Greasy waters

MONTROSE — A local waste pumper was sentenced to a $20,000 fine and 10 months in prison after pleading guilty to discharging restaurant grease into storm sewers feeding into Dry Cedar Creek.

“I hope it sets an example,” Montrose County Commissioner Allan Belt said. “We can’t tolerate illegal dumping into our waters — that’s literally fouling your own nest.”

William Donald Walker, owner of Root-Master, is scheduled to surrender Oct. 22 to the Bureau of Prisons. He refused comment Tuesday.

The two counts of negligent discharge in violation of the federal Clean Water Act occurred about June and September 2003. Both involve pumping grease trap waste into his truck from McDonald’s on Odelle Road and discharging it into a storm sewer flowing into Dry Cedar Creek and eventually the Uncompahgre River. The first incident occurred behind Wal-Mart Supercenter on South Townsend Avenue; the second occurred behind City Market on South Townsend and Odelle, according to court documents.

Regional septage receivers and public officials have coordinated efforts in the past couple months to find solutions toward increasing haulers’ accountability. After identifying discrepancies between the amount of septic waste generated and received at approved locations in Delta, Montrose, Ouray and San Miguel counties, they drafted an audit request to the Environmental Protection Agency.

“A license isn’t even required and so we don’t know how they’re (the haulers) operating,” Belt said. “I think we’ll be able to make some dents in this.”

A more recent incident of illegal grease dumping occurred in September when a West Montrose Sanitation District employee observed grease entering the treatment facility after it was discharged into a manhole. The district receives such waste on site for 15 cents per gallon, but discharge into the sewer system is illegal.

WMSD manager Randy See initiated the meetings with regional leaders and met with a group of haulers last week to discuss the problem.

“I think the unfortunate situation with William Walker at Root-Master will help focus people’s attention on this matter,” See said.

He said his facility received six loads from Root-Master last month. The district has accepted septic and grease waste since January 2005.

Williams had trouble finding a place to legally discharge his grease between September 2001 and October 2003. Although he formerly disposed of grease at authorized disposal sites for a fee, the sites “placed greater restrictions on the waste they would accept, raised fees for waste disposal and/or in one case, refused to take further waste of that type,” according to court documents.

Belt said a landfill that had been on Bureau of Land Management land accepting septage was closed near 2001 after contamination was discovered in downslope wells. 

“It was when I was still (working for) BLM, one septage hauler called and said he was gonna break out the windows in my basement and dump septage in my basement,” Belt said.

He said the county patented the land after it closed and now leases it to Waste Management for operation.

Kerry Smith owned Montrose Roto-Rooter from 1992 to 2005. He said he quit dumping septic waste in September 2001 after the local landfill ceased to receive it. He land-applied the waste for a while then stopped pumping altogether after receiving notice from the EPA stating he was out of compliance, he said.

The company began pumping again when WMSD began receiving the waste. During that gap there was nowhere in the county to legally dispose of it, he said.

“I was told by Delta County I couldn’t dump there because they would accept for in-county only,” Smith said.

Larry Hudnall has worked for Delta County’s environmental health staff for 11 years. He said in that time the county never allowed outsiders to use its septic lagoons.

“If they did they would sneak it in,” he said. “We would put a stop to it immediately.”

Delta County stopped receiving septage at 2 cents per gallon in 2004. After that, CB Industries began accepting it for 18 cents per gallon, regardless of its source. In that time the volume received has decreased by 35 percent despite significant area growth, CB Industries owner Jerry Beard has said.

CB Industries and WMSD are the only licensed receivers of septic waste in Montrose and Delta counties. Land application is an alternative, though it’s expensive and not well-regulated, Beard said.

Contact Robert Allen via e-mail at roberta@montrosepress.com