Compilation of Rules and Regulations of the State of Georgia › Department 391 - RULES OF GEORGIA DEPARTMENT OF NATURAL RESOURCES › Chapter 391-3 - ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION › Subject 391-3-6 - WATER QUALITY CONTROL › Rule 391-3-6-.08 - Pretreatment and Permit Requirements

Current through Rules and Regulations filed
				through June 27, 2024
(1)
Purpose
. The purpose of Rule
				391-3-6-.08 is to provide for the
				degree of wastewater pretreatment required and the uniform procedures and
				practices to be followed relating to the application for and the issuance or
				revocation of pretreatment permits for the discharge of any pollutant into a
				publicly owned treatment works and then into the waters of the State.
(2)
Definitions
. All terms used
				in this Rule shall be interpreted in accordance with the definitions as set
				forth in the Act unless otherwise defined in this Paragraph or in any other
				Rules of this Chapter.
(a) "Act" or
				"O.C.G.A." means the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, Title 12, Article
				2.
(b) "Approval Authority" means
				the Director of the Environmental Protection Division of the Georgia Department
				of Natural Resources.
(c) "Approved
				pretreatment program," "POTW pretreatment program," or "program" means a
				program administered by a POTW that meets the criteria established in this Rule
				and Rule 391-3-6-.09,
				and which has been approved by the Approval Authority in accordance with Rule
				391-3-6-.09.
(d) "Best management practices" or "BMPs"
				means schedules of activities, prohibitions of practices, maintenance
				procedures, and other management practices to implement the prohibitions listed
				in 40 CFR
				403.5(a)(1) and (b). BMPs
				also include treatment requirements, operating procedures, and practices to
				control plant site runoff, spillage or leaks, sludge or waste disposal, or
				drainage from raw materials storage.
(e) "Control Authority" means:
1. The POTW if the POTW's pretreatment
				program submission has been approved by the Approval Authority in accordance
				with Rule
				391-3-6-.09; or
2. The Approval Authority if the submission
				has not been approved; or
3 In
				cases where categorical or significant non-categorical industrial users
				discharge to POTWs that are not included in an approved pretreatment program,
				the Approval Authority shall function as the Control Authority until an
				approved pretreatment program has been established by the
				POTW.
(f) "EPD" means the
				Environmental Protection Division of the Georgia Department of Natural
				Resources.
(g) "Federal Act" means
				the Federal Water Pollution Control Act, also known as the Clean Water Act, as
				amended, 33 U.S.C.
				1251, et seq.
(h) "Indirect discharge" or "discharge" means
				the introduction of pollutants into a POTW from any non-domestic source
				regulated under Section 307(b), (c) or (d) of the Federal Act.
(i) "Industrial user" means any person that
				is a source of an indirect discharge or proposed indirect discharge.
(j) "Interference" or "interfere" means a
				discharge which, alone or in conjunction with a discharge or discharges from
				other sources, inhibits or disrupts a POTW's sewer system, treatment processes
				or operations or its sludge processes, including use of disposal thereof; and
				such discharge is a cause of a violation of any requirement of the POTW's NPDES
				Permit (including an increase in the magnitude or duration of a violation). The
				terms include prevention of sewage sludge use or disposal in accordance with
				Section 405 of the Federal Act, or any criteria, guidelines, or regulations
				developed pursuant to State or Federal laws.
(k) "Limitation" means any restriction or
				prohibition established under the Act on quantities, rates, or concentration,
				or a combination thereof, of chemical, physical, biological, or other
				constituents which are discharged from industrial users into a publicly owned
				treatment works and then into the waters of the State, including but not
				limited to schedules of compliance.
(l) "National pretreatment standard",
				"pretreatment standard" or "standard" means any regulation containing pollutant
				discharge limits promulgated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
				in accordance with Section 307(b) and (c) of the Federal Act, which applies to
				industrial users. This term includes prohibited discharge limits established
				pursuant to 40 CFR Part 403.5.
(m)
				"New source" means:
1. Any building,
				structure, facility or installation from which there is or may be a discharge
				of pollutants, the construction of which commenced after publication of
				proposed pretreatment standards under Section 307(c) of the Federal Act which
				will be applicable to such source if such standards are thereafter promulgated
				in accordance with that section provided that:
(i) the building, structure, facility or
				installation is constructed at a site at which no other source is located;
				or
(ii) the building, structure,
				facility or installation totally replaces the process or reduction equipment
				that causes the discharge of pollutant at an existing source; or
(iii) the production or wastewater generating
				processes of the building, structure, facility or installation are
				substantially independent of an existing source at the same site. In
				determining whether these are substantially independent, factors such as the
				extent to which the new facility is integrated with the existing plant and the
				extent to which the new facility is engaged in the same general type or
				activity as the existing source should be considered.
2. Construction on a site at which an
				existing source is located results in a modification rather than a new source
				if the construction does not create a new building, structure, facility or
				installation meeting the criteria of Subparagraphs
				391-3-6-.08(2)(m) 1. (ii) or
				(iii) but otherwise alters, replaces, or adds
				to existing process or production equipment.
3. Construction of a new source as defined
				under this Paragraph has commenced if the owner or operator has:
(i) begun, or caused to begin as part of a
				continuous on-site construction program:
(I)
				any placement, assembly, or installation of facilities or equipment;
				or
(II) significant site
				preparation work including clearing, excavation, or removal of existing
				buildings, structures, or facilities which is necessary for the placement,
				assembly, or installation of new source facilities or equipment; or
(ii) entered into a binding
				contractual obligation for the purchase of facilities or equipment which are
				intended to be used in its operation within a reasonable time. Options to
				purchase, or contracts which can be terminated or modified without substantial
				loss, and contracts for feasibility, engineering, and design studies do not
				constitute a contractual obligation under this Paragraph.
(n) "Pass through" means a
				discharge which exits the POTW into waters of the State in quantities or
				concentration which alone or in conjunction with a discharge or discharges from
				other sources is a cause of a violation of any requirement of the POTW's NPDES
				Permit (including an increase in the magnitude or duration of a
				violation).
(o) "Person" means any
				individual, corporation, company, association, partnership, county,
				municipality, State agency, Federal agency or facility or other
				entity.
(p) "Pretreatment" means
				the reduction of the amount of pollutants, the elimination of pollutants, or
				the alteration of the nature of pollutant properties in wastewater prior to or
				in lieu of discharging or otherwise introducing such pollutants into a POTW.
				The reduction or alteration may be obtained by physical, chemical, or
				biological processes, process changes or by other means, except as prohibited
				by 40 CFR Part 403.6(d) . Appropriate pretreatment technology includes control
				equipment, such as equalization tanks or facilities, for protection against
				surges or slug loadings that might interfere with or otherwise be incompatible
				with the POTW. However, where wastewater from a regulated process is mixed in
				an equalization facility with unregulated wastewater or with wastewater from
				another regulated process, the effluent from the equalization facility must
				meet an adjusted pretreatment limit calculated in accordance with 40 CFR Part
				403.6(e).
(q) "Pretreatment permit"
				means any permit issued by the Control Authority to regulate the discharge of
				pollutants from any industrial user into a publicly owned treatment works and
				the waters of the State.
(r)
				"Pretreatment permit application" means an application filed by any person with
				the Control Authority for a pretreatment permit.
(s) "Pretreatment requirements" means any
				substantive or procedural requirement related to pretreatment, other than a
				national pretreatment standard, imposed on an industrial user.
(t) "Publicly owned treatment works" or
				"POTW," as applied in Rules
				391-3-6-.08 and
				391-3-6-.09, means a treatment works
				as defined by section 212 of the Federal Act, which is owned by the State or a
				municipality (as defined by section 502(4) of the Federal Act). This definition
				includes any devices and systems used in the storage, treatment, recycling, and
				reclamation of municipal sewage or industrial wastes of a liquid nature. It
				also includes sewers, pipes, and other conveyances only if they convey
				wastewater to a POTW treatment plant. The term also means the municipality, as
				defined in section 502(4) of the Federal Act, which has jurisdiction over the
				indirect discharges to, and the discharges from, such a treatment
				works
(u) "Significant Industrial
				User"
1. Except as provided in Subparagraphs
				(u) 2. and 3. below, the term Significant Industrial User means:
(i) All industrial users subject to
				categorical pretreatment standards under
				40 CFR
				403.6 and 40 CFR chapter I, subchapter N;
				and
(ii) Any other industrial user
				that: discharges an average of 25,000 gallons per day or more of process
				wastewater to the POTW (excluding sanitary, noncontact cooling and boiler
				blowdown wastewater); contributes a process wastestream which makes up 5
				percent or more of the average dry weather hydraulic or organic capacity of the
				POTW treatment plant; or is designated as such by the Control Authority on the
				basis that the industrial user has a reasonable potential for adversely
				affecting the POTW's operation or for violating any pretreatment standard or
				requirement (in accordance with
				40 CFR
				403.8(f)(6)).
2. The Control Authority may
				determine that an industrial user subject to categorical pretreatment standards
				under 40 CFR
				403.6 and 40 CFR chapter I, subchapter N is a
				Non-Significant Categorical Industrial User rather than a Significant
				Industrial User on a finding that the industrial user never discharges more
				than 100 gallons per day (gpd) of total categorical wastewater (excluding
				sanitary, non-contact cooling and boiler blowdown wastewater, unless
				specifically included in the pretreatment standard) and the following
				conditions are met:
(i) the industrial user,
				prior to the Control Authority's finding, has consistently complied with all
				applicable categorical pretreatment standards and requirements;
(ii) the industrial user annually submits the
				certification statement required in
				40 CFR
				403.12(q) together with any
				additional information necessary to support the certification statement;
				and
(iii) the industrial user never
				discharges any untreated concentrated wastewater.
3. Upon a finding by the Control Authority
				that an industrial user meeting the criteria in Subparagraph (u)1.(ii) above
				has no reasonable potential for adversely affecting the POTW's operation or for
				violating any pretreatment standard or requirement, the Control Authority may
				at any time, on its own initiative or in response to a petition received from
				an industrial user or from a POTW pretreatment program and in accordance with
				Subparagraph
				391-3-6-.09(7)(d),
				determine that such industrial user is not a Significant Industrial
				User.
(v) "Significant
				noncompliance" for an industrial user means that its violation meets one or
				more of the following criteria:
1. Chronic
				violations of wastewater discharge limits, defined here as those in which 66
				percent or more of all of the measurements taken for the same pollutant
				parameter during a six month period exceed (by any magnitude) a numeric
				pretreatment standard or requirement, including instantaneous limits, as
				defined by 40 CFR
				403.3(l);
2. Technical Review Criteria (TRC)
				violations, defined here as those in which 33 percent or more of all of the
				measurements for the same pollutant parameter taken during a six month period
				equal or exceed the product of the numeric pretreatment standard or
				requirement, including instantaneous limits, as defined by
				40 CFR
				403.3(l) multiplied by the
				applicable TRC (TRC = 1.4 for BOD, TSS, fats, oil, and grease, and 1.2 for all
				other pollutants except pH);
3. Any
				other violation of a pretreatment standard or requirement as defined by
				40 CFR
				403.3(l) (daily maximum,
				long-term average, instantaneous limit, or narrative standard) that the Control
				Authority determines has caused, alone or in combination with other discharges,
				interference or pass through (including endangering the health of POTW
				personnel or the general public);
4. Any discharge of a pollutant that has
				caused imminent endangerment to human health, welfare or to the environment or
				has resulted in the Control Authority's exercise of its emergency authority to
				halt or prevent such a discharge;
5. Failure to meet, within ninety (90) days
				after the schedule date, a compliance schedule milestone contained in a control
				mechanism or enforcement order for starting construction, completing
				construction or attaining final compliance;
6. Failure to provide, within forty-five (45)
				days after the due date, required reports such as baseline monitoring reports,
				90-day compliance reports, periodic self-monitoring reports, and reports on
				compliance with compliance schedules;
7. Failure to accurately report
				noncompliance; or
8. Any other
				violations or group of violations which may include a violation of BMPs, which
				the Control Authority determines will adversely affect POTW operations or
				violate applicable NPDES Permit effluent limitations and
				requirements.