This article is from a discussion of issues that will be taken up by the Prescott City Council this week
In other action, the council will:
• Consider an amendment to a 2013 Arizona Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) consent order concerning discharges of fluoride from the city’s airport wastewater treatment plant.
The proposed amendment would set milestones and timeframes for improvements needed to comply with the state-issued Aquifer Protection Permit, according to a city memo.
In May 2015, the city requested a one-year extension to the ADEQ compliance requirement, while it awaited a 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals judgment on a lawsuit with Pure Wafer Inc., the company that had been identified as the discharger of the fluoride.
(In its lawsuit, Pure Wafer contended that the city had earlier agreed to make the infrastructure improvements needed to deal with the discharges).
ADEQ responded to the city’s extension request with a proposal that would give Prescott 60 days to draft and submit a plan for dealing with its exceedance of fluoride discharge levels (if the ruling is not in the city’s favor). Meanwhile, the city would be required to deal with the fluoride discharges through interim measures.
Title of article: Prescott Frontier Days seeks long-term lease with the city
NOTE FROM FAN:
Pure Wafer Inc., headquartered in Swansea, South Wales, prepares reclaimed silicon test wafers for the semiconductor industry at a facility in Prescott, Arizona. In September 2013 they sued the city regarding a difference of interpretation over the amount of fluoride they discharge into the city’s wastewater treatment system. “Pure Wafer’s lawsuit maintains that the company (formerly Exsil, Inc.) entered a ‘bargain’ with the city in 1997 under which the company would build a $45 million silicon wafer reclamation facility that would employ as many as 100 people… ‘Under that bargain Pure Wafer and the city understood, expected and agreed that Pure Wafer would be discharging into the city’s sewer system each day up to 195,000 gallons of effluent which would contain fluoride of up to 100 milligrams per liter,’ the lawsuit states (The Daily Courier, 11-18-14).”
5-28-13: ADEQ consent order requires Prescott to clear up water fluoride issue
7-19-13: Press release from Arizona Department of Environmental Quality, “Pure Wafer, Inc., Agrees to $120,000 Settlement for Failure to have Air Quality Permit at Prescott Facility”.
7-20-13: ADEQ fines Pure Wafer $120,000 for not having air quality permit
11-22-13: City attorney: Cost of outside legal counsel is confidential
11-28-13: Prescott hires outside law firm to fight Pure Wafer lawsuit
4-17-14: Pure Wafer, Inc., Plaintiff v. City of Prescott et al., Defendants. Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law and Permanent Injunction. In the United States District Court for the District of Arizona. Filed April 17, 2014.
4-23-14: Judge rules against city in Pure Wafer lawsuit; will cost Prescott hundreds of thousands of dollars
11-18-14: Pure Wafer vs. City of Prescott lawsuit may require outside counsel
