Effluent Guidelines and Standards
Program Update
National Association of Clean Water Agencies—2017 National Pretreatment
and Pollution Prevention Workshop
May 17, 2017
Office of Water
Outline of this presentation
 Recent Pretreatment Standards Rulemakings
 Effluent Guidelines Planning
 Status of ongoing studies and other activities
 CWA Analytical Methods Update
 POTW Study
 Collaboration
 Questions?
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5/15/2017
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Recent Pretreatment Standard Rulemakings
40 CFR part 435 - Unconventional Oil and Gas (UOG) Pretreatment Standards
– Promulgated in June, 2016
– Rule applies to a subset of oil and gas extraction facilities: onshore extraction from shale
and/or tight geologic formations
– The standards prohibit discharges of wastewater pollutants from onshore unconventional
oil and gas (UOG) extraction facilities to POTWs
– A subsequent action extended the compliance date to August 29, 2019 for certain facilities
subject to this rule
– Those discharging between April 17, 2015 and June 28, 2016
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Recent Pretreatment Standard Rulemakings
40 CFR part 441 – Pretreatment Standards for the Dental Category
– Previous Administrator signed a final rule in December, 2016
– Requires dental offices to comply with requirements based on practices recommended
by the American Dental Association, including the use of amalgam separators
– Minimizes dental office reporting requirements and the administrative burden to federal,
state, and local regulatory authorities responsible for oversight of the new requirements
– EPA withdrew this rule from the Office of the Federal Register and it is not in effect
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Effluent Guidelines Planning
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Published Preliminary 2016 Plan in June, 2016
No new rules identified
– Other than those that were ongoing
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Provided updates on on-going studies for Centralized Waste Treatment, Petroleum Refining,
and Metal Finishing
Described reviews of the following industries: Battery Manufacturing, Electronic and Electrical
Components, Iron and Steel, Organics Plastics Synthetics and Fibers, and Pulp and Paper
Anticipate publishing the final plan Fall 2017
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5/15/2017
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Ongoing Studies
40 CFR part 437 - Centralized Waste Treatment (CWT)
 EPA promulgated the CWT rule in 2000
 Covers discharges from facilities that treat or recover wastes, wastewater or use material
received from off-site
 Managing wastewater from oil and gas extraction (OGE) activities at CWTs was less common
when rule was developed
 OGE extraction contain pollutants that are not controlled by the technology bases for the
existing CWT requirements
 Goals of the study include determining in-scope facilities, evaluating treatment in place and
economics of industry in order to determine if updates to the CWT rule for facilities managing
OGE wastes is needed
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Ongoing Studies
40 CFR part 433 – Petroleum Refining
 EPA promulgated the rule in 1974 with amendments in ’75, ‘77, ‘82, and ‘85
 Applies to wastewater discharges from over 140 refineries
 Working with industry representatives to develop a limited survey and sampling campaign to
better understand presence or absence of pollutants in refinery discharges
 New wastewater treatment technologies available that treat nitrate, selenium, mercury and
some toxic organic compounds
 Assessing effects of wet air pollution control devices and crude types processed on
wastewater characteristics
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Ongoing Studies
40 CFR part 433 - Metal Finishing
 Conducted 20 site visits to a range of metal finishing facilities
 Reviewed discharge data
 Reviewed applicable information from the MP&M rulemaking
 Coordinated with NACWA, Control Authorities, and MF industry groups
 Reviewed available treatment technology information
 Main issue raised by stakeholders continues to be applicability questions
 Working with NACWA and EPA pretreatment coordinators to identify and address
applicability questions
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Ongoing Reviews
40 CFR part 433 – Electronic and Electrical Components
 Recommended by NACWA
 Coordinated with NACWA, Control Authorities, and Industry groups
 Attended conferences and reviewing available treatment technology data
 Updating profile, wastewater characterization, and treatment technology information
 Plan to initiate site visits within the next month
 Data need: wastewater characterization resulting from industry changed and associated
treatment technology information
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Reconsideration
40 CFR part 423 - Steam Electric Power Generating
– EPA promulgated revisions to the Steam Electric ELGs in November, 2015; compliance
required by 2018-2023
– EPA received petitions for reconsideration that raised wide-ranging and sweeping
objections to the rule
– In April, 2016, the Administrator announced his decision to reconsider the rule
– In April 2016, EPA administratively postponed the new, more stringent BAT and PSES
limitations and standards for the following wastestreams:
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Fly ash transport water
Bottom ash transport water
Flue gas desulfurization (FGD) wastewater
Flue gas mercury control wastewater
Gasification wastewater
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CWA Analytical Methods
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The previous Administrator signed a Methods Update Rule in 12/16
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Included revisions to existing methods and/or new methods
- Revisions to EPA 608, 624, and 625 take advantage of improvements in analytical technology
and allow greater flexibility in order to accommodate future improvements to the methods
Revised the procedure for determination of the method detection limit to address laboratory
contamination issues related to the MDL and better account for intra-laboratory variability
EPA withdrew this rule from the Office of the Federal Register and it is not in effect
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National Study of Nutrient Reduction and Secondary Treatment
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Nutrient pollution is a current and growing threat to public health and local economies.
This study will examine nutrient discharges from POTWs to achieve 2 goals
– Identify realistic, achievable nutrient reduction targets for POTWs of different sizes,
geographical locations and with different secondary treatment technologies
– Update national estimates of nutrient discharges from POTWs; existing estimates are
based on data that is up to 50 years old
This study will be accomplished through data collection that is anticipated to span several
years
– First phase of the data collection will be a census of POTWs to gather basic profile
information and treatment in place
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Need for Continued and Enhanced Collaboration
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Seeking your help with information on the industries being studied
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Continue dialog to hear about the industrial pretreatment issues that you are dealing with and
implementation challenges with existing categorical pretreatment standards
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Share data, we are particularly interested in obtaining any discharge data that you keep on
the SIU’s that discharge to your facilities
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Questions?
Contact Info:
Jan Matuszko, Chief
Engineering & Analytical Support Branch
Engineering & Analysis Division
Phone: 202-566-1035
email: [email protected]
Project Lead for Effluent Guidelines Planning—Phillip Flanders
Email: [email protected]
Phone: 202-566-8323
URL for Effluent Guidelines: https://www.epa.gov/eg
URL for Analytical Methods: https://www.epa.gov/cwa-methods
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