Parry Teasdale is reporting in the Columbia Paper Columbia County officials will meet next week to discuss the options for stopping pollution from the waste treatment plant that serves 30 or more businesses in the Gerald R. Simons Commerce Park in Ghent. The action comes in the wake of an $8,000 fine levied against the county by the state Department of Environmental Conservation last month. The county has until August 1 to come up with a plan to correct the release of treated solid waste that exceeds permitted levels. The plan must include an estimate of the cost to replace the plant, according to a consent order from the DEC signed by county Board of Supervisors Chairman Matt Murrell on February 17. The county owns the park and operates the sewage treatment plant for businesses located near the county airport along state Routes 66 and 9H. The plant processes an average of 20,000 gallons of wastewater a day, operating well below its daily limit of 50,000 gallons, according to County Attorney Robert Fitzsimmons. Fitzsimmons denied untreated waste has been released. According to a report in the Times Union, the latest fine levied against the treatment plant was the fourth one issued by the DEC. The plant was built in 1992 and the DEC says compliance violations go back to the year 2000. The county has until December 2019 to have a new system that meets the standards in place. The newly established county sewer committee will meet Wed., Mar. 30 at 401 State Street in Hudson. Read the full story in the Columbia Paper.