Water Reclamation Facility

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Industrial Pretreatment Section

The Industrial Pretreatment Section has the responsibility for the following environmental regulation mandated programs:

• Industrial Pretreatment Program
• Combined Sewer Overflow Program
• Storm Water Program
• Tributary Community Permit Program

Industrial Pretreatment Program

The Clean Water Act of 1972 called for the U.S. EPA to develop national pretreatment standards. These standards are uniform national requirements that restrict the level of certain pollutants in the sewage from industries. All publicly owned treatment works (POTW) must enforce the federal standards, which consist of two sets of rules, 1) categorical pretreatment standards and 2) prohibited discharge standards. In addition the pretreatment program was required to develop local discharge standards.

Categorical pretreatment standards were developed for specific types of industries such as electroplaters, metal finishers, coil coaters, organic chemical manufactures, etc. These standards include regulation of specific pollutants and require the use of "best available treatment technology" prior to discharging to the sewer system. Prohibitive discharge standards apply minimum standards to all discharges to the POTW and prohibit types of discharge that could create a fire hazard, explosion hazard, corrosion, obstruction of flow, slug loadings, reactivity and fume toxicity.

The philosophy behind these national standards is to provide consistent application to all industrial users throughout the country. On the other hand, local standards for POTWs were developed to prevent the introduction of pollutants into the sewer system that would interfere with the normal operation of the system or inhibit the biological process of the POTW. The second object of local standards is to optimize the cost effective method of sludge disposal (beneficial sludge reuse - compost). The third objective is to prevent any discharge that would result in pass-through of any pollutant resulting in a permit violation or adverse water quality impact of the receiving stream.

The legal authority to conduct the Industrial Pretreatment Program in the City of Akron is granted through the Sewer Use Ordinance, Chapter 50.44 – 50.99.

The major end results of this program are:

• Compliance with NPDES Permit Industrial Pretreatment Program requirements,
• Enforcement of federal, state and local pretreatment program requirements, and
• Prevention of pass through, interference, inhibition and sludge contamination in regard to the Water Reclamation Facility.

Combined Sewer Overflow (CSO) Program

The major end results of this program are:

• Verification that CSOs occurred only as a result of wet weather,
• Compliance with technology based requirements and State established Water Quality Standards,
• Minimization of impacts on water quality with respect to human health, aquatic and biotic criteria, and
• Compliance with NPDES Permit CSO requirements and US EPA strategies.

Stormwater Program

The major end results of this program are:

• Reduction of the discharge of pollutants from the municipal separate storm sewer systems (MS4),
• Implementation of the MS4 NPDES Permit and,
• Implementation of non-point source objectives.

Tributary Community Permit Program

The major end results of this program are:

• NPDES Permit Compliance with respect to Tributary Community’s.
• Reduction of inflow and infiltration and,
• Elimination of Separate Sanitary Sewer Overflows (SSOs) with respect to the Community’s sanitary sewers tributary to the Water Reclamation Facility.