An update to Cherokee Metropolitan District’s wastewater treatment plant should solve a 10-year-old problem dating back to the construction of the plant.The problem involves the total dissolved salts (TDS) in the treated effluent that Cherokee is discharging into groundwater. TDS are salts found naturally occurring in groundwater and surface water, and added through household and commercial uses. They include calcium, sodium, sulfate, magnesium, chloride and potassium.According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, TDS in drinking water is not health threatening. However, higher levels of TDS could cause the water to appear cloudy or taste or smell bad.The problem goes back several years to the design of the current plant, which is located in the southern part of the county on Drennan Road, east of Falcon Highway. The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment has a process whereby the Water Quality Control Division provides wastewater treatment permittees with preliminary effluent limits, a kind of permit review to help guide them through the engineering and site application process for any new treatment facilities. Mary Ann Nason of the CDPHE said these PELs (preliminary effluent limits) do not mirror what the eventual final discharge permit requires. In Cherokee’s case, Nason said there was a ìmistakeî and the PELs issued in 2008 did not include a limit for TDS.Nason said the CDPHE informs applicants early in the process that the final permit for effluent limitations might be different from the PELs.Construction on the Cherokee plant began in 2008, shortly after PELs were issued and preliminary site and design plans were approved. When the final permit was issued in 2010, the plant was almost operational. The final permit did require TDS limits, which were lower than the level of TDS the plant was producing. The higher TDS standards are based on agricultural concerns. It seems some crops such as dry beans, turnips, onions and sod grass require lower TDS levels.ìIf we dumped into a stream, we would be fine,î said Kent Hoadley, manager of Cherokee’s wastewater treatment plant. There are no TDS limits on treated wastewater being dumped into surface water as the city of Colorado Springs does.(Continued)
