U.S. EPA and Ohio EPA at odds over how much phosphorus Euclid can discharge into Lake Erie

An areial view of Euclid's sewage treatment plant during a recent expansion and renovation.City of Euclid

EUCLID, Ohio - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Ohio EPA are at odds over the amount of phosphorus Euclid's wastewater treatment plant can discharge into Lake Erie, and the outcome of their disagreement could have broad repercussions for sewage plant operators elsewhere in Ohio.

If federal regulators insist on getting their way, the cost to ratepayers in Euclid could be exorbitant and for little to no environmental gain, so claims the Ohio EPA, the City of Euclid, and other public wastewater treatment plant operators, including the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District. They are concerned that a costly and misguided precedent is in the process of being set.

The issue came to a head after the Ohio EPA issued a draft discharge permit for Euclid as a renewal for an expiring permit. The U.S. EPA objected, claiming the proposed phosphorus limit contained in the permit is inconsistent with the water quality requirements of the federal Clean Water Act.

"It is surprising and concerning to us because it's not supported by the data," Kyle Dreyfuss-Wells, CEO of the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District, said of the U.S. EPA's demand that Euclid's phosphorus limit be reduced from the current average monthly level of one milligram per liter.

The district, which serves most of Cuyahoga County operates two treatment plants on Lake Erie. They both are permitted at the same level as the Euclid plant. A third NEORSD plant upstream on the Cuyahoga River has a lower limit.

Dreyfuss-Wells was among the various stakeholders who testified during a June 8 virtual public hearing in opposition to the U.S. EPA's stricter limit on phosphorus at the Euclid plant.

"That sets a concerning precedent for all wastewater treatment plants in the Lake Erie Basin," she said.

The desire to curtail phosphorus discharge into Lake Erie stems from the chemical's role in fostering harmful algal blooms that produce toxins dangerous to humans and animals and threaten the livelihood of the lake-based economy. The problem received widespread attention in 2014 when harmful algal blooms threatened the Toledo water supply.

But the influx of phosphorus into Lake Erie occurs primarily in the Western Basin, where farm runoff carries excess fertilizer into the Maumee River watershed. The harmful algal blooms that are produced in the Western Basin then drift eastward on the lake into the Central Basin, where Euclid and Cleveland are located.

"Our point is we’re not the cause of the phosphorus problem and our permit is not going to be the solution," said Euclid Mayor Kirsten Gail.

And yet in a letter to the Ohio EPA Director Laurie Stevenson dated Nov. 2, 2021, the U.S. EPA stated that the levels of microcystin, which is the toxin created by the algal blooms, in the Central Basin do not comply with water quality standards and that "effluent limitations" to Euclid's permit are necessary.

"We used EPA's most recent science, methods and models to derive an effluent limit necessary to ensure the discharge does not contribute to the microcystin problem," an EPA spokswoman stated in an email reponse to a request for more information.

The Ohio EPA contends that the U.S. EPA's analysis is flawed, including its reliance on data that applies to inland lakes, not Lake Erie, and that the federal agency is ignoring the state's approach to addressing the phosphorus problem through what's called the Maumee Watershed Nutrient TMDL, with TMDL standing for total maximum daily load.

The TMDL has yet to be finalized but would serve to control the total amount of phosphorus that is allowed to enter the Maumee River.

The state also is attacking the problem through its H2Ohio program that is providing financial incentives to 2,400 farmers across 24 Northern Ohio counties to take steps to control their use of fertilizer and minimize the runoff that makes its way into rivers and streams that eventually flow into Lake Erie.

Toxic cyanobacteria from a harmful algal bloom turn western Lake Erie water green at the Maumee Bay State Park beach in Oregon, Ohio in August of 2019.Garret Ellison | MLive

The U.S. EPA in its objection calls for a monthly average limit of 0.007 milligrams per liter. But, according to a slide presentation presented by the Ohio EPA during the public hearing, meeting such a strict requirement is not possible and would have no meaningful impact on the lake.

The Ohio EPA also stated that a far more modest limit of 0.5 milligrams per liter that the U.S. EPA has offered up as settlement would not be "legally or scientifically defensible," according to the presentation.

Complicating the issue for Euclid is that it comes on the heels of a massive investment in wastewater treatment already undertaken by the city to satisfy a consent decree with the U.S. EPA going back a decade.

Since then, the city has invested $200 million – with another $70 million expected – to improve its sewage treatment operations, including the renovation and expansion of its plant and the installation of a 15 million-gallon "equalization tank" to collect wastewater after major storms so that sewage won't be processed through an auxiliary bypass system.

The city has also eliminated 12 areas where sanitary sewers were flowing untreated into the lake and is in the process of managing overflows of its combined sewers, which carry stormwater and sanitary waste through the same pipe, sometimes overflowing after heavy rains and resulting in untreated discharges.

Euclid Service Director Dan Knecht said work on the city's plant is nearly complete but that it's too early to know the degree to which treatment levels have improved. If they can't meet stricter phosphorus limits set by the U.S. EPA, more investment would be required.

For example, it could mean adding more chemicals to the treatment process, he said, but that would require consultation with the manufacturer of the plant's new membrane bioreactor to determine how it would be impacted.

The reactor acts like a pool filter that has "long strands of material that the water has to wiggle through, kind of like seaweed," trapping particles that then drop to the bottom, Knecht said,.

"So that ultimately what goes all the way through the filter is clean water," he said.

Piping that is part of the new membrane bioreactor that cleans wastewater inside the Euclid sewage treatment plant.City of Euclid

Euclid is not the only community sweating the outcome of the U.S. EPA's objection.

All of Ohio's public wastewater treatment plants are concerned about the possibility of stricter limits and that would require expensive modifications, "when the issues in Lake Erie are primarily caused by agriculture and other non-point sources," said attorney Rees Alexander, who represents the Association of Ohio Metropolitan Wastewater Agencies, including Euclid and the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District.

"It may be that U.S. EPA believes that this will make a difference for Lake Erie, but that is not what we are seeing in terms of the statistics and the science that has been completed to date," Alexander said.

The U.S. EPA was receiving written comments about its objection to the Euclid permit through Thursday, but no timetable has been set for when a decision will be made.

Will the U.S. EPA change its mind?

"I think it's too early to tell," Alexander said. "Yeah, I think it's too early to tell."

These maps show the spread of harmful algal blooms in western Lake Erie during two periods in August of 2019. Blue indicates low concentrations while red shows where the more hazardous scum is more likely to form.

If you purchase a product or register for an account through one of the links on our site, we may receive compensation.