Fort Morgan residents concerned about expanding sewage treatment plant

Baldwin County Sewer Service (BCSS), the state’s largest private provider of sewer services, is seeking to substantially increase the capacity of its wastewater treatment plant on Fort Morgan Road, but nearby residents are wary of potential environmental impacts.

The Fort Morgan treatment plant, one of five operated by BCSS, currently has the capacity to treat 1.2 million gallons of wastewater per day. It uses a chlorine treatment method, then deposits treated wastewater into percolation ponds on the property, where it is “injected” (percolates) into the groundwater. As such, it is regulated as a Class V injection well by the Alabama Department of Environmental Management (ADEM), which issued a notice of the application for a modified permit late last month. The application seeks to increase capacity to 2 million gallons per day.

Dennis Hatfield, president of the Little Lagoon Preservation Society, said his organization has performed independent studies of water quality in the area over the past 15 years and has noted elevated nutrient loads in the groundwater around Little Lagoon, although he admits, the sources of the nutrients have not yet been identified. His group and others are asking ADEM for a formal public hearing on the application, where they hope to request a delay of the proposal until a watershed management plan is complete.

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“Our main concern with this plant is, are they putting nutrients in the groundwater? And if so, are those nutrients reaching the lagoon? Preliminary indications are that there’s a pretty good chance it’s happening,” Hatfield said.

Hatfield added Little Lagoon is currently the subject of a watershed management plan under development by the Mobile Bay National Estuary Program, and one portion of the plan aims to pinpoint nutrient sources around the 10-mile-long coastal lake.

“We had a steering committee that recommended the study look at different sources including golf courses, subdivisions, man-made canals in the southeastern part of the lagoon, and the area around the treatment plant,” he said, adding increases in phosphorus, ammonia and nitrates in the lagoon can lead to algal blooms, while other testing has found E. coli, traces of pharmaceuticals and various household chemicals in the lagoon.

Hatfield said his organization has additional concerns about monitoring and enforcement of existing and proposed permit restrictions at the facility, which allegedly exceeded capacity limitations at least seven times in the past eight years. Aerial photos of the property appear to show the percolation ponds unkempt and filled with vegetation. Further, he questions the wisdom of the utility sending more waste to densely populated Fort Morgan, when it operates more rural facilities inland. At an elevation of 15 feet just about a mile from the Gulf of Mexico, the plant is also within the reach of extreme storm surges. If the application is approved, the plant will become the utility’s largest.

“I am alarmed they are even considering it,” Hatfield said.

The comment period for the application expires Feb. 26.