April 12, 2005

Zipper manufacturer YKK is the onlyBibbCounty factory found in "significant noncompliance" last year for violating awastewater permit, according to the Macon Water Authority.

Like many other local industries, YKK is required to treat its liquid waste so the waste doesn't corrode Macon Water Authority sewer pipes or harmthe sewage treatment process. The authority is responsible to state environmental regulators for enforcing limits on the chemicals and metals that flow into its wastewater stream.

By February, YKK had corrected its wastewater problem by installing new equipment and changing its chemical use, said Judy Crawford,director of corporate communication forYKK ,U.S.A.

From February through August 2004, 14 tests of YKK's wastewater showed selenium levels higher than the company'swastewater permit allows.

According to state law, this made YKK a chronicviolator.

The increases occurred because YKK stopped dying at theMacon plant, which reduced the amount of liquid waste that dilutes theselenium, Crawford said.

As soon as the company learned it was not complying with its permit, it developed an "air knife" system to recover and reuse the selenium, Crawford said. YKK achieved compliance in February, shesaid.

Selenium is a naturally occurring metal that is helpful to human health insmall amounts. But metals must be limited in soil where crops are grown to prevent plants from absorbing enough to harm yields or consumers,said Mark Wyzalek, the authority's manager ofindustrial
monitoring.

Metals exceeding YKK's permit limit can passthrough the plant and into the treated sewage sludge. The sludge is spread onfarm fields as a fertilizer.

Wyzalek said YKK's selenium was not a big problem becauseit was diluted when the authority mixed the sludge from its two treatment plants. But the utility wants sludge from both plants to be treated enoughto be spread on its own if necessary.

If metals in the sludge exceed state standards, the authority would have to pay to dispose of the sludge in a landfill, Wyzalek said.

YKK is a member of the ISO 14000 program, a voluntary environmental management program developed by industry that requires members to comply with environmental laws.

"This doesn't affect our membership as far as we know," said Allan Ray, YKK senior vice president of human resources. He said it's usually enough for companies with environmental violations to develop a plan forcorrecting the problem. YKK has developed the plan and carried it out.