The General Permit for Water Treatment Wastewater Discharges
June 25, 2010
In addition to complying with the regulatory requirements associated with producing potable water, public water supplies in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Connecticut may also need to comply with the environmental permitting associated with the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) Program.
Massachusetts General Permit No. MAG640000
New Hampshire General Permit No. NHG640000
Connecticut General Permit No. DEP-PERD-GP-002
Under the NPDES Program, there are two basic types of environmental permits that are issued; an Individual Permit and a General Permit. An Individual Permit is specifically tailored to an individual facility discharge. Application for an Individual Permit is made to the appropriate permitting authority and the permitting authority develops a permit for that particular facility based upon the information contained in the application. By contrast, a General Permit covers multiple facilities within a specific discharge category (e.g., water treatment wastewater discharges or construction related stormwater and dewatering discharges). General Permits recognize that there are commonalities between various facility operations and discharges. They are an effective tool for permitting agencies because of the large number of facilities that can be covered under a single permit category. General Permits are also beneficial to facilities because typically there are significant cost savings associated with applying for and complying with a General Permit when compared with the costs and complexities of an individual permit.
Under the General Permit that has been developed for potable water treatment wastewater discharges, owners and operators of potable water treatment facilities in Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire that discharge wastewater generated by the water treatment process make application to their respective state’s permitting agency and certify to the facility’s ability to meet the conditions of the General Permit. Connecticut’s General Permit (General Permit No. DEP-PERD-GP-002) applies to all discharges of wastewater generated by the treatment of water supplies for potable or industrial process use and does not include wastewaters generated by any residential or commercial point-of-entry treatment device. General Permits must be reviewed and reissued periodically by the permitting authority. After several years of review, the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection (CTDEP) reissued this General Permit without modification, effective March 30, 2010. The application fee has increased from $500 to $625, and existing registrants will be receiving notice from CTDEP that their registrations will need to be renewed.
The General Permits for discharges from potable water treatment facilities (PWTF) in Massachusetts (General Permit No. MAG640000) and New Hampshire (General Permit No. NHG640000) were reauthorized on September 25, 2009 and expire five years from the last day of the month preceding the effective date of the permit, August 31, 2014. The Massachusetts General Permit covers wastewater discharges associated with clarification, coagulation, media filtration, membrane filtration (not including reverse osmosis), and disinfection. New Hampshire’s General Permit covers wastewater discharges associated with treated pre-sedimentation underflow, treated underflow from coagulation/settling processes using aluminum compounds or polymers as coagulants, treated filter backwash water, and discharges from sludge settling lagoons or other devices where control of suspended solids is possible.
Darlene Gurnon – Senior Project Environmental Scientist
dhgurnon@geoinc.com
Regulatory agency contacts for the General Permit for Water Treatment Wastewater Discharges
Connecticut
Jim Creighton, CTDEP, Water Permitting and Enforcement Division at (860) 424-3681
Massachusetts
Kathleen Keohane, Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection, Bureau of Resource Protection at (508) 767-2856
New Hampshire
Dan Dudley, New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services at (603) 271-0671
