Yucky foam fouling Eagle Creek came from Speedway wastewater plant discharge

Dustin Isselhardt likes to take his grandson fishing, and one of their favorite holes for crappie and bluegill is a spot on Eagle Creek just south of 10th Street in Speedway.

But last summer, Isselhardt said he noticed something different about the stream. There was at least six inches of foam on top of the water, stretching from bank to bank. He also saw oily brown blobs floating on the surface.

Isselhardt snapped photos of the foam on his phone, and earlier this month he decided to post them to the Nextdoor app. The social media post generated quite a buzz online, yet no one could identify what the foamy substances were or where they were coming from.

“I saw it all summer long,” Isselhardt told IndyStar. “I started taking pictures of it because it can’t be legal.”

He was right. During those summer months and beyond, the creek's waters had excess levels of pollution coming from a nearby water treatment facility.

State finds Speedway out of compliance

Eagle Creek, south of the reservoir, flows adjacent to the Town of Speedway’s wastewater treatment plant, and an outfall pipe from the plant discharges near where Isselhardt and others fish.

Speedway operates its own utilities and stormwater system separate from Indianapolis and has a permit to discharge into the creek. But when the Indiana Department of Environmental Management reviewed Speedway’s wastewater treatment plant, the agency found it discharged more than the permit allowed into the creek between May and December last year. The plant's discharges exceeded its permit for ammonia-nitrogen, total suspended solids, E. coli and phosphorous in various months throughout this period.

IDEM sent a letter to Speedway on Feb. 2 detailing these violations.

“Please be advised that due to the number and magnitude of the Exceedances violations, your facility has been designated as being in Significant Noncompliance (SNC),” the letter says. “Facilities in SNC are our top priority in determining when enforcement action should be initiated.”

Speedway was given 30 days to provide a detailed response on how it will correct the concerns, plan for future compliance with the permit and when the treatment plant will return to compliance.

Grant Kleinhenz, city manager at Speedway, said the town has drafted a response to IDEM that is currently being reviewed before being sent to the state.

The foamy substance floating on top of Eagle Creek is due to a couple different processes, but not related to the noncompliance, Kleinhenz said. The plant uses dissolved oxygen in its treatment process, which makes the water foam. Then, as it is released into the creek, the water churns over the concrete structures of the outfall creating more foam.

Once the town noticed the problems at the treatment plant, Kleinhenz said they were immediately reported to IDEM.

The town submitted a noncompliance report for the week of Sept. 10 showing an “outside interference” killed the waste-eating bacteria and microbes the plant uses to digest and help get rid of sludge. Once that sludge is removed, the water is sent out to Eagle Creek.

The report says the town is “investigating what killed the bugs and who did it.” And the plant is starting to come back to normal operations, but a "reseed" of the organisms may be required.

The town manager said the issue stemmed from a sludge disposal company, Merrell Brothers, which has a 50-year contract with Speedway. The company leases a facility connected to Speedway’s treatment plant and brings in various types of waste for pretreatment before disposal.

“Last year they had an improper chemical dumped in from their customers that caused those violations,” Kleinhenz said. “We have fined Merrell Brothers and put them on notice that if it does happen again, we would move to cancel the agreement with them because we take our wastewater treatment seriously and don’t want those issues.”

Issues caused by excess metal

Rodny Henderson, with Merrell Brothers, said the issue Speedway had last year came after the company hauled in waste from a customer and, after pretreating the waste, it still caused the plant to have issues with its bacteria.

“Some material came in high in metal, which hurt, slowed down or killed some bacteria,” Henderson said.

A report filed with IDEM in September shows zinc levels were high in test samples and noted the identified levels are known to cause nitrification and active sludge growth. The high concentrations of zinc were linked to the Merrell Brother’s facility.

Merrell Brothers tests weekly under a separate permit to make sure they remain in compliance, but Henderson said the metal that caused the issue was not among materials covered in that weekly test. The company has established different protocols with Speedway following the incident, including implementing monthly metals testing.

Merrell Brothers customers are required to complete special waste forms, and Speedway has the authority to approve those forms. The company’s customers are all approved and follow the terms and conditions for using the service, Henderson said.

While it’s impossible to know exactly where every gallon of waste it receives, Henderson said, the company does its due diligence to make sure they know what’s coming in the system.

“Our event was an isolated event and addressed seriously on our end to where the goal is to have complete prevention," Henderson said.

Speedway fined Merrell Brothers about $3,600 for the violation and various costs associated with the issue.

The town is now working with Wessler Engineering to further address the issues, Kleinhenz said.

Meanwhile, Isselhardt is still planning on fishing Eagle Creek for bluegill that he'll use as catfish bait, but said he's definitely moving his outings upstream to avoid the treatment pant's outfall.

Karl Schneider is an IndyStar environment reporter. You can reach him at karl.schneider@indystar.com. Follow him on Twitter @karlstartswithk

IndyStar's environmental reporting project is made possible through the generous support of the nonprofit Nina Mason Pulliam Charitable Trust.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Speedway wastewater plant violated dumping permit, fouling Eagle Creek