From the Charlotte Observer
Published Wednesday, January 16, 2002 

Plan cuts Catawba pollution

Sewage treatment plants to put less phosphorus into the river

By BRUCE HENDERSON 

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Utilities will spend $47 million to rein in the
phosphorus its sewage-treatment plants send to South Carolina, in an
unprecedented agreement to clean up the Catawba River below the state
line.

The deal between the city and environmental regulators in both states,
announced Tuesday, signals détente in a simmering bi-state war over the use
and abuse of the 220-mile Catawba.

Phosphorus is a naturally occurring nutrient that makes lawns green. But the
hundreds of thousands of pounds Charlotte flushes down the Catawba each
year has helped overwhelm two S.C. lakes, Fishing Creek and Wateree.
Over-fertilized algae can strip oxygen from the water and kill fish.

The agreement will lower phosphorus from three treatment plants by 70
percent.

Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory called it "a landmark day in our ongoing
commitment to be good neighbors and environmental stewards." 

That day was long in coming for South Carolina, which has complained about
Charlotte's nutrient discharges for years.

"Today's a day to rejoice," said Harry McMillan of the Wateree Home
Owners Association, whose members have been on the front lines.

Push came close to shove only last year.

When N.C. regulators renewed the permit for Charlotte-Mecklenburg's
McAlpine plant - the largest in the Carolinas and just one mile above the state
line - South Carolina challenged the decision. An administrative appeal filed in
May claimed that the city's S.C. neighbors were denied a chance to
comment.

That led to negotiations that ran into this month. All sides agreed to continue
a study, already underway, of reducing the phosphorus from McAlpine and
two smaller plants, Sugar and Irwin.

The result: By 2006 the plants will meet the same limits now imposed on S.C.
treatment plants. North Carolina places phosphorus limits on only about 10
percent of its 1,500 discharge permits, mostly in Eastern North Carolina.

The Charlotte City Council, in a closed meeting, unanimously agreed to the
settlement at 1:15a.m. Tuesday.

Upgrades to the McAlpine Creek plant will add 99 cents a month to most
wastewater bills. Improvements may also be needed at Sugar and Irwin.

"It is a beginning toward an armistice in the water war between the two
states," Riverkeeper Donna Lisenby said.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg still needs to address polluted runoff, a problem linked
to development, and transfers of water from the Catawba to other basins,
Lisenby said.

The settlement was reached after months of negotiation, the last of it by
telephone from snowbound regulators on Jan. 3. 

Upgrades to McAlpine alone, adding tanks in which phosphorus-munching
microbes will flourish, may meet the 70 percent goal, said Utilities deputy
director Barry Gullet. Construction will start in 18 months. 

Larger reductions might be on the way. South Carolina is developing a
powerful new tool to cut nutrients flowing into its portion of the Catawba.
Called a Total Daily Maximum Load, or TMDL, it allows the state to enforce
limits on all phosphorus sources - including Charlotte's treatment plants.

Because research is still underway, regulators say they don't know whether it
would have forced Charlotte to make the improvements announced Tuesday.

"If we need more than 70 percent, then that's what we'll do," said Alton
Boozer, chief of the S.C. Bureau of Water. "This isn't an endpoint but a
major jump forward."

Tuesday's agreement sets a precedent for tackling other interstate water
problems, Boozer said, including the pollutants washing into Lake Wylie from
the South Fork Catawba River in North Carolina.

Aquatic plants need phosphorus and other nutrients to survive. Microscopic
critters called zooplankton feed on the plants, and the bounty ripples up the
food chain, from minnows to large-mouth bass.

Too many nutrients can turn threatening. Aquatic plants release oxygen by
day, during photosynthesis, but they suck it in at night. More oxygen is lost
when algae blooms die and decay. Large oxygen swings in water stress fish
and other creatures.

The effects are more pronounced in the still water of lakes, like Wateree,
than in the streams that whisk away most of Charlotte's wastes.

The clay soils of the Piedmont make the problem worse, said Larry Ausley, a
scientist in the N.C. Division of Water Quality. Phosphorus binds to clay
particles that settle to the bottom of lakes, slowly releasing the nutrient for
decades after direct discharges stop.

"The question is," Lisenby said, "was this done soon enough to see a
difference in Wateree?"


Bruce Henderson: (704) 358-5051;
bhenderson@charlotteobserver.com.