AutoCamp Gets Green Light For Full Occupancy
The AutoCamp in Sippewissett has been given the green light by the Falmouth Board of Health to move into its busy season with no occupancy restrictions.
AutoCamp, at 836 Palmer Avenue, has been before the board for some time, following the board’s issuing of a $10,000 fine for noncompliance with its septic system in January. In the hearings since the fine was issued, AutoCamp has pleased the board with its progress despite ongoing fumbles regarding the presence of quaternary ammonium.
Quaternary ammonium compounds, also known as quats, are a type of chemical that contain nitrogen and are used for a variety of purposes, including disinfectant, sanitizer and wastewater treatment. Quats are highly effective at killing bacteria, viruses and mold, and are often found in cleaning products used in restaurants, hospitals and hospitality-type businesses. Because quats contain nitrogen, they contribute to the total nitrogen in the septic effluent, meaning that AutoCamp’s nitrogen levels are beyond the threshold set by the board of health.
At the May 23 hearing, the board ordered AutoCamp to investigate the quaternary ammonium problem that reared its head in April, when operators from WhiteWater discovered the compound’s presence in the septic system.
AutoCamp manager Terry Bechtold said that since the previous meeting, AutoCamp has taken corrective measures to quell the quat problem, including switching to alternative cleaning products, washing rags offsite and instilling new cleaning practices. Eric Smith, project manager at WhiteWater, said nitrogen levels at the site have been trending in the right direction, but the quats problem remains.
“We still have not been able to identify the source [of the quaternary ammonium] and really make any significant progress in the reduction of the quaternary ammonium coming in,” Mr. Smith said. Despite nitrogen levels trending in the right direction, the presence of quats still seems to be a mystery.
Mr. Smith said that WhiteWater did put in an order for “quat kill,” a product that will mitigate the quaternary ammonium problem temporarily but is not a long-term solution for stopping it at the source. Until the product arrives, which may take up to three weeks, AutoCamp is focused on finding the source of the problem and eliminating any products or practices that may be contributing to it.
Board member Benjamin Van Mooy said he was pleased with the sampling and monitoring of the system that AutoCamp has been performing, but questioned what the plan to continue troubleshooting the numbers would be moving forward.
In addition to quat kill, Mr. Smith said that AutoCamp is working with Stantec consultants to work backward through the system and add additional sampling sections to try and find the source of the quats.
“I have a morbid fascination with this problem,” Mr. Van Mooy said. “Something seems so off with this, right? I mean, you have total nitrogen in the influent and then you have the quat ammonium in that same sample…so it’s like 10 percent of all the nitrogen that’s coming through the system is disinfectant. I’m having a hard time understanding…it’s almost like someone would have to be pouring jugs of it down the drain because you have hundreds of people at this place.”
Board member Kevin Kroeger, who was not present when AutoCamp was before the board previously, raised the question of what the test results were actually measuring. As a research chemist specializing in coastal ecosystems, he noted that the analysis said [NH4+], which is simply ammonium ion, another form of ammonia.
“I just want to make sure that that’s not what we’re talking about here, that it’s literally quaternary ammonium, which is a completely different thing—it’s a disinfectant,” Mr. Kroeger said. “It has substitutions of hydrogen all the way around that nitrogen atom with organic compounds that cause it to be a disinfectant.”
Mr. Smith said samples are broken up individually for analysis and after TKN and ammonia have been accounted for, there was still another component within the total nitrogen. Mr. Kroeger asked if he was sure that this component is not NH4+, but Mr. Smith said he could not say that definitively.
Mr. Kroeger recommended that the AutoCamp check with the analyst to make sure that what is being recorded is not just NH4+.
“At equilibrium, almost all of that ammonium, given enough time, would be converted to NH4+ anyway,” Mr. Kroeger said. “If you’re looking from influent to effluent, you would expect it to transition from NH3 ammonia to NH4+. I think this might just be the residual ammonia as ammonium.
“I think it’s NH4+ which would provide an answer to this kind of crazy mystery, why would there be a bunch of disinfectants. It would have to be a huge amount of disinfectant and it’s not quite making sense. The fact that they put on their report [NH4], I think they’re just misnaming NH4 as quaternary ammonium.”
Mr. Van Mooy then brought up the consistency of the results themselves, which he noted was a bit of a red flag at the previous hearing. The board suggested that AutoCamp look deeper into the process of the analysis itself and reach out to the lab it works with to learn more about what exactly is being tested and how those results are interpreted.
“If we focus on the total nitrogen, it looks like it’s headed in the proper direction,” board member George Heuffelder said.
“It’s clear to me that you’re working on this and there are actions being taken,” Mr. Van Mooy said. “It just makes the mystery even more deep…I feel like the public health hazard has been mitigated, compared to where we were. Seeing this trajectory would be a positive thing but I feel like the acuteness of the issue is fading into a troubleshooting phase.”
The board opted to not impose any restrictions on occupancy at this time as AutoCamp preps to move into its busy season, which began Memorial Day weekend.
AutoCamp will continue supplying the board of health with reports and lab results on a weekly basis, supplemented by monthly appearances before the board throughout the summer for updates on its progress.
Falmouth resident Richard Trudeau attended the meeting on behalf of the Sippewissett Association and asked the board why it was making its decision based on an assumption that the compound in question is not in fact quaternary ammonium.
“If they are quats and they’re unidentified,” Mr. Trudeau asked, “are those quats in the septic system now over time going to be getting into the ecosystem? And if that’s the case, is that a dangerous environmental outcome? Because the decision is being made based on the assumption that it’s not quats, but it turns out to be, then I think this is more of a sense of urgency [of] getting that question—quats or no quats—addressed.”
Chairwoman Diana Molloy told Mr. Trudeau that the board is looking at more than just that one issue and anticipates further troubleshooting to find the source of the problem.
“I’m just looking at the sensitivity of the ecosystem,” Mr. Trudeau said. “Disinfecting the ecosystem is not necessarily what we want to be doing.”
Mr. Van Mooy said the health board does not know if there is a critical threshold for quaternary ammonium or not, but it does know that the bioreactor in the septic system is doing well, meaning the quats that are present in the system are not actively killing the biomass that has built up.
“We’re going to keep an eye on this and expect continued progress but we don’t need this to be a hearing-level situation every week,” Mr. Van Mooy said.
The board’s vote was unanimous.
A representative from AutoCamp contacted the Enterprise with the following statement on behalf of AutoCamp Cape Cod General Manager Terry Bechtold:
“We appreciate the opportunity for a dialogue about our operations at AutoCamp Cape Cod. As evidenced by our actions over the past six months, we are committed to working with local officials to ensure our wastewater program is above the required parameters. We will continue to work to improve our testing results and keep the Board of Health fully apprised of our plans and our communication with our partners.”