The Pine Bluff City Council Public Works Committee voted Friday to forward to the full council with a do-pass recommendation proposed legislation that updates standards for industrial waste.
The proposed legislation comes from Pine Bluff Wastewater Utility and was presented to the committee Friday by PBWU manager Ken Johnson and Vincent Miles, PBWU environmental compliance supervisor. Alderman Charles Boyd and Alderman Steven Mays were present. Alderman Thelma Walker was absent.
The proposal would update the city ordinance that governs how local industries must pre-treat their wastewater before releasing it into the city sewer system. The update is required by the Environmental Protection Agency and outlines the regulations, permitting process and methods for PBWU to enforce the pre-treatment standards.
Similar ordinances have been on the books for several decades, and this version is simply an update to those laws, Miles has said in a previous presentation on the proposed legislation. The EPA has already reviewed and approved the draft ordinance.
The local industries that would be affected are: Aramark, Arcelor, Central Moloney, Jefferson Regional Medical Center, Planters, Stant, Tyson, Union Pacific and Wheeling Machine, Miles has said.
Johnson has said the whole process is intended to keep pollution and heavy metals out of the city’s sewer system, the PBWU treatment ponds, Arkansas River and groundwater. If the city does not approve the EPA-required updates, major fines will follow, Johnson said.