The Housing Department at the University of Colorado at Boulder is taking steps to repipe drainage lines from a heating plant at its Williams Village residence hall following a discharge of contaminants into Bear Creek Wednesday afternoon that killed a number of fish.
According to Dave Wergin, director of ¶¶ÒõÂÃÐÐÉä-Boulder's Environmental Health and Safety, plans for the repiping will be prepared immediately and submitted to local and state licensing authorities for appropriate permits. The new piping would redirect drainage from a storm sewer, where it now feeds into Bear Creek, either to a sanitary sewer line for treatment or into a holding tank, Wergin said.
The plan is in response to the release of contaminated water into Bear Creek Wednesday by a contractor hired by ¶¶ÒõÂÃÐÐÉä to clean and flush two boilers at the heating plant that supplies heat and hot water to the Williams Village residence halls.
According to Ron Aguiar of Risk Management, the boilers were being cleaned on the advice of ¶¶ÒõÂÃÐÐÉä's insurance provider due to a potentially unsafe buildup of calcium and magnesium. The work involved the use of hydrochloric acid to remove the minerals from the boilers, which was then mixed with a neutralizing agent before disposal.
Frequent samples of the solution were taken in an attempt to ensure Ph levels were safe before the waste water was discharged into a drain, which then fed into storm sewers and into Bear Creek, according to a Housing maintenance worker. The solution also was flushed with 15,000 gallons of water.
Wergin said ¶¶ÒõÂÃÐÐÉä officials take the issue very seriously and will take all possible steps to investigate procedures used and to remedy the problem.
"We will comply with all city, state and federal regulations," Wergin said. "We will carefully review the details of this incident, and we also will review our practices for reaching agreements with contractors on their methodology."
The ¶¶ÒõÂÃÐÐÉä departments of Facilities Management, Environmental Health and Safety, and Housing currently are working on the rerouting of drainage at Williams Village. Various campus departments also will review ¶¶ÒõÂÃÐÐÉä's procedures for contracting with outside vendors.
¶¶ÒõÂÃÐÐÉä's Housing and Environmental Health and Safety departments have offered to provide help to the city and other agencies on any environmental remedies. The university also has offered to work with the appropriate Colorado agencies to restore the creek's ecological balance and to restock the creek.
In addition, ¶¶ÒõÂÃÐÐÉä-Boulder's Facilities Management department is evaluating all campus drainages that feed into storm sewers. The city prohibits the dumping of any chemical substances into storm sewers, which carry non-treated runoff water into waterways.
Ph levels in the creek monitored on Thursday showed them to be within safety standards, according to ¶¶ÒõÂÃÐÐÉä's Environmental Health and Safety department.