Linen Plant Looks To Double Wastewater Discharge

A West River business that cleans clothes may be making the waterways a bit dirtier — but not enough to concern regulators.

The business, New England Linen Supply on Derby Avenue, which cleans and rents linens and napery and service uniforms to the food industry, has applied for permission to double its daily discharge of detergent-filled post-laundry wastewater into the sewer system from 75,000 gallons to 150,000. The Greater New Haven Water Pollution Control Authority (WPCA) has approved the permit-modification request. Now it awaits final approval from the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP), which is seeking public comment through Saturday on a draft approval.

Some public comment took place Wednesday, where the request was an agenda item at a meeting on Sherman Avenue (at the headquarters of Neighborhood Housing Services) of the West River Watershed Coalition.

The roughly two dozen attendees debated whether to push for more government regulation of industrial discharge for businesses along West River. The group’s active two years have led to improvements in the river’s health.

Some members said they are reluctant to approve more industrial discharge into the river.

But a majority, including West River Neighborhood Services Corporation President Stacy Spell, suggested community organizations deal with businesses on a ​“case-by-case” basis in cooperation with the WPCA rather than seek to pressure the company through state regulators. Spell, committee organizer Martha Smith, and most others present said the business complies with existing regulations and has a good record hiring from the neighborhood.

“The company is giving good jobs, which are essential to neighborhood revitalization,” he said. ​“We’re always concerned with bettering the river system, but we don’t want to encumber our positive engagement with the business.”

“We don’t want to be community bullies,” added his wife Virginia Spell (at left in photo), secretary for the Neighborhood Services Corporation.

The coalition delegated to Spell the task of contacting New England Linens about improving its stormwater management, which coalition members determined more problematic than the discharge.

The linen plant’s discharge itself is treated to reduce its high-pH and suspended solid contaminants, to be in compliance with the city’s water quality ordinances which are considerably more strict than the state’s regulations, the Greater New Haven Water Pollution Control Authority’s director of operations, Gary Zrelak, said at the the meeting.

Danielle Sandella, a consultant for New England Linen, attended the meeting. She said the plant’s discharge would rarely if ever reach the 150,000-gallon limit, more likely averaging 90,000 to 100,000 gallons per day.

Martha Smith, who facilitated Wednesday’s meeting, said the proposed amount of wastewater discharge is relatively small, and its chemistry not harmful. The only danger with New England Linens increasing output is the vulnerability of New Haven’s antiquated combined sewage infrastructure, she said. (Much of New Haven remains to have its stormwater and sewage pipes separated.)

With sewage, industrial discharge and stormwater runoff flowing together into the river, the likelihood of overflows during heavy rainfall increases. In the event of one of these Combined Sewage Overflows (CSOs), which occur on average 40 times a year citywide, contaminated water overwhelms city water treatment plants and flows directly into the river, exacerbating the bacterial contamination that plagues West River and many urban waterways, said WPCA’s Zrelak.

While the increased discharge of treated chemicals may be a drop in the bucket for the river’s contamination, increasing the volume of water dumped into the river at any one point does increase the likelihood of these CSOs. So the WPCA assessed the area carefully before signing off on the permit, making sure the pipe was large enough to accommodate the flows. The WPCA also wanted to ensure that the wastewater did not contain detergents with estrogen-mimicking chemicals known as NPEs and APEs.

According to Zrelak, stormwater runoff, not industrial discharge, presents the most harm to the West River. Nineteen percent of bacterial loading of the river results from overflows, while 51 percent comes from the millions of gallons of stormwater that flow over impervious surfaces, depositing pollution and sediment from the city into the river.

The runoff from the roofs and asphalt straight into the river concerned coalition members more than the regulated industrial discharge. One member, Frank Cochran, suggested there might be methods to reduce its impact, such as barrels to collect rooftop runoff.

New England Linen’s consultant Sandella said the plant initially considered taking extra measures to reduce pollution, but the business ​“uses every inch of [its] property,” and ​“it would be a challenge” to accommodate extra tanks. Facility manager Al Barbato, interviewed later at the plant on Derby Avenue, said the company currently has no process of managing the runoff, but its industrial discharge hardy lives up to its name.

“Our wastewater is better for the environment than what’s produced in your home washer or bathtub,” Barbato said. ​“The regulators do their job well.”

Though it’s much smaller than similar plants, New England Linens isn’t quite a ​“postage stamp” on the map as Sandella assured coalition members. It consists of several large gutted houses and a main facility, patched together in the middle of a crowded parking lot by the river.

At the facility, Latina workers sweltered on the stuffy plant floor, packed with huge washers, piles of steaming linens, and heavy rollers. Along with past OSHA violations and low wages, the 100+ degree heat led the workers fight for a union, which they won in 2008.

Barbato said the request comes amid gradually growing business; he anticipates that the increased discharge would occur gradually as well. The company has added a second shift, employing more workers from the neighborhood.

New Haven State Rep. Pat Dillon, who attended Wednesday’s meeting, said this could present a creative opportunity for the business to collaborate with environmental groups to decrease stormwater pollution depsite limited space. In the long run, other companies may be able to replicate their example for environmental stewardship.

While the coalition didn’t leave the meeting ​“of one mind” on the permit modification, said Smith, it was a good opportunity to inform community organizers and local environmentalists about the economy and health of the river.