Air and Water Pollution Plan in Valparaiso, Indiana

The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that more than 120 million Americans live in areas where the air is unhealthy. The Bush administration developed a plan called the Clear Skies initiative and submitted it to Congress in February 2003 as a proposal to amend the Clean Air Act, which is the primary federal law governing air quality. But "Clear Skies" is a clear misnomer, because if Congress passes the Clear Skies bill, the result will be to weaken and delay health protections already required under the law (The White House 2007).

The Department of Water Works has a Wellhead Protection management plan in place that protects all its public wells. The Plan consists of: managing potential sources of contamination that includes an inventory database of all hazardous chemicals store within Wellhead Protections Areas, monitoring compliance, record keeping, identifying abandoned wells, monitoring use of pesticides, notifying property owners in the Wellhead Protection Areas, educating owners of potential contaminant sources, increasing public awareness, implementing a contingency plan, establishing overlay districts, adding monitoring wells around the Wellhead Protection Areas, participating in city and county site plan reviews, monitoring underground storage tanks, encouraging the extension of sewers and public water lines, and supporting and promoting the use of the Porter County Household Hazardous Waste Collections Program (The Groundwater Foundation 2006). Management of the plan is achieved by using existing Federal, State and Local laws and promoting "Best Management Practices" by those who live and work within the Wellhead Protection Areas (The Groundwater Foundation 2006).

An effective Wellhead Protection Program must provide for public awareness and education in order make individual behavior changes that lead to participation in environmental protection of land and water. Target audiences are the school children at all grade levels, the general population, and business and industries (The Groundwater Foundation 2006).

The City of Valparaiso currently operates the Elden Kuehl Pollution Control Facility (EKPCF), a Class IV (Single Stage Air Activated Sludge) Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP). The Plant has an average design flow of 6.0 million gallons per day (mgd) and a peak hydraulic capacity of 9.0 mgd with the ability to capture a first flush of 4.5 mgd into 3 combined sewer overflow detention basins during wet weather periods, thus providing the City a total capacity of 13.5 mgd. CSO modifications include improved screening, solids settling, aeration, overflow weirs, and pumping to allow the CSO tanks to function as a treatment facility. As a flow through treatment facility, the tanks will provide treatment equivalent to primary clarification thus meeting one of USEPA'a Nine Minimum Controls for CSOs and essentially improving the quality of CSOs entering the receiving stream. (The Groundwater Foundation 2006)

Currently, the WWTP has three combined sewer overflow basins, influent flow monitoring, screening, grit removal, primary clarifiers, single stage nitrification aeration tanks, secondary clarifiers, phosphorus removal with ferrous chloride, mixed media filters, disinfection facilities using ultraviolet irradiation, post-aeration, and effluent flow monitoring. Sludge treatment includes dissolved air flotation thickening of waste activated sludge, anaerobic digestion, and lagoons for temporary storage of biosolids (The Groundwater Foundation 2006). The facility is authorized to land apply the WWTP's generated and processed biosolids in accordance with requirements contained in IDEM's Land Application Permit. All treated wastewater is discharged to Salt Creek, a salmonoid fishery tributary to Lake Michigan (The Groundwater Foundation 2006).

The City is required to operate the IDEM approved Industrial Pretreatment Program (IDEM 2007). At this time, the pretreatment program regulates 3 Significant Industrial Users (SIUs) through issued industrial wastewater discharge permits. There are approximately 50 additional industrial users not defined as significant which are monitored within the program (IDEM 2007).

The Elden Kuehl Pollution Control Facility achieves excellent removals which are consistently within the 90th percentile