Accidental discharge of 2500 gallons sodium bisulfite disrupts Oregon city's sewage treatment

Via the Salem Statesman Journal, this news: 

City of Salem workers disposing of unwanted chemicals Wednesday accidentally disrupted biological processes at the city’s sewage treatment plant, possibly increasing bacterial contamination in the Willamette River as a result, city officials said Friday.

City workers put about 2,500 gallons of sodium bisulfite into the city’s waste processing facility on Airport Road SE in Salem Wednesday morning, public works spokesman Trevor Smith said.

The chemical traveled to the Willow Lake Wastewater Treatment Facility in Keizer and began impacting processes by about 6 p.m. Wednesday.

For about 21 hours, until about 3 p.m. Thursday, the treatment plant’s discharge to the river potentially exceeded bacterial limits, Smith said.

“Public works staff believed that the chemical would be diluted as it entered the treatment system,” Smith said. “That assumption was incorrect, and we take full responsibility for the discharge and are working with the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality to address the issue and develop policies to prevent such incidents in the future.”

The city was disposing of sodium bisulfite that had been stored since 2019 at the Franzen Reservoir’s Chlorine Reduction Facility in Turner.

Sodium bisulfite is generally used to remove excess chlorine and lower the pH of treated water.

I would really like to understand who signed off on this idea as a good one. Here's hoping the city of Salem revises its approval procedures.