Grand Forks allows Red River Biorefinery to pump exceedingly polluted sewage for another 10 weeks

After another setback at Red River Biorefinery, Grand Forks city officials extended further a set of relaxed emissions standards for the plant.

Mayor Brandon Bochenski issued an emergency order on Monday to suspend for 60 days the “load parameters” for the sewage the plant pumps into the city’s wastewater system, and, a few hours later, Grand Forks City Council members voted unanimously to push that to a total of 10 weeks.

The reason for the extension is a bad batch of biomass that the plant uses for its sewage pretreatment system, according to City Administrator Todd Feland. The bad batch made that system less effective, which means “stronger” discharges into city sewers.

Company staff are already working to replace the problematic biomass, and estimate that it will take about 10 weeks to return the amount of pollutants and suspended solids the plant sends to the city’s water treatment plant to the levels outlined in its industrial use permit. Bochenski and Keshav Rajpal, the plant’s managing partner, did not immediately return Herald requests for comment on Monday night.

Read more: https://www.grandforksherald.com/news/government-and-politics/6827153-Grand-Forks-allows-Red-River-Biorefinery-to-pump-exceedingly-polluted-sewage-for-another-10-weeks