The stormwater pond at Samsung’s semiconductor plant was filled with acidic wastewater. It also filled a 1.5-mile stretch of Harris Branch Creek, Northeast Austin. This caused the death of almost all aquatic life. For a period up to 106 day, as many as 763,000 gals of acidic waste were released into the waterways.
The stormwater pond has been isolated from the spillage and valved shut. Teams responsible for the incident have begun to control the damage. Samsung initially reported that chemicals in the water had caused the tributary’s pH to drop below normal, causing serious harm to the aquatic community as well as the ecology of the tributary. The Watershed Protection Department now conducts weekly water quality tests for both the Texas Commission for Environmental Quality (TCEQA) and the Environmental Protection Agency. They report that water pH levels are returning to near normal levels.
Katie Coyne is an environmental officer at the city’s Watershed Protection Department. BriefedThe city Environmental CommissionThe spillage was reported by and stated that it would likely take between six and two years for the waters to recover. It will also need to be completely rebuilt.
Coyne said that it will experience a lot boom and bust phases during its recovery due to the channel’s new state. It’ll be very vulnerable to invasives, and might end up in unstable states. We know that restoration assistance may be required if this happens.
Richard Brimer, Commissioner, asked why Samsung took so long to find the spillage and how it can improve its monitoring to prevent future failures.
Thain Maurer, who is on Watershed Protection’s spill response team, told the commission that Samsung wasnt aware of the spill until Jan. 14, at which point it used its pump-run time to calculate that the spill could have been flowing for more than 100 days, due to infrastructure failures.
Maurer explained, “The engineering division of the Austin Fire Department, which gives Samsung its permits for hazardous materials storage, will “be working with Samsung to have improved monitoring in these areas where the failures occurred so that they would have a faster feedback loop and hopefully catch any spills immediately, rather than after the fact.
Commissioner Pam Thompson expressed concern that recent rains in Austin could cause further discharge from the pond (where the wastewater is currently contained) back into the tributary.
They’ve been pumping the contaminated water from the pond to their normal waste stream for this waste, the sanitary sewer, said Ryan Hebrink, a water quality compliance program manager with Watershed Protection. So they have the levels drawn down quite significantly in the stormwater pond, and I believe that there’s a low risk of that pond overtopping.
Samsung has informed the Watershed Protection Department that they are working on restoration plans to repair the damage it has caused. Coyne says that Samsung’s plans include water quality monitoring every quarter for one to two year, adding native plants to improve water clarity and support the return to invertebrates, creating additional riffle habitats and pools for invertebrates in the tributary and possible off-site invasive species elimination.
Area affected by the spillage, via Austin.
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Posted In: Environment
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