by KARI BLURTON
Hays Post

The Hays City Commission agreed to pay the $18,000 fine issued by the Environmental Protection Agency rather than contesting the issue with the federal agency.

At Thursday evening’s commission meeting, assistant city manager Paul Briseno said the fine stems from 2012 incident when the city’s wastewater treatment facility was testing a new process with the state to reduce nitrates, phosphates and ammonia.

While trying out the new process, staff at the wastewater treatment facility noticed the levels of ammonia exceeded the permit from the Kansas Department of Health and Environment.

Briseno said it was city staff who notified the EPA of the problem and “diligently worked to improve the system.”

“The whole process started four-five years ago when the city was looking at updating the facility,” he said, noting a new facility would cost approximately $30 million. “We had hopes of working with the state to try to reduce the need of such an upgraded facility by changing the process in the plant, but after incurring these fines and seeing maybe that might not be the best option, we may have to look forward to upgrading the facility.”

He noted city employees continue to work with the state to “get the facility back to where it needs to be.”

City attorney John Bird noted several other cities in western Kansas have had similar fines, and he does not believe the city of Hays is being “singled out.”