An official with the state Department of Environmental Protection said three issues led to DEP banning Hermitage from adding new connections to the sanitary sewer system.

Ricardo F. Gilson said Hermitage’s water pollution control plant is organically overloaded; parts of the treatment process have been bypassed during a handful of heavy rains; and the city’s permit has expired.

City Manager Gary P. Hinkson said city officials thought the first two issues had been taken care of and pledged to do whatever is needed to get the city back into compliance.

“We don’t want to have an adversarial relationship with DEP,” Hinkson said. “We’re going to work through this.”

Gilson, project manager for the water management program, said the plant was designed to take in a certain poundage of organic matter each day. The plant has been taking in more than the design specifications, he said.

Plant operators have been properly handling the excess organic matter, Gilson said.

“Actually, because you’ve got some good folks down there, it is functioning properly,” he said of the plant.

The plant was rerated some years ago to show that it can handle more organic material, and DEP wants to see the documentation proving that assertion, Hinkson said.

Hinkson added that the city has been sending DEP reports since the mid-’80s years about the amount of organic material the plant handles, and those reports have not been questioned by DEP.

“Obviously, we don’t want to do anything wrong,” Hinkson said.

Gilson said the city might have reported the higher poundage values in the past. “We didn’t pick up on it until this year’s report,” he said. Gilson also said he didn’t believe the organic overloads are a “major hurdle.” The state wants the city’s permit to reflect the proper organic value, he said.

On the issue of the bypasses, “We had been led to believe that wasn’t an issue any more,” Gilson said, noting DEP’s recent discovery of the bypasses.

“I think that was new to them, too,” he said of city officials.

However, Gilson said, DEP learned that, during heavy rains, waste flowing into the plant bypasses part of the treatment system, gets a minimal treatment, and is discharged with treated water into Bobby Run.

Hinkson said there have been four times over the last two years where that happened. The excess flow is chlorinated to kill pathogens before it is released.