TIVOLI (V) WWTP

Tivoli's ammonia violation stretches into a third straight quarter

The Village of Tivoli's wastewater treatment plant on the Hudson has now exceeded its permitted ammonia discharge limit for three consecutive quarterly reporting periods, and remains in significant non-compliance today. The violation was severe last December, when total ammonia nitrogen at the discharge point ran more than twelve times the permitted monthly average. That spike has eased considerably since, but the most recent reading, taken August 14, still came in 46% over the limit. Ammonia is toxic to fish and other aquatic life, and that toxicity worsens as water warms and as pH rises, which is exactly the direction conditions push in mid-August. This is a permit exceedance on record, not a confirmed fish kill or oxygen crash in the river itself; establishing that would take separate monitoring of the receiving water. Still, a facility recording its third straight quarter over limit, with the exceedance still running high in the same month that stresses aquatic life most, is a trend worth watching rather than a problem to consider resolved.