential cumulative impacts on Great Salt Lake and the Jordan River continues to generate concerns and questions like the following:

The Comprehensive Sampling and Analysis Plan is Missing - JVWCD is supposed to provide the Plan to the Executive Secretary of the Utah Water Quality Board by February 1st. Presumably the Plan would include the nuts & bolts of the sampling, monitoring, and analysis regimes for 001 Outfall (Gilbert Bay), the transitional wetlands created by this outfall, the open waters of Great Salt Lake, Outfall 002 (Jordan River), and wetlands along the river.

Without the Plan we can only guess what the scope of monitoring and sampling will be, what metrics will be implemented, and who exactly is accountable for submitting detailed and timely reports to the Division for review. (The draft permit suggests coordination and “cooperation” with KUCC as a neighboring discharger in some sampling and monitoring activities).

FRIENDS believes that under no circumstances should a discharge permit for JVWCD be approved without ample time to review and comment on the Plan.

No Selenium Data Have Been Collected Since 2007 -The draft permit allows JVWCD to discharge a selenium concentration of .54 ug/L (ppb) through the 001 Outfall - the same as KUCC’s 012 Outfall 50’ away. This is not without contention from FRIENDS. No data on selenium levels in the lake or in bird tissue have been collected since 2007 when the work on the selenium standard was in progress. During that time, increasing trends in selenium levels in the Lake were observed but monitoring did not continue after the standard was determined.  Two very important areas that were not studied in the scope of work were groundwater sources and airborne deposition to the Lake. Dust events from Kennecott’s tailings impoundment could be a contributing source of selenium to the Lake, but we don’t know that because it was never studied.

In 2009, the US Geological Survey identified a potential area of groundwater discharge of selenium along the south and eastern shore of Gilbert Bay in the vicinity of the Kennecott  property. Further study by USGS to quantify and monitor the amount, source and chemical quality of this “missing” selenium load is in progress.

We recommend that the Division does not approve the permit without first reviewing the USGS monitoring work. We also advocate for a lower selenium concentration in the permit and insist on monitoring the open waters of the Lake where loading or accumulation of these concentrations may occur.

How Can the Division Allow for a Mixing Zone that Doesn’t Exist?  - Since 2007, the Lake level has dropped over 3’ in elevation. Currently, there is a 13.5’ difference between the 001 Outfall and the open waters of Gilbert Bay. JVWCD’s selenium discharge is supposed to be diluted by 2:1 with water from Great Salt Lake in a “mixing zone” that extends for 200’ beyond the end-of-the-pipe discharge point. Mixing zone models typically come from river systems where flows are constant and a certain area for mixing the contaminants is required. Since the discharge currently flows in an open channel that extends over ¾ of a mile from the end of the proposed discharge point to the open waters of the Lake, with no other water flowing into it, it’s impossible for any mixing to occur within the channel, let alone within the first 200’ from the end of the pipe. (Another red flag here). This condition exposes soils, biota and wildlife to these undiluted contaminants in a “transitional wetland.”  Many scientists have suggested that this transitional wetland– which in effect constitutes an attractive freshwater nuisance for birds – should not exist. We agree.

Relying on a mixing zone under these conditions is problematic at best. We know this from our work on the Kennecott UPDES permit for the 012 Outfall. The Division should find a better way to ensure that the selenium concentration is effectively diluted. The uncertainty of this condition is untenable.

Mercury – Currently there is no water quality standard for mercury in Great Salt Lake. We know that 3 species of ducks that use the Lake are in trouble because of high concentrations of methylmercury in their tissue. Experts have raised concerns about the possibility of methylation of the waste stream in the pipeline. The permit would allow JVWCD one year to characterize the Zone B aquifer to determine total and methylmercury concentrations. This is a cart before the horse arrangement. We believe the permit should not be approved until this information has been reviewed by the Division and the public.

40 years is a long time. Kennecott is gearing up to extend the life of its mining operation for at least another 40 years. Managing Great Salt Lake and discharges into it will only become more complicated as we continue to grow. We all have a stewardship responsibility for the Lake. Let’s do our part by staying involved in these critical decisions.

“We’ve learned some important things, but boy, there are some big gaps we need to address.”
     - W. Clay Perschon, former project leader for the UDWR Great Salt Lake Ecosystem Project


In saline,

Lynn


What you can do: Visit www.fogsl.org for our comments on the draft permit, a link to the Comprehensive Sampling and Analysis Plan when it becomes available, and updates on this process.