Water Sector News
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Wastewater treatment problem at Rogue Ales
NEWPORT — Wastewater discharges at Rogue Ales’ brewery in Newport is causing problems for the Newport Wastewater Treatment Plant, according to city officials, with the primary issue consisting of the large amount of solid waste the city gets from Rogue.
“Rogue is a large generator of those solids that we have to treat at the plant,” said City Manager Spencer Nebel on Monday. “Typically, breweries will have a pre-treatment process to reduce those, and that’s what we’ve been working with Rogue on.”
The problem, according to Newport Public Works Director Tim Gross, was caused in part by the brewery outgrowing the city’s ability to process the brewery’s solid waste. He said with no pre-treatment process at the brewery to partially treat Rogue Ales’ solid waste before it gets to the city’s wastewater treatment plant, the city spends “above and beyond” the normal amount of money to treat and process Rogue’s solid waste.
“But they’re sort of backed into a corner in being able to operate a brewery that doesn’t actually have the ability to meet the wastewater discharge,” Gross said. “Rogue Brewery has made a good faith effort to try to revise a facility that is not designed to meet the waste loading of the city. It’s unfortunate the code hasn’t changed; it’s just they outgrew our ability to take their waste.”