City approves discharge permit for Fry Foods with no changes

The Weiser City Council followed staff recommendations and approved a 2019 discharge permit for food processor Fry Foods without any changes or fee increases.  

 The permit spells out what the city will charge Fry Foods as an industrial user of the city’s wastewater treatment system. The fees charged to the food processor have remained unchanged for the past four years, city officials said.

 City wastewater treatment plant officials said Fry Foods is required to pay for use of the city’s infrastructure and wastewater treatment just like any user, although it’s on a larger scale than other users. 

 The discharge permit sets parameters and limits on what Fry Foods can discharge from the plant on East Sixth Street to the city’s wastewater treatment system. If the amount of certain pollutants, such as total suspended solids (TSS) and BOD or fats, oils and grease (FOG) goes up, so do the fees the city charges the company. 

 During discussion on the Fry Foods permit, councilmember Dan Randleman asked about phosphorus levels in the water that Fry Foods discharges into the city treatment system. The city must closely monitor phosphorus levels in the treated effluent it puts into the Snake River to comply with its own state and federal permits.

 The numbers have come down, wastewater treatment plant supervisor Lonnie Chambers said, and not only with the phosphorus but also with the BOD and TSS loading. The company does pretreatment of the wastewater it generates before it is put into the city’s system.

 “Fry Foods has done a great job of trying to clean up the water,” Chambers said.

 Chambers said Fry Foods is planning to do more to clean up its wastewater before it goes into the city’s system. The company is currently installing a widely used DAFT (dissolved air flotation thickener) system that will greatly clean up the effluent from the plant. The system should come online within the next three months.

 The DAF water treatment process clarifies wastewater by removing suspended solids. The removal is achieved by dissolving air in the water or wastewater under pressure and then releasing the air at atmospheric pressure in a flotation tank. The released air forms tiny bubbles which adhere to the suspended matter causing the suspended matter to float to the surface of the water where it is then removed by a skimming device. 

 The city has also asked Fry Foods to clean up around the company’s property on East Sixth Street, although that is not related to the discharge permit. That part of the city is expected to see commercial growth in the future when the new Ridley’s store is completed next to the existing Bi-Mart.

 “We are seeing some real progress in cleaning that up,” Mayor Diana Thomas said.

 Fry Foods has operated the Weiser onion-ring facility since 2006. There are more than 200 people employed at the plant. The company, which is headquartered in Ohio, opened a second food-processing plant near Ontario, Ore., after purchasing the old  Select Onion property. 

 In 2016, the city of Weiser increased the capacity of the wastewater treatment plant when it completed a major $6 million upgrade and expansion. The improvement plan on upgrading the facility was competed in 2011 and loans and grants paid for the work. 

 The upgrade replaced failing or worn-out equipment, increased the capacity of the wastewater treatment plant and reduced the level of phosphorus in the effluent, a mandate under EPA standards. The treated effluent from the city’s sewer plant must meet changing and stricter water quality standards.