About 3,000 Denver-area businesses will have to pay several million dollars to meet a new ban on molybdenum in wastewater, industry engineers say.
The metal, used to prevent corrosion in heating and cooling systems, will be outlawed Jan. 1 by the Metro Wastewater Reclamation District.
The move is being made to comply with federal Environmental Protection Agency standards, said Ted Graber, industrial-waste specialist for the district.
The metro wastewater district serves Denver, Arvada, Aurora, Lakewood, Thornton and Westminster.
Paul R. Puckorius, a wastewater management consultant, said the ruling would affect businesses ranging from industrial plants to hotels to hospitals and would cost area business “several million dollars.”
Sludge made from the wastewater and sold to farmers as a compost has had trace molybdenum near the federal limits several times since 2002, Graber told 20 sanitation engineers at a meeting Tuesday.
“I’ll have to dump 1,800 gallons (of anti-freeze solution) to get rid of the molybdenum, and it will cost me $6,000 or $8,000 to fill it back up,” said Bob Hoenes, chief engineer for a Cherry Creek office building.
Violators could be fined up to $32,500 a day and have their wastewater service terminated.
Hoenes and other engineers called for a rebate to offset the cost and a gradual phase-in so their companies could budget for the new restrictions.
“This is a very, very fast timeline,” said Robert Schields, engineer for three commercial buildings in Denver, Aurora and Lakewood.
Other engineers asked why the waste couldn’t be dumped in a landfill, as some other sanitation districts do, or be burned.
“The EPA’s intent is that it be used in a beneficial manner,” Graber said.
Metro Wastewater – the biggest wastewater-treatment facility between the Mississippi River and the West Coast, serving 1.5 million people – generates 80 tons a day of bio-solids that are reused as a soil additive, Graber said.
Staff writer Dave Curtin can be reached at 303-820-1276 or dcurtin@denverpost.com.
