Houston Police Claim Kingwood Wastewater Plant Dumped Improperly Treated Sewage, Falsified Sample Reports

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According to local authorities, wastewater treatment plant operators in the Houston area dumped insufficiently treated wastewater into one of the city’s drinking water sources and covered up the problem by falsifying sample reports.

On February 17, the Houston Police Department’s Environmental Investigation Unit issued a search warrant for logs, laboratory reports, and other physical evidence at the Kingwood Central Wastewater Treatment Plant, 3928 Kingwood Dr., which is owned by the city and operated by Inframark, LLC. according to a copy of the search warrant obtained by Houston Public Media. The detective alleged in a search warrant under oath that someone at the plant was responsible for the “unauthorized and illegal discharge of pollutants” into a public waterway and that the sewage sample reports submitted to the city and ultimately the state of Texas were “counterfeited or otherwise counterfeited”. With.”

The Houston Public Works said in a statement that they control the treatment plant, one of 39 the city owns, and that the city’s drinking water is safe for consumption. A department spokesman said water discharged from the Kingwood plant into a tributary of Lake Houston – after it has been theoretically cleared of harmful bacteria – is subsequently treated at another facility before entering the municipal water supply.

“From statements by credible experts and information from laboratory test results… there is probable reason to believe that raw sewage and/or contaminants are being discharged into Ben’s Branch, a waterway direct discharge point into Lake Houston in Harris County, Texas” , Sergeant HPD. Patrick Morrisey wrote in a 12-page search warrant application. “The evidence described here shows that lab reports and other reports were falsified to show that these discharges were in compliance with state permits and the Texas Water Code, when in fact they were not.”

Falsifying government documents is a criminal offense, as is dumping waste into a public waterway that causes or may cause water pollution.

HPD spokesman Shai Avosian said Thursday the department could not provide further information, citing an ongoing criminal investigation, but said no arrests or criminal charges had been made as of Wednesday. The Texas Environmental Commission’s Environmental Crime Unit is assisting with the investigation, state agency spokesman Gary Rasp said, adding that he could not comment otherwise.

Inframark spokeswoman Miranda Shevchik, whose company operates five water treatment plants and 12 wastewater treatment plants in the Kingwood neighborhood northeast of Houston, said in a statement that Inframark is cooperating with city and other authorities and will conduct a third-party investigation.

“We are committed to ensuring the safe operation of the Kingwood Central Wastewater Treatment Plant,” Shevchik said. “We are working with the City of Houston to resolve this issue, but at no time has raw sewage been discharged from the plant.”

Although Houston Public Works found no evidence that raw sewage was not fully treated prior to being discharged from the facility, department spokesman Erin Jones said they found that the wastewater was not adequately treated at the Kingwood plant.

“HPW has confirmed that due to poor operation and maintenance of this facility by Inframark, wastewater treatment at the Kingwood Central Wastewater Treatment Plant was not being performed to the levels required by the facility permits, and wastewater was being discharged without meeting the required treatment levels,” Jones said. .

City officials launched an investigation into the operation of the plant in late January after receiving complaints from residents about odors emanating from the facility. Houston Public Works Senior Associate Director Greg Ayrley visited the plant Jan. 31 and found it not working properly due to dark, cloudy water in the aeration and clarification tanks and silt spilled onto the ground, he told Morrissey. application for a search warrant.

What Airley testified contradicted lab sample reports that suggested the plant was operating at peak efficiency, he told Morrissey. City field researcher Geoffrey Farrell visited the plant on February 1 and took a sample of the sewage, which showed E.coli bacteria in excess of 24,200 parts per 100 milliliters, compared to 135 in an estimated sample taken a day earlier. . According to the search warrant, the legally allowed average daily concentration is 126 parts per 100 milliliters, and the daily maximum is 399.

Farrell also reported on Feb. 2 that the plant’s autosampler was not programmed properly and had a frozen temperature sensor, meaning it could not take samples. However, it was later determined that the laboratory sample had been presented that day, as shown in the affidavit.

According to the search warrant, Inframark hires Busby International to collect and ship test samples from the factory, which are then analyzed by Envirodyne Laboratories.

Houston Public Works managing engineer Walid Samarne told Morrissey that the Kingwood sewage treatment plant is one of only two in the city that uses ultraviolet light as a disinfectant, rather than chlorine, as the search warrant shows. Samarnay told Morrisey that the presence of dark, cloudy water would prevent the UV light from doing its disinfectant job, adding that the plant was supposed to notify the city if the UV light wasn’t working properly. According to the search warrant, this did not happen.

Morrissey met on February 15 with plant manager Michael Reid, as he wrote in an affidavit that shows Reid acknowledged spills from the plant’s aerotanks on January 10 and 24. The first spill was caused by an open sump drain and second by heavy rainfall, Reed Morrissey said, adding that plant operators were aware of the ongoing problem with autosampler freezing.

“It appears that the sample analysis submitted to the City of Houston was tampered with or otherwise tampered with based on the following observations: The samples submitted by Envirodyne do not (cannot) match the water conditions observed by Mr. Greg Airley at the treatment plant, according to Mr. Airley and is consistent with my training and experience in wastewater treatment,” Morrissey wrote in an affidavit. “From my training and Mr. Greg Ayrley’s statements, I know that this discoloration is an obvious indicator to any trained wastewater treatment plant operator that there is a problem with the aeration basin and that the water is not being treated properly. I know from experience. learning that this coloration will prevent the UV system from properly sanitizing the water, as it is necessary for the water to be clear so that the UV light can penetrate and kill bacteria.”