By Blake Deshazo | The Selma Times-Journal
The Alabama Department of Environmental Management proposed to issue an order to the Dallas County Board of Education for violations at a wastewater treatment plant at Dallas County High School. The plant violated code for not complying with permit limitations for discharging water into state waters, submitting reports late and failing to turn in noncompliance forms.

According to Lynn Battle, a spokesperson for ADEM, the order is on notice for 30 days. If the director signs the order, the school system will have to meet all of the obligations outlined by the department.

According to Dallas County Superintendent Hattie Shelton, the plant has been in compliance for the past nine months.

“The issue was corrected prior to the order being issued,” Shelton said. “For the last nine months we have not been outside those limits.”

According to the order, discharges between January 2015 and January 2016 “did not comply with permit discharge limitations for E. Coli, total ammonia as nitrogen, total suspended solids (TSS), TSS percent removal, carbonaceous biochemical oxygen demand.”

Shelton said the discharges did not comply because of the cleaners the school was using and that changes were made last January to correct them.

“My understanding is that we made some corrections with the cleaners we were using at the school,” Shelton said. “For nine months we have been fine. Our limits have been fantastic.”

According to Shelton, an outside contractor is responsible for checking chemical levels in the plant.

“It is a mechanical plant, and we have a contract with an environmental company who comes in and checks the levels for us to make sure our levels are in compliance,” Shelton said.

Shelton said reports have also been submitted on time as required by the permit.

“We’ve been turning [reports] in on time,” Shelton said.

“We’ve got that back on track, and we’re back on track doing what we’re supposed to be doing.”

The order will also require the school to pay a $7,050 fine, which was reduced from $14,100.

“Given that the permittee operates a public school system, under the education budget in the current economic situation, the department has reduced the penalty to $7,050 based on the permittee’s expected inability to pay,” the order read.

The school system will have 45 days from the time the order is executed.

Dallas County Schools will also be required to submit an engineering report that outlines changes that need to be made to make sure the plant stays in compliance as well as quarterly progress reports, among other items.

The full order can be viewed on the Alabama Department of Environmental Management’s website, www.adem.state.us under compliance information and enforcement notices.