The Morton Wastewater Treatment Plant, seen in this 2012 file photo, has been negatively affected on several occasions by wastewater from Stericycle, according to the state Department of Ecology.
Citing concern about mercury, heavy metals and pharmaceuticals pollution, the state Department of Ecology now will require medical waste treatment company Stericycle to double treat refuse created at its Morton facility. Specifically, Stericycle must design and build a system to pretreat waste before sending it to the nearby Morton sewage plant for a second round of sterilization.
Ecology ordered the additional safety measure after reviewing Stericycle’s reapplication for a state waste discharge permit that allows them to utilize Morton’s publicly owned treatment plant.
Ecology granted the permit, but only on the condition of pretreatment because, since opening in 1991, Stericycle Morton has increased the strength and volume of its waste product, and since 2007, Stericycle repeatedly has violated pollutant limitations, according to Ecology.
Pollution concerns are based, in large part, on data collected from Stericycle’s facility over the last five years. Monthly data shows that Stericycle has violated regulatory limits for total suspended solids, or general water quality, 47 times since 2007. And material collected in December 2010 from the company’s pump vault exceeded regulatory limits for mercury and chromium by at least 20 times.
“These solids can be picked up by the sump pump and discharged to the sewer,” Ecology’s hazardous waste unit reported.
Pharmaceuticals and personal care products — which contain bioactive chemicals that can disrupt the environment — were of particular concern to the Department of Ecology. A sampling of data collected from Stericycle showed varying concentrations of hormones, steroids, PPCP’s and metals, according to Ecology. Researchers suspect that PPCP’s may be responsible for harmful effects on wildlife including feminization of male fish, sluggish activity or reduced appetite, according to Ecology. Long-term environmental and human-health effects of these substances are not known.
Polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons — powerful pollutants that can be carcinogenic — and volatile organic compounds also were present in several of Stericycle’s waste streams, Ecology reported.
Pretreating waste will help protect the nearby Tilton River from pass-through pollution; essential, because water quality is of foremost concern, according to Department of Ecology Public Information Manager Sandy Howard. “This permit is about getting Stericycle’s waste to the point where when it gets to the plant it can be successfully treated,” Howard said. “It’s all about the river.”
Pretreatment also will reduce overloading the Morton plant, a facility designed to treat human not industrial waste, according to Department of Ecology Environmental Engineer Don Reif.
“We started realizing the wastewater was a little stronger than we thought,” Reif said. “It became clear they were a large enough contributor to the (Morton plant) that they probably needed to cut back a little bit on what they were sending.”
Stericycle has sent a subset of its waste to the Morton wastewater treatment plant since 2007. There, Stericycle’s medical discharge, as well as the city’s human waste, is processed into sludge, called a biosolid, and sterilized liquid, which is released into the Tilton, a tributary of the Cowlitz. Pretreatment will help reduce the potency of the biosolid, which — if deemed safe — can be sold as a fertilizer, a revenue generator for the Morton sewer plant. The biosolid cannot be used as fertilizer, however, if it contains substances dangerous to the environment, such as those handled by Stericycle.
“(Stericycle) is very unique, and they have a very strong hold on the market,” Howard said. “They’re making a lot of money, part of the investment here is they need to do their pretreatment.”
Though Stericycle must take the additional step, exactly how and when the company will do so is yet to be determined. Designing an efficient and effective system has proven more complicated than expected, Reif said.
“We’ve changed the due dates and extended them as we realized more time was needed to really investigate... They’re an unusual business and the characteristics of their wastewater are different from the usual,” Reif said. “There was no blueprint out there.” A tentative schedule suggests Stericycle will submit a final design in April and will install the system by the end of 2013, Reif said.
A publicly-traded company based in Lake Forest, Ill., Stericycle Inc. serves 237,000 customers through 33 treatment centers and 87 collection and transfer sites. The company — the largest of its kind in the United States — made $215 million in gross profit last quarter, according to the company’s website.
Stericycle’s 15,000-square-foot Morton facility operates more than 5 days a week, at 20 hours per day, 52 weeks a year. Twenty-one plant personnel, three administrative staff and six drivers work at the facility which treats about 1.8 million pounds of medical waste a month, according to a Department of Ecology report.
Stericycle representatives could not immediately be reached for comment during this holiday season.
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Lisa Broadt: (360) 807-8237
