Protecting the Great Bay estuary.
In a long-awaited decision critical to the health of New Hampshire's Great Bay estuary and southern Maine's coastal resources, the Environmental Protection Agency agreed with CLF that the City of Portsmouth must adopt more stringent, secondary treatment at its Peirce Island sewage treatment plant. The plant is the largest in the Seacoast, discharging an average of 4.5 million gallons per day of wastewater into the tidal Piscataqua River-a critical part of the estuary.The City had requested EPA's permission to continue operating the plant with only primary treatment, and to address water quality concerns by simply extending its outfall pipe farther into the river for greater dilution. CLF successfully urged EPA to deny this request, on the grounds that under the Clean Water Act, the stressed condition of the Piscataqua River prohibited the continued use of only primary treatment.
"Now we will monitor the City's implementation of the secondary treatment measures to be sure that the Piscataqua River and Great Bay estuary receive the protections they need," Tom Irwin, an attorney for CLF New Hampshire, said.
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| Title Annotation: | NEW HAMPSHIRE |
|---|---|
| Publication: | Conservation Matters |
| Article Type: | Brief article |
| Geographic Code: | 1U1NH |
| Date: | Jun 22, 2006 |
| Words: | 177 |
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