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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 28, 2003
Contacts:
Don Ostler, Director, Division of Water Quality, (801) 538-6146
Carl Adams, Environmental Scientist, Division of Water Quality, (801) 538-9215
(Salt Lake City, Utah) - According to a recent water quality study, Ashley Creek in Uintah County is well on its way toward meeting Utah's water quality standards. Closure of the old sewage lagoons on the east side of the creek and subsequent construction of a new wastewater treatment plant have reduced pollution problems associated with selenium and salt that have plagued the creek for more than a decade.
The water quality study investigated all of the sources of selenium and salt and determined how much these sources would need to be reduced in order to meet Utah's water quality standards. According to the study, the necessary pollution reductions have been taken care of with the closure of the old sewage lagoons on the east side of Ashley Creek.
The sewage lagoons were constructed in 1981 to dispose of Ashley Valley's wastewater. Soon afterward, the lagoons began to suffer chronic leakage problems. As the wastewater seeped down through the soil and rock, it dissolved the selenium and salts contained naturally within the Mancos Shale on which the lagoons were constructed. Eventually the water made its way to Ashley Creek through seeps and springs that appeared along the bluffs east of the creek.
Several federal, state and local agencies - including the Environmental Protection Agency, Bureau of Reclamation, Utah Department of Environmental Quality's Division of Water Quality and the Ashley Valley Sewer Management Board - collaborated to address the pollution problem by providing funding for a new wastewater treatment plant. The plant began operating in May 2001. Since then, the lagoons have gradually dried up, along with the seeps and springs that were contributing so much of the selenium and salt.
Because selenium can be toxic in high concentrations to fish and wildlife and to those who consume them, the Division of Water Quality, Utah Department of Health and TriCounty Health Department issued a fish and waterfowl consumption advisory in 1991 on the lower portion of the Ashley Creek and nearby Stewart Lake. That advisory is still in effect while further study is conducted.
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