PALMER — Palmer's sewage treatment plant, built in the 1950s, is getting a major upgrade under pressure from regulators.
The plant for years has violated Clean Water Act pollution standards governing wastewater released into the Matanuska River, the glacial waterway that flows past this city that began as a New Deal farm colony.
Now Palmer has agreed to curtail pollutants coming from the plant, under a proposed settlement with the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation and the federal Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Justice.
The EPA took the enforcement lead in the settlement, which the agencies announced Tuesday.
The plant's Clean Water Act discharge permit became tougher to meet — especially for ammonia — about 10 years ago, when the Matanuska River shifted away from its Palmer banks, city and state officials say.
Salmon spawning beds rose from the new floodplain. The permit change was intended to protect sockeye, chum and coho salmon that biologists say are thriving in the area.
But the plant was still violating the Clean Water Act.
Between June 2010 and February 2015, the plant reported over 2,000 discharge permit violations for pollutants including ammonia, fecal coliform, pH, biochemical oxygen demand, and total suspended solids, according to the EPA. Similar violations have occurred since.
The city, in a consent order signed in December, agreed to pay a penalty of more than $192,000 for those violations and install a $12 million upgrade by next year that's triggered a spike in city utility rates.
A study during the period of violations showed no ill effects to fish, according to a state fish biologist.
There are hundreds, maybe a thousand, salmon that return to the area, according to Ron Benkert, acting Palmer area habitat manager for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.
Benkert said the effluent may even have a slightly beneficial effect — all that ammonia and nitrogen make for a "fairly nutrient rich" environment while the upwelling groundwater feeding the springs blocks pollutants from reaching fish eggs.
That said, he continued, the city is in violation of its permit and his agency is "very happy" to see Palmer moving forward.
City officials say the settlement comes as a relief after years of tension and uncertainty — albeit on a shorter time frame than they wanted.
"Now we've got some direction. We know where we're going and we know at the end we'll be in compliance," city manager Nathan Wallace said Tuesday. "The headache is now we've got this timeline."
The city agreed to have the new "moving bed bio-film reactor" that works well in cold climates in place by next year and has installed interim measures at three treatment lagoons until then.
Money for the upgrade is coming from various sources. Wastewater utility rates rose from $25 to $29 a month this year, a 12.5 percent increase, and are expected to rise to $37 a month by 2020, Wallace said.
A $2.5 million state grant will go toward the cost, he said. The U.S. Department of Agriculture is expected to provide a $3.5 million grant plus a $4.8 million low-interest loan. The city council was expected to decide Tuesday whether to transfer $1 million in general funds to a separate water-sewer fund.
EPA officials said they understand that conditions in Alaska — especially in winter — are different.
"We work hard to get these facilities into compliance," said Seattle-based EPA spokesman Mark MacIntyre. "We understand it puts a lot of strain on the municipality and the folks that live in the community."
The agency worked jointly with the state and EPA took the lead "based on the number of violations" and negotiations with the city, said Tara Martich, a Clean Water Act enforcement specialist based in Seattle.
The plant's permit was issued by EPA in 2006 and taken over by the state in 2008.
The Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation inspected the facility in 2012 and again in 2014. Inspectors noted problems with ammonia as well as fecal coliform, according to state inspection reports. But the compliance issues continued.
Mike Solter, DEC's compliance program manager, said he was encouraged by the city's decision to agree to the settlement, which he called one of the larger ones he's seen.
"It's pretty substantial," Solter said. "I think everyone can agree it's appropriate for the level of violations they had."