Effluent Regulation System
Under the Water Pollution Control Act

February 6, 2020
Masaaki Hosomi (Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology)&
Ministry of the Environment, Japan (MOEJ)

Outline
1. Background and History of Water Quality
Protection
2. Effluent Regulations under the Water Pollution
Control Act including Mercury

1

Background：Water quality deterioration in public water areas

Doukai Bay (Kita-Kyusyu city, 1960s)

Sumida River (Tokyo, early 1970s)

Chofu seki (Tama River, Tokyo, 1970s)

2The History of Water Quality Protection (1)Events prior to the foundation of Environmental Agency,
Japan:
1956

Minamata Disease

1958

Drainage from a paper mill on the Edogawa Riverin Tokyo Bay caused severe fishing damage. The
establishment of two laws concerning water quality
control→ Law for conserving water quality of public water systems(Clean Water Act)
→ Law for controlling wastewater discharged from factories(Factory Effluent Control Act)

1960~

Niigata-Minamata Disease, Itai-Itai Disease3

The History of Water Quality Protection (2)1971 Enforcement of the Water Pollution Control Act
Two laws, Clean Water Act and Factory Effluent Control Act, turned out to be
insufficient for effectively controlling water pollution in Japan.
The governing body of Clean Water Act and Factory Effluent Act was Economic
Planning Agency and Ministry of International Trade and Industry, respectively.
This new law, Water Pollution Control Act, was established by fundamentally
reexamining the two laws and enforced in 1971.
1.

Overcoming reactive administration manners→ transition from specified area control to national level control→ establishment of uniform national effluent standards andadditional local effluent standards (enforced from 1971).

2.

Enhancing regulations to ensure compliance with the newstandards→ Direct punishment for violating regulations
3. Unification of the legislation system→ Environmental Agency (1971)

The History of Water Quality Protection (3)Events after the foundation of the Environment Agency (1971)
1973
1978

1979
1984
1989
1990
1993
1994
1999
2001
2001
2003
2005
2010
2013

Establishment of Law Concerning Provisional Measures for Conservation of theEnvironment of the Seto Island Sea
Establishment of Law Concerning Special Measures for Conservation of the Environmentof the Seto Island Sea/ amendment of the Water Pollution Control Act
Initiation of total pollutant load control in Tokyo Bay, Ise Bay, and Seto Island Sea
Establishment of Law Concerning Special Measures for Conservation of Lake Water
Quality (Clean Lake Law)
Amendment of the Water Pollution Control Act (Groundwater contamination）
Amendment of the Water Pollution Control Act (Household wastewater)
Establishment of Basic Environment Act
Establishment of two laws concerning drinking water sources
Establishment of Law Concerning Special Measures against Dioxins
Foundation of MOEJ
Initiation of the fifth total pollutant load control, including nitrogen and phosphorus
Establishment of the Environmental quality standard for Water Pollution, with focus onconserving aquatic organisms
Amendment of the Clean Lake Law (establishing areas for effluent control, preserved
areas around lake and reservoirs）
Amendment of the Water Pollution Control Act (reinforcing punishments for not recording
measurements, and/or false reporting)Amendment of the Water Pollution Control Act (omitting provisions which exclude
5
radioactive substances as target pollutants)

2. Effluent Regulations
under the Water Pollution
Control Act

6

How the Water Pollution Control Act Works
Order toChange Plans

Nationwide regulations for specified
Factories and buildings

Report installation or

Pre-regulation change of specified facility

Regular
Regulation

Emergency
Measures

Measure and log pollution status of effluent

PenaltyOn-site inspections & Reports collection

Order remedy
Order suspension

PenaltyEffluent regulations
Regulation of water containing substancesclassified as toxins infiltrating into groundwater

Order to take measuresrelated to purification

Water pollution due to abnormal
water shortage, etc

Order to takeemergency measures

Emergency measures & report of accidents

Order to takeemergency measures

Water Quality
Monitoring

Measurement programby prefectural government

Implementation of regular monitoring
Announcement of monitoring results

Domestic Wastewater
Control

Designation of important areas
by prefectural government

Development of a plan for promoting the implementationof domestic wastewater measures by municipalities

Total pollutant load control
in enclosed coastal seas

The government’s “Fundamental Policy
for Reduction of Total Pollution Load

Establishment of “Plan for Reduction of Total Pollution
Load” by prefectural governments and regulations

Target Facilities of Effluent Control:
Specified facilities and Specified factories• In various industries such as the steel industry and thelivestock industry, facilities that can generate polluted wateror wastewater are defined as specified facilities.
• 74 specified facilities are listed in the enforcement
regulations of the Water Pollution Control Act.
• For example, in the steel industry, specified facilities include a
tar and gas liquid separation facility, a gas cooling and washingfacility, a rolling facility, a quenching facility, and a wet dust
collection facility.
• In universities and research institutes, washing facilities are
specified facilities. Under the Water Pollution Control Act,factories and workplaces with specified facilities are definedas specified factories. Specified factories are subject toeffluent regulations.
8Specified factories• Specified factories that use or treat hazardous
substances are defined as hazardous substancespecified factories.
Specified factories in 2015：
264,924
Specified factories w/o hazardous substances: 246,020
Hazardous substance specified factories:
18,904> 50 m3/day
3,785< 50 m3/day
11,001
no effluent
4,118

9

Regulatory standard items:• Living environment items include
substances that may cause damage to theliving environment (COD, BOD, nitrogen,phosphorus, etc.)• Health items include substances that may
damage human health (cadmium, arsenic,
lead, etc.) i.e., hazardous substances• The effluent standard regarding health items is 10 times
the environmental standard for the protection of humanhealth in public water bodies. In other words, it is assumed
that the wastewater will be diluted at least about 10 times inpublic water bodies.
10Uniform Effluent Standards
Living environment item

Standard

Hydrogen ion concentration (pH)

Other than sea area: 5.8 – 8.6
Sea area: 5.0 – 9.0.

Biochemical oxygen demand(BOD)

160 mg/L(Daily mean value: 120 mg/L)

Chemical oxygen demand (COD)

160 mg/L(Daily mean value: 120 mg/L)

Suspended solids (SS)

200 mg/L(Daily mean value: 150 mg/L)

Normal-hexane extracts content(mineral oils content)
Normal-hexane extracts content(animal and plant fats content)
Phenols content
Copper content
Zinc content
Soluble iron content
Soluble manganese content
Chromium content

5 mg/L30 mg/L
5 mg/L
3 mg/L
2 mg/L
10 mg/L
10 mg/L
2 mg/L

Coliform group number

Daily mean value: 3,000/cm3

Nitrogen content

120 mg/L(Daily mean value: 60 mg/L)

Phosphorus content

16 mg/L(Daily mean value: 8 mg/L)

Note：The effluent standards listed in this table apply to factories orbusiness facilities which on discharge 50m3 or more effluent per day
on average.
（*）The total amount of: NH-N multiplied by 0.4, NO2-N, and NO3-N.

Health item
(Hazardous substance)
Cadmium and its compounds
Cyanide compounds
Organic phosphorous compounds(Parathion, Methyl Parathion, Methyl
Demeton, and EPN only)
Lead and its compounds
Chromium (VI)
Arsenic and its compounds
Total mercury
Alkyl mercury compounds
PCBs
Trichloroethylene
Tetrachloroethylene
Dichloromethane
Carbon tetrachloride
1,2-Dichloroethane
1,1-Dichloroethylene
cis-1,2-Dichloroethylene
1,1,1-Trichloroethane
1,1,2-Trichloroethane
1,3-Dichloropropene
ThiramSimazine
Thiobencarb
BenzeneSelenium and its compounds

Standard
0.03mg/L
1mg/L
1mg/L
0.1mg/L
0.5mg/L
0.1mg/L
0.005mg/L
Not detected
0.003mg/L
0.1mg/L
0.1mg/L
0.2mg/L
0.02mg/L
0.04mg/L
1mg/L
0.4mg/L
3mg/L
0.06mg/L
0.02mg/L
0.06mg/L
0.03mg/L
0.2mg/L
0.1mg/L
0.1mg/L

Boron and its compounds

Other than sea area: 10 mgB/L
Sea area: 230 mgB/L

Fluoride and its compounds

Other than sea area: 8 mgB/L
Sea area: 1 mgB/L

Ammonia, Ammonium compounds,
Nitrate and its compounds
1,4-Dioxane（*）100mg/L
0.5mg/LUniform effluent standards• Uniform effluent standards for living
environment and health items have been
established for effluent from specified
factories into public water bodies.
• In addition, prefectures can set more stringent
standards instead of uniform standards inpublic water bodies where water pollution
control is not sufficient with this uniform
standard alone.
12Effluent Standards and Prefectural Standards
Uniform effluent standards prescribed by the national government(a national minimum regulation)
HazardousTypes
substancesof control tightening
applied to all Specified
establishments

applied to Specified establishments
where effluent is 50m3/day or more

Prefectural governments
authorized to tighten
controls, according to local
conditions

More Stringent Prefectural Standards:○ Set more stringent effluent standard values by prefectural ordinances if the national
standards are not sufficient (for example, when EQS cannot be achieved).
○ Extend application of the Living Environment Items to factories/establishmentswith less than 50 m3/day wastewater discharge.

Extended Prefectural Regulations○ Introduce additional effluent control items on top of the national standards .
13

Advance notification• Specified factories must notify the prefectural governor inadvance of the installation of specified facilities or thechange in specified facilities.
• If the prefectural governor determines that there is aproblem with the notified structure or function of thespecified facility, it issues the plan change order to thespecified factories. Specified factories must obey theorder.
• If specified factories do not report the installation of a
specified facility or change its structure, etc., or make afalse report, they will be sentenced to imprisonment of
up to three months or a fine of up to 300,000 yen.

14

Compliance with effluent standards• Specified factories must comply with uniform
effluent standards at any time.
• Uniform effluent standards regarding health items areapplied to hazardous substance specified factories
regardless of the amount of wastewater.
• Regarding living environment items, uniform standards
are applied to specified factories with an average daily
effluent volume of 50 m3 or more.
• If specified factories do not measure the pollution statusof effluent and do not keep their records, or make false
records, a fine of 300,000 yen or less will be imposed.

15

Compliance with effluent standards• Prefectural governors are authorized to conduct on-site
inspections at specified factories.
• Penalties of up to ¥ 300,000 will be imposed if specified
factories refuse, obstruct or avoid on-site inspections byprefectural governments.
• Prefectural governors can issue an order to improve thestructure of specified facilities, and to suspend the use of
specified facilities if there is a possibility that the effluent
from the specified factories does not meet the uniform
effluent standard. Usually, prefectural governors provide
administrative guidance such as recommendations andadvice to specified factories before issuing such orders.
16Statistical data on effluent regulations in 2015
• Five improvement orders were issued. Hazardous substances include:Fishery food manufacturing (cadmium): 1, metal products andmachinery/equipment manufacturing (ammonium compounds, nitrousacid and nitric acid compounds): 1, acid and alkali surface treatment
facilities (lead, zinc, fluorine) :2.
• The number of suspension orders of operation of specified factories
issued was 0.
• The number of administrative guidance such as guidance,
recommendations and advice to specified factories was 8,243.
• The number of on-site inspections of specified factories by prefectural
officials were a total of 37,810.
• Regarding living environment items such as BOD, three specified
factories violated effluent standard, but none of hazardous substancespecified factories violated effluent standard regarding health items
such as lead and mercury.
17

Strengthening of effluent standards and addition of
new items: Provisional effluent standard• When a new substance is set as a effluent standard itemor the standard value is strengthened, the current
treatment technology may not be able to meet theeffluent standard at some specified factories andworkplaces. The actual state of effluent concentration
and wastewater treatment technology will be reviewed
and evaluated by Special Committee on Effluent
Regulation, and a practically applicable effluent
concentration level, that is, a provisional effluent standard
will be determined for each industry.
• Provisional effluent standards have been set for wastewater in the
livestock industry, especially for the pig industry, with regard to nitrate
nitrogen. There are many small-scale pig farms to provisional effluent
standard was applied.
• In the hot spring inn industry, provisional wastewater standards for boron
and fluorine have been set.

18

Provisional Effluent Standard
Due to the strengthening of wastewater regulations and the setting of additional
items, provisional wastewater standards have expired for some industries (plating,metal melting, pig raising, etc.) that are technically difficult to meet ) Is allowed.

Heavy burden fortreatment
Appropriatetechnology
is limited

As an interim measure, setting arealistic adaptable interim
effluent standards for eachindustry at the present time.
Expiration date :1-5 years

Small businessTechnical issues of treatment technology
・ Large generation of sludge
・ Effect of coexisting substances etc.

Incentives for each industry todevelop technologies andintroduce facilities to achieve
uniform effluent standards.

Based on annual reports from target industry (detailed measurement of effluent,review of wastewater treatment technology, laboratory and pilot scale experiments)
and trends in technology development, new standards are determined.

19

Success story from provisional
standard to uniform standard• Realistic correspondence between industry
efforts and the effluent regulation side
Natural gas upstream industry vs. MOE
20

TokyoBay
Underground Reservoirof Natural Gas

Major Gas Fields

Pacific Ocean

NH4-N 100-200 mg/L
Salt 3%

Waste Brine

Gas well(Pump up brine)

Natural Gas

IodineIn Tokyo Bay, effluent standard for total nitrogen (T-N) concentration was determined to
60 mg/L (daily average). Temporary standard of T-N 150 mg/L have been adopted.

Acceptable cost:¥40/m3-brineYear

Events or investigation theme

1993

Effluent standard for T-N was determined in enclosed water area, including
Tokyo Bay. Adoption of temporary standard started.

1994-2000 Screening of conventional ammonium removal technology for waste brine・Nitrification-denitrification
・Ammonia stripping・Hypochlorous acid treatment
・Oxidation by ozone in the presence of bromide ion

Treatment cost[¥/m3-brine]

226
226
235
156

2001-2006 Investigation: electrolytic oxidation→ Abandonment due to generation of trihalomethane and precipitation ofsalts on electrodes during the process

122

2005-2008 Investigation: magnesium-ammonium-phosphate precipitation method(MAP)→ Abandonment due to increase of phosphoric acid cost for the process

74

2007-

35

Investigation: PN-anammox process→ Operation of the full-scale treatment plant started in 2017

••Conventional ammonium removal
process(Nitrification-denitrification)

NO2-

PN-anammox process

N2 gas
NO2-

AOB

O2

NOB

O2

bacteria
organic
sourceNH4+NO3-

N2 gas

AOB
O2

NH4+

Anammox bacteria

Feature of PN-anammox process
Only half amount of NH4+ is oxidized to NO2- and no organic carbon source is required.
SNAP process can be a potential and cost effective alternative to the conventional
process.

NH4+ + 1.32NO2- + 0.066HCO3- + 0.13H+→1.02N2 + 0.26NO3- + 0.066CH2O0.5N0.15 + 2.03H2O

Stage 1: Application test (from 2007 to 2010)• Acclimation of AOB to waste brine (salinity 3%).
• Enrichment of marine anammox bacteria during PN test.
• Stable ammonia removal in a single reactor with biomass
carrier.

Application test reactor (7 L)

PN-anammox granuleStage 2: Bench scale test (from 2010 to 2015)• Stable ammonia removal without biomass carrier• Development of enrichment method of PN-anammox
granule using fluidized bed reactor

Bench scale reactor (25Stage 3: Pilot scale test (from 2012 to 2016)• Start up of pilot scale PN-anammox reactor for waste brine was firstly demonstrated.
• Effluent T-N <60 mg/L was stably achieved.

Stage 2: Bench scale(25 L)

Scale-up(Sludge inoculation)
Pilot scale reactor (2m3)Stage 4: Full-scale PN-anammox plant (from 2017)• Volume: 90m3×3 reactors• Waste brine quantity: 1,800 m3/day• T-N concentration: influent 155 mg/L → effluent 45 mg/L

Stage 3: Pilot reactor (2m3)

It is expected that provisional effluent standard will be shifted to uniform effluent standard
in natural gas upstream industry from October next year.

29

Achievement of environmental quality standards
It is necessary to verify that the wastewater regulations as a measurefor the emission sources described so far are being effectively
implemented. The Water Pollution Control Law requires prefectural
governors to formulate a measurement plan and conduct surveys tomonitor the status of water pollution in public water bodies andgroundwater (referred to as constant monitoring).
The number of survey points (number of samples) related to healthitems in public water bodies in FY 2015 : 3,896 (162,720) rivers, 406(16,213) lakes ) And 1,071 (29,489) sea areas.
At most sites, surveys are conducted quarterly in principle, and thenumber of samples is approximately four times the number of sites. All
health items are to be surveyed at least once a year.
The achievement rate of environmental standards is evaluated by
dividing the number of survey sites whose annual average or
representative value satisfies the environmental standards by the total
number of survey sites. The achievement rate of environmental
standards for all health items was 99.1% (99.1% in 2014 as well).
30

Achievement of environmental quality standards• Items that exceeded environmental quality standards (nonachievement rate) were arsenic (0.54%), fluorine (0.48%), cadmium(0.10%), lead (0.09%), nitrate nitrogen and nitrite nitrogen (0.05%),
boron (0.04%) and 1,2-dichloroethane (0.03%), for a total of 49
points.
• There were no excess points in the sea area, and 48 points in rivers
and 1 point in lake. Investigations to elucidate the causes of
exceeding environmental quality standards are conducted. As aresult, arsenic with the largest number of excess points is naturally
derived from the geological ground (16 points), abandoned mine
wastewater (6 points), hot spring wastewater (1 point), and fluorine
and boron are all naturally derived.
• The cause of exceeding cadmium standard is abandoned mine
wastewater or naturally derived, and in case of lead abandoned
mine wastewater is a cause. Only 1,2-dichloroethane, elution fromnearby landfill disposal site is a cause. Nitrate nitrogen and nitrite
nitrogen are attributed to fertilizers and livestock excrement. Thistendency has been the same since FY2011.
31

Conclusion• １）Setting environmental standards to protect
human health, 2) followed by setting effluent
standards to achieve those environmental
standards, and 3) ensuring compliance withthose standards, and 4) monitoring water
bodies to confirm their effects. These must be
managed and operated as one. In otherwords, setting only the drainage standards
does not lead to the conservation of thewhole water area.
33

Why drainage regulations are working so well?
• More intensive detailed monitoring system by local
governments, such as on-site surveys, administrative
guidance, and improvement orders, must be established.
It is noteworthy that in Japan, the administrative
organizations related to the environment in eachmunicipality have been established and the staff
members have a high level of consciousness.
• Based on effluent standards and the actual state ofwastewater treatment technology, it is important to set
provisional standards, give advice on the wastewater
treatment technology for owner and operators ofspecified factories from a technical point of view every
year or every two years, and evaluate their efforts.
Finally, it is important to establish a management systemthat pushes the transition to uniform standards is34
required for all specified factories.

Thank you four kind attention!

Mt. Fuji from my univer＜Water＞
http://www.env.go.jp/en/water/index.html

Mount Fuji fromthe sky35