Feb. 28—The Indiana Department of Environmental Management on Monday approved a city plan of action to deal with high-strength ammonia wastewater dumped into the city's municipal sewer system on Feb. 22.
"The high-strength discharge damaged the biological treatment process in seven of the 18 tanks our plant utilizes for biological treatment of wastewater," Debbie Padgett, the city's wastewater utility director wrote in a news release.
"Thanks to recent upgrades and the improved capacity of our wastewater plant, we were able to sequester the ammonia impacted wastewater into seven self-contained tanks, which prevented damage to the Wabash River," Padgett said.
"With the support of several local wastewater treatment plants, we are rebuilding our microbial population that functions to clean wastewater," Padgett wrote.
Padgett said the IDEM inspected the work on Monday "to ensure our treatment system is restored as quickly and efficiently as possible," adding that IDEM had approved of the plan to deal with the ammonia.
"We would like to reiterate that no permanent damage has been done to our facility and there have been no negative environmental impacts to the Wabash River," she said.
"We have been in regular communication with the local industry where the high-strength discharge originated and are working together to mitigate the damage and the temporary loss of function of the wastewater treatment facility," Padgett said.
The city as of Tuesday evening had not named the manufacturer responsible for the discharge. The city has said it would seek to recover its expenses from dealing with the ammonia-laden wastewater discharge.