Battery industry meets wastewater treatment reef
Sulfate, Ecosystem Impact Not Elucidated… Companies Prefer Low-Cost Sewage Treatment Plants
Local governments are reluctant to release water directly into the ocean, saying, “All microorganisms could die.” The fishing industry is opposed to this.
“200,000 tons per day by 2026, the government must step in”
“This is absolutely not possible. Ulsan’s sewage treatment system could collapse.”
Recently, Ulsan City has finally decided to reject the request of companies to allow wastewater from the secondary battery manufacturing process to be discharged to a public sewage treatment plant. Companies are expressing their displeasure at Ulsan’s decision to designate it as a national high-tech strategic secondary battery specialized complex along with Pohang, Gyeongbuk, Saemangeum, Jeollabuk, and Cheongju, Chungbuk in July of last year.
Specialized complexes across the country are suffering from conflicts surrounding secondary battery wastewater treatment. The main component of wastewater, ‘sulfate’, is difficult to treat using conventional methods, and its impact on the ecosystem has not been clearly identified. As the factories in specialized complexes are expected to start operating in earnest in 2026, the daily amount of secondary battery wastewater discharged is expected to exceed 200,000 tons, and there are concerns that if the government does not quickly and efficiently mediate the conflicts between local governments and companies, social costs will increase.
● ‘K-Battery Strategy’ Caught in Sulfate
According to Ulsan City and others on the 3rd, Korea Zinc, which is promoting the construction of a secondary battery plant in the Ulsan Onsan National Industrial Complex, requested permission to discharge 10,000 tons of wastewater per day into the sea through the Onsan Sewage Treatment Plant (public sewage treatment plant) operated by Ulsan City, and LS M&M requested permission to discharge 5,000 tons of wastewater per day into the sea. Ulsan City, which had promised full administrative support at the time of the investment attraction agreement, decided on a “no” policy after much deliberation. This is because the Onsan Sewage Treatment Plant, which processes 120,000 tons of sewage and wastewater discharged by 150,000 citizens per day, could lose its function.
Ulsan City has determined that the safety of secondary battery wastewater containing high concentrations of sulfate is uncertain. Most sewage treatment plants purify sewage and wastewater through biological treatment and discharge it into the sea, but the microorganisms that play a key role in purification are vulnerable to salt components. An Ulsan City official explained, “All the microorganisms in the sewage treatment plant could die,” and “If sewage and wastewater that falls short of the discharge standards set by law is discharged into the sea, Ulsan City will take full responsibility.”
The main reason why companies prefer public sewage treatment is that they can save hundreds of billions of won in wastewater treatment costs and avoid legal liability risks for environmental pollution accidents. The concentration of salt from the secondary battery industry is known to be around 5-7%. The current law does not have any standards for salinity when discharging from public sewage treatment plants. Companies that discharge wastewater into public sewage treatment plants are also not subject to ‘ecotoxicity’ regulations. On the other hand, if companies discharge wastewater directly into the sea instead of through public sewage treatment, they are subject to additional regulations such as biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) and total organic carbon (TOC) in addition to ecotoxicity.
● Offshore direct discharge is opposed by the fishing industry and civic groups
Secondary battery companies in Pohang are already disposing of wastewater by direct discharge into the ocean. Companies building factories in Saemangeum are also considering it as an alternative. However, direct discharge into the ocean is also facing strong opposition from the fishing industry. About 1,000 fishermen from Gunsan, Buan, and Gochang in North Jeolla Province held a rally in front of the Saemangeum Development Agency on the 14th of last month, protesting, “The fishing industry and fishermen will suffer devastating damage.” On the 27th of last month, the Gunsan City Council issued a statement, saying, “The Saemangeum fishermen are in a desperate situation,” and urging, “The standards for allowing discharge of wastewater must be improved.”
Current laws, such as the Water Environment Conservation Act, do not have standards for salt concentrations in direct discharge wastewater. Furthermore, even if the ecological toxicity standards are exceeded, there are regulations that allow direct discharge of wastewater if a company proves that water fleas (for freshwater) or bioluminescent bacteria (for seawater) are killed only by salt without any other toxic substances.
Another factor that is fueling the conflict is the lack of data proving the harmful effects of high-concentration sulfate on the marine ecosystem. Some point out that if the government is to foster national high-tech strategic industries as planned, it should establish appropriate legal standards related to secondary battery wastewater treatment as soon as possible. Professor Cho Kang-woo of the Department of Environmental Engineering at POSTECH analyzed, “The salt in secondary battery wastewater is different in composition from the salt in seawater,” and “High-concentration salt wastewater with a density up to four times higher sinks to the bottom of the sea, which can cause ecological toxicity to benthic organisms.”
Ulsan = Reporter Choi Chang-hwan [email protected]
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2024-09-04 20:28:32