The City of Española has been associated with many waste-related phrases in the past: wasteful spending, wasted drivers and wasted opportunities, to name a few. But Española’s waste is now being trumpeted by the city, at least in the case of the wastewater treatment plant’s July 25 passing inspection from the Environmental Protection Agency.
Interim city manager Joe Duran and plant operator Perry Vigil recently gave city employees a tour of the plant in what Duran’s called “a morale booster.” City officials are so excited a tour for Mayor Alice Lucero may be planned.
According to EPA documents, the inspection took place Sept. 25, 2012 and the inspection report was sent to the city July 25. The report states the facility received satisfactory permit verification, record keeping and reporting evaluation, operations and maintenance, effluent/receiving water observations, and sludge disposal. The plant’s sampling, flow measurement, laboratory, and sampling inspection procedures were not inspected.
Vigil said if the EPA inspected every facet of the plant, they would be occupied for weeks.
A positive inspection from the EPA is a small victory for the Utility Wastewater Department, which faces the same attrition problems the city suffers. Aside from Vigil, there are no Level 4 wastewater workers among the seven employees working at the plant. Vigil said the scarcity of available Level 4 workers isn’t just a problem in Española, but in the entire state. Most Level 4 workers are either already employed or retired, he said.
The city previously advertised for Level 4 workers but could not draw any qualified candidates. Vigil said that most of the time, wastewater employees find a way to work around any problems when Vigil is off-site. But there are certain tasks that must be conducted or overseen by a Level 4 worker, and Vigil worries about being out for an extended period of time without another Level 4 worker to take his place.
Vigil said Española’s Utility Wastewater Department has become a training ground for Los Alamos and Santa Fe, just as the Utility Water Department has. While Vigil said he doesn’t begrudge any of those employees for taking higher paying jobs in wealthier cities, that still doesn’t prevent frustration on his part of putting time and money into training workers only to have to start from square one when they move on.
Even with the attrition, Vigil said the plant is being run capably.
“We’re a little short staffed, but we’re not at a point where we can’t function,” said Vigil.
Vigil said this EPA evaluation has mostly been a continuation of the norm since he’s been a part of the Department and the water they produce is actually cleaner than the Rio Grande River it flows into. But the wastewater treatment plant hasn’t always been in the EPA’s good graces.
In 2003, the EPA threatened to levy thousands of dollars in fines against the plant, operated by then-Wastewater Treatment Operations Chief Louis Lujan, if the city didn’t bring down ammonia levels from the plant’s discharge. The city had to file an extension when the ammonia levels weren’t lowered by the April 2004 deadline. Eventually, the city built an extension to the separately plant to treat sewage for ammonia.