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This chapter reviews the permitting and control of wastewater discharges from DLA installations and discusses compliance with the appropriate discharge criteria and associated regulatory requirements. The chapter directs DLA implementation of Public Law (PL) 92-500, "Federal Water Pollution Control Act Amendment of 1972," 18 October 1972, as amended by "Clean Water Act of 1977," 27 December 1977 and Public Law (PL) 95-576, "Amendments to the Water Act," 14 October 1978. Specific guidance is provided on compliance with the major environmental regulations governing wastewater discharges. These are EPA National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System Permit Regulations (40 CFR 122), EPA Regulations on Criteria and Standards for the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (40 CFR 125), and EPA General Pretreatment Regulations for Existing and New Sources of Pollution (40 CFR 403).
The Federal Water Pollution Control Act, as amended, identifies three national goals: to eliminate the introduction of pollutants into waters of the United States ("navigable" waters); to ensure the attainment of "swimmable and fishable" water quality; and to eliminate the discharge of toxic pollutants. To attain these goals, EPA identifies the conventional, nonconventional, and toxic pollutants, and the degrees of technology which must be applied to remove these pollutants from point and nonpoint sources of wastewater. Point source discharge requirements are implemented through the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES), a nationwide permit program administered by EPA, or by states when approved by EPA. Industrial wastewater must often be pretreated before discharge into an industrial waste treatment plant (IWTP) or publicly-owned treatment works (POTW) to prevent interference with treatment processes. The inability of a treatment plant to continually meet its discharge permit limits due to failure of industrial users to pretreat can result in enforcement actions against both the operators of the treatment works and the industrial user.
a. DLA activities will not discharge pollutants into the waters of the United States unless allowed under a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit.
b. All discharge limits and other terms and conditions of NPDES permits will be strictly complied with.
c. Programs will be established to ensure that industrial sources are pretreated as necessary prior to discharge. d. Operators of wastewater treatment facilities or pretreatment processes will receive adequate training needed to perform activities in an effective manner.
Heads of DLA-managed facilities will:
a. Conduct and annually update an inventory of all point sources.
b. Notify regulatory authorities of all point source discharges which may need to be governed under an NPDES permit.
c. Comply with NPDES permit conditions, including timely submission of Discharge Monitoring Reports.
d. Initiate pollution abatement projects for point sources which consistently fail to meet effluent limitations.
e. Initiate wastewater pretreatment projects which may be required for discharges into a DLA or publically-owned treatment works.
f. Prevent any discharge of a pollutant which does not comply with effluent standards, treatment technology requirements, and NPDES permit and other procedural requirements.
a. National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) Permit Program:
(1) Regulated Discharges. Under the guidelines of the NPDES, a permit is required for the discharge of pollutants from a point source into the waters of the U.S. Because storm sewer discharges are, by definition, point sources, they are controlled by permit if the storm water runoff has the potential for contamination. DLA activities must comply with the terms and conditions of NPDES permits, including payment of fees.
(2) NPDES Permit
(a) Application for Permit
(1) The NPDES regulations specify that any person (to include Federal agencies) that discharg or proposes to discharge pollutants must complete, sign, and submit an application to either the regional Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) office or the appropriate state issuing agency, whichever has primacy over the NPDES program.
(2) For treatment works, a determination must be made as to the facility's appropriate classification. By definition, Federally-owned and operated wastewater treatment facilities are not POTW; however, because of an allowance in the application for permit, Federal treatment facilities which receive more than 50 percent domestic waste and which discharge an effluent should complete the application for a municipal wastewater system. DLA activities which are connected to the local municipal treatment facility do not require a separate NPDES permit for such discharges; however, pretreatment programs may be imposed.
(b) Issuance of Permits. Permits are issued by either the EPA or the state for a fixed period of time, but not more than 5 years. Regardless of who issues the permit, it is normal practice for both the state and the EPA to review and provide input into the permitting process. In the case of a permit issued by an approved state, the EPA still retains veto power over the issuance of the individual permit. The EPA also retains the power to monitor, revoke a permit, or take action against any violator even though a state issued the permit. Where the state does not have primacy over Federal facilities, it is possible for a facility to receive two permits - one from the EPA and a second one from the state. The former would be based on the NPDES program, while the latter would be derived solely from the state environmental legislation.
(c) Composition of the Permit. Any permit issued by the EPA or an approved state will specify which pollutants may be discharged and will set average and maximum daily limits on those discharges and a frequency for monitoring. The discharge limitations are set based on effluent standards, water quality criteria and any other Federal or state requirements. The permit could also include best management practices for any associated industrial activities or a schedule of compliance which mandates an enforceable plan of action if the facility cannot comply with its discharge limitations. In this latter case, interim dates are then set to measure progress towards permit compliance.
(d) Conditions of the Permit. Anyone who holds an NPDES permit is bound by the following conditions:
(1) The permit holder must report any new discharges.
(2) Any excess discharge of a pollutant will constitute a violation of the permit.
(3) The permit may be modified, suspended, or revoked if its terms are violated, if it is obtained under misrepresentation, or if all relevant data were not disclosed.
(4) The permit holder will allow EPA or state water pollution control agency officials to enter and inspect the plant, inspect the copy records, inspect monitoring equipment, and sample pollution discharges.
(5) The permit holder will keep the appropriate equipment and systems in good working order.
(3) Effluent Limitations. The EPA has established effluent guidelines for both municipal treatment plants and industrial discharges. Because Federal facilities are not by definition POTWs, their effluent limitations are based on the different levels of treatment technology which were established for industry, that is, they are based on the ability of a technology to remove a pollutant from a wastewater and not on the necessity of removing a pollutant from a wastewater to meet a water quality standard. Although DLA facilities do not fall under any of the major industrial categories or subcategories, similarities between individual operations will allow for the establishment of discharge limitations based upon best engineering judgment. If a DLA facility primarily treats domestic waste, it will, for the most part, be assigned municipal wastewater treatment limits provided that the water quality of the receiving stream does not require stricter limitations. In this latter case, the discharge limits become water quality based limitations.
(4) Monitoring, Recordkeeping and Reporting. Accurate monitoring, recordkeeping, and reporting are an important part of a facility's operations. To ensure compliance with the terms of the permit, the permittee should perform the prescribed monitoring using the corrected analytical procedures and reporting the results on the Discharge Monitoring Report. The reporting frequency and requirements may vary from one discharge point to another; however, reporting within a 24-hour period is required for any unanticipated bypass or plant upset which exceeds any effluent limitations in the permit, or a violation ofa maximum daily discharge limitation for any pollutant that is so designated for 24-hour reporting. Anyone falsifying, tampering with, or submitting inaccurate information under the monitoring requirements, is subject to fines and penalties. All records and results of monitoring activities must be retained for 3 years. An extension of this three-year period is automatic during the course of any unresolved litigation regarding the discharge of pollutants.
b. Pretreatment Program
(1) Pretreatment regulations apply to all industrial (i.e., nondomestic) users of POTW. The objective of these regulations is to prevent the introduction of pollutants into a POTW that would interfere with its operation or sludge disposal or would pass through the treatment works untreated. These objectives are accomplished by two regulatory mechanisms:
(a) Prohibited Discharge. Pollutants which would create a fire hazard, an explosion, obstruct the sewers, or create a hazard to the workers at the POTW are prohibited from being discharged into the POTW unless the treatment works are specifically designed to treat these types of waste.
(b) Categorical Standards. These are the standards which are being developed for the individual industrial operations of the 29 industrial categories. Like the effluent guidelines for industrial discharges under the NPDES permit program, these categorical standards are technically based. In addition, they are subdivided into Pretreatment Standards for Existing Sources and Pretreatment Standards for New Sources.
(2) The enforcement and regulation of the Pretreatment Program comes from these sources: the EPA, the state regulatory agencies and the local municipalities.
(a) The EPA has the responsibility for management of the National Pretreatment Program. This includes the development of the implementing regulations, approval of state programs, and enforcement where the state does not have an approved program. Although the EPA is developing pretreatment regulations for the 29 industrial categories, few of the industrial operations being studied are common to DLA facilities and most, if not all, of these will not have categorical standards promulgated. For these operations, the establishment of pretreatment standards will be left to the best engineering judgment of the EPA Regional Administrator or the State Director, depending on which body has enforcement authority. This could possibly result in similar operations in different states being subjected to different standards.
(b) The local municipality has the ultimate responsibility to enforce pretreatment regulations as it will be a requirement of their POTW's NPDES permit. All POTWs with a design capacity of greater than five million gallons per day or significant industrial discharges are required to develop an approved pretreatment program. Local authorities may impose more stringent pretreatment requirements than the Federally-promulgated Categorical Pretreatment Standards; however, these local standards must be based on protection of the POTW's operation, its sludge disposal method, or some other technical reason, but should not be a political decision.