Updates on Industrial Wastewater managementin Japan

HASEGAWA Fumiaki
Water Environment Division,
Environmental Management Bureau,
Ministry of the Environment, JapanThe 18th WEPA Annual Meeting
8 February 2023

Regulatory framework for wastewater management
Basic law for environmental pollution control (1967)※Replaced by the environment basic law in 1993

◆Establishment of Environmental Quality Standard (EQS)• EQS for the protection of human health (Health Item)• EQS for the conservation of the living environment (Living Environment Item)

Water Pollution Control Law (1970)◆Overcoming “Follow-up” approach• From designation of regulation area to national uniform regulation• Unified national effluent standards + stricter standards at local level (ormore stringent standards...), if needed◆Tightening of regulations for compliance• Direct penalty for non-compliance of effluent standards◆Unification of law system in principle• Unification of effluent standards for all business (with some exceptions)
Ministry of the Environment2

Reference : Water Quality Standards (EQS)
Water Pollution
Toxic substance
Mercury, Arsenic,
Chlorinated organic compound,etc

Organic Pollution etc
Dirtiness and muddiness of water

BOD/COD, DO, SS etc

Nutrient salts
Causality of eutrophication
Nitrogen, Phosphorus

Effect on people（Drinking/seafood intake）

Effects on livingenvironment(includingaquatic life)

Water Quality
Standards (EQS)

Health Item
Nationally uniform27 substances are designated

Living Environment
Item
Designed to conserve theproperties as well as thefauna and flora closely
related to the living of peopleSet targets by categorizing
into classes in accordancewith water bodies
13 substances designated

Ministry of the Environment

31874
1975
1976
1977
1978
1979
1980
1981
1982
1983
1984
19851986
1987
1988
1989
1990
1991
1992
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020

Achievement rate (%)

Facts and statistics of water quality
Living Environment Items

2020
Rivers: 98.5%
Total: 88.8%
Seas: 80.7%
Lakes: 49.7%

year

Ministry of the Environment

Trends in achievement of BOD/COD environmental standard
4

Regulatory framework for wastewater management
Overall concept of water environment improvement
TargetIndustrial
Wastewater
MeasuresEstablishment of Environmental Quality Standards
for water pollution 【Basic Environment Law】

NationalgovernmentEstablishment of Effluent Standards【Water Pollution Control Act】
Nationwide uniform standards

Nationalgovernment

Stricter regulation on Effluent Standards
Regulations on business operators 【Water Pollution Control Act】
Notification, measuring and recording of wastewater, on-site inspection→ Penalties, improvement orders
Local governmentand other administrative guidances(Prefecture)• Investment to pollution control• Development of human capacities

Domestic
Wastewater
Measuresetc.

・Sewerage System Dvelopment 【Sewerage Law】
・Installation of Johkasou 【Johkasou Act】
・Promotion of domestic wastewater measures【Water Pollution Control Act】
etc.

Ministry of the Environment

Industries

・National government
・Local government
・Individual5

Target Facilities of Effluent Control
Facility that discharges polluted water or wastewater is defined as a specified
facility by the Water Pollution Control Law, and all factories or establishments inwhich specified facilities are installed are stipulated as the control subjects ofWater Pollution Control Law.
Example :As of the end of
 Facilities to be used for mining, etc.
 Facilities devoted to stock raising, agriculture, etc.
FY2020, Facilities to be used for various types of food manufacturing, etc.
approx. 260,000
 Facilities to be used for forestry, etc.
establishments are Facilities to be used for pulp manufacturing, etc.
control subjects
 Facilities to be used for medical goods manufacturing, etc.
 Facilities to be used for cement products manufacturing, etc.
 Facilities to be used for steel or nonferrous metals manufacturing and facilities to be used for othertypes of manufacturing Hotel businesses, restaurants, laundry businesses, photograph development businesses, hospitals,scientific and technological research facilities
 Waste disposal sites
 Final sewage treatment facilities, joint waste water treatment plants,
And so on…
Business categories that use a lot of "Health Items“
Chemical industrial product manufacturing, medical goods manufacturing, steel or nonferrous metals manufacturing
Business categories that includes many specified facilities
Hotel businesses, restaurants, stock raising, agriculture, food manufacturing, laundry businesses,
Ministry of the Environment

6

EQS and Effluent standards for water
Environmental Quality Standard (EQS)• Established as part of the government’s objectives (aiming toachieve in the future) to prevent health hazards and conserve theliving environment” by the Environment Basic Law• “Effluent Standards” are applied to factories
and establishments in order to satisfy “EQS”
Effluent
Standard• In consideration of dilution effect by riverwater, an effluent standard value for a certain
item is decided as 10 times as an environment
quality standard for the same time.
EQS for water• For some specific business categories
that face difficulty to meet the uniform
effluent standard for a specific item,
a provisional effluent standard is applied for a specified time period
Ministry of the Environment7

Uniform Wastewater Standards and Add-on Standards
Uniform wastewater standards set by the national government(minimum control applied nationwide)
Living environment items
Healthitems
Typesof control tightening
Applied to factories/establishments with
Applied to all factories/establishments
wastewater discharge of 50 m3/day or more
Prefectural governments
authorized to tighten controls,
according to local conditions

Add-ons by prefecture

Prefectural ordinances to set more stringent wastewater standard values if the nationalstandards are not sufficient (for example, preventing the realization of Environmental Quality
Extend application of the Living Environment Items to factories/establishmentswith less than 50 m3/day wastewater discharge“Supplementation” by prefecture

Introduce additional wastewater control items on top of the national wastewater standards
Ministry of the Environment8Effluent standards【Living environment item】【Health item】
Kinds of harmful substances
Cadmium and its compounds
Cyanide compounds
Organic compound (limited to parathion, methyl
parathion, methyl demeton and EPN(ethyl p-nitrophenyl phenylphosphorothioate))
Lead and its compounds
Hexavalent chromium compounds
Arsenics and its compounds
Mercury and alkyl mercury, and other mercury
compounds
Alkyl mercury compounds
Polychlorinated biphenyl
Trichloroethylene
Tetrachloroethylene
Dichloromethane
Carbon tetrachloride
1,2-dicholoroethane
1,1-dichloroethylene
cis-1,2-dichloroethylene
1,1,1-trichloroethane
1,1,2-trichloroethane
1,3-dichloropropene
ThiramSimazine
Thiobencarb
BenzeneSelenium and its compounds
Boron and its compounds
Fluorine and its compounds
Ammonia, ammonium compounds, nitrite compounds
and nitrate compounds
1,4-dioxane

Tolerable limit
0.03 mg/L
1 mg/L

Hydrogen ion concentration (pH)

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

1 mg/L

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)

0.1 mg/L
0.5 mg/L
0.1 mg/L
0.005 mg/L
Not detected
0.003 mg/L
0.1 mg/L
0.1 mg/L
1 mg/L0.02 mg/L
0.04 mg/L
0.2 mg/L
0.4 mg/L
3 mg/L0.06 mg/L
0.02 mg/L
0.06 mg/L
0.03 mg/L
0.2 mg/L
0.1 mg/L
0.1 mg/L
Other than sea area: 10 mg/L
Sea area: 230 mg/L
Other than sea area: 8 mg/L
Sea area: 15 mg/L(*) 100 mg/L

Kinds of harmful substances

Tolerable limit

Normal-hexane extracts content(mineral oils content)

5 mg/L

Normal-hexane extracts content(animal and plant fats content)

30 mg/L

Phenols content

5 mg/L

Copper content

3 mg/L

Zinc content

2 mg/L

Soluble iron content

10 mg/L

Soluble manganese content

10 mg/L

Chromium content

2 mg/L

Coliform group numberDaily 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)

NoteThe effluent standard shown in this table is applicable to theeffluent water discharged by a plant, factory, or businessestablishment which discharges 50m3/day or more of effluent
water on daily average.

0.5mg/Lofthe
theammonia
Environment(*) Ministry
0.4 times
nitrogen compound, and the total of nitrite nitrogen and nitrate nitrogen

9Facts and statistics of Industrial wastewater management
Number of specified establishments
Average effluent more than 50㎥/day
Article 5（Establishment of Specified facilities）
Notification Article 7（Structure changes etc.）
Article 8（Order to change plans）
Number of establishments inspected （Article 22.1）
Inspection during night
Order for Improvement（Article 13）
Order to suspend operation（Article 13）
Order to purify groundwater（Article 14.3）
Number ofIn writing
administrative Oral
direction
Total(Public Water)
Installation or improvement of wastewater
Contents oftreatment facilities
administrative
Temporary suppression of effluent
direction
Others(Public Water)
TotalViolation of effluent standards（Article 31.1.1）
Violation of order for improvement（Article 30）
Violation of water pollution control law (others)
Measures to be taken in case of an accident

Ministry of the Environment

FY2017262,187
31,441
6,477
4,115
0
36,194484
11202,2355,565

FY2018262,233
31,195
7,490
4,108
036,323
390
16
1
0
2,261
5,446

FY2019261,251
30,7497,276
4,066
034,696
519
18
0
0
2,130
5,308

FY2020257,806
30,5516,051
3,700
028,405438
4
101,809
4,187

7,800

7,707

7,438

5,996

1,960

2,030

1,749

1,440

17
6,017
7,994
100520

19
6,341
8,390
800524

17
6,412
8,178
100449175,0166,473
30048310Issues and challenges, future targets/plans for proper industrial wastewater
management

Revised EQS(effective April 2022)○Hexavalent chromium compounds
0.05 mg/L ⇒ 0.02mg/L

The tolerable daily intake (TDI) was evaluated 1.1 μg/kg bw/day by the Food Safety Commission of theCabinet Office in Japan. The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare Japan (MHLW) revised the drinking
water quality standard value from 0.05 mg/L to 0.02 mg/L or low . In response, EQS were revised.

○Living environment items
Coliform group number ⇒ Escherichia coli number

At the time of this standard establishment in 1971, Coliform group number was used because it was notpossible to measure Escherichia coli due to limitations in analytical technology (culture technology), etc.
EQS was revised Because methods for measuring Escherichia coli are now established.

Considering reviewing Effluent Standards Hexavalent chromium compounds
 Coliform group number

Ministry of the Environment

Current effluent standards ：0.5mg/L

Current effluent standards ： Daily mean value: 3,000/cm311

Issues and challenges, future targets/plans for water environment governance
Changes in river flow
and water quality,
and obstacles tosediment flow
Improvement ofpeople-friendly water
spacesDeterioration in aquaticecosystem andbiodiversity
Surfactants, POPs, marine
debris, coastal erosion, etc.
Seawater pollution,
marine waste

Water quality
improvement in lakes

Effects ofclimate change

Water quality
issuesGroundwaterpollution and soilcontamination

Delay of water qualityimprovement
in closed water bodies

Recent issues of EQS○PFOS・PFOA
We are currently reviewing the handling of PFOS and PFOA, a type of organo-fluorine compound, in thewater quality environmental standard system based on international findings and the detection status.
We are also considering the handling of PFHxS based on changes in international business conditions,accumulated knowledge, and the status of detection.
Ministry of the Environment

12

Thank you for your attention

Ministry of the Environment

13