Establishing Mac for the Substances Allowed for Discharge into Water Bodies and Sewage Systems

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4. ESTABLISHING MAC FOR THE SUBSTANCES ALLOWED FOR DISCHARGE INTO WATER BODIES AND SEWAGE SYSTEMS

 

One of the most effective measures to protect water bodies from pollution is to limit the pollutant discharges. This measure impels water users to use water more efficiently, to establish control over the operation of treatment facilities and to specify the composition of city drainage, including quality and quantity of the industrial wastewater.

 

In Belarus, as a rule, the principal organizations that treats and discharges industrial wastewaters and, consequently, bare the entire responsibility for the waste treatment and discharge are the municipal treatment and water-supply plants.

 

Establishing of the maximum allowable concentrations of pollutants in wastewater after its biological treatment includes the following.

 

-  establishing of technologically and economically feasible criteria of sanitary and toxicological properties of organic waste;  

-  technological control over the concentrations of specific ingredients (salts of heavy metals, oils) in the incoming and treated wastewaters;

 

The criteria of allowable concentrations of pollutants containing in the discharged wastewater after it was treated at a municipal wastewater treatment facilities must specify the amounts (in tons per year) of controlled pollutants (specific ingredients) allowed for discharge within one year.

 

To assess the environmental effects of the industrial wastewater it is necessary to establish within the monitoring framework technological control over the concentrations of specific ingredients in the incoming and treated wastewaters.

 

Following is the list of the major standard setting documents establishing the criteria (quantitative and qualitative indices) for the industrial wastewater coming into the city sewage system:

 

Rules of use of municipal treatment and water-supply systems in towns and cities of the Republic of Belarus (approved by order of the Ministry of Housing and Municipal Facilities # 128 of November 26, 1995)

 

These Rules establish the procedures of acceptance  of wastewater into municipal sewage systems and regulate the relations between the municipal treatment and water-supply plants, which are a part of the system of Housing and Municipal Facilities Ministry and subscribers (including manufacturing enterprises). The Rules are mandatory for all the subscribers regardless of their departmental affiliation.

 

When developing local “Rules of acceptance of industrial wastewater into the sewage system of the city N”, local city or district councils must consider the whole range of facts and factors arising from the combined discharge of domestic and industrial wastewaters, such as their differing content and technological feasibility of their joint treatment at municipal treatment facilities.

 

Rules of acceptance of industrial wastewater into city sewage systems (worked out at the Pamfilov Academy of Municipal Utilities, Moscow, 1998)

 

The criteria for acceptance of industrial wastewater into city sewage systems must be worked out based on the certification of water-supply and sewage facilities and specifics of local conditions and requirements of protection of surface water from pollution.

 

General rules of acceptance and discharge of industrial wastewaters by city sewage systems consist in the following:

 

-  the combined discharge of domestic and industrial wastewaters is appropriate only if there is a need in their joint treatment and if such treatment is feasible at the municipal treatment facilities;

-  discharges of industrial wastewater into the city sewage system must not disrupt its regular mode of operation, or cause the explosive and toxic gases or sediments, or clog the system, or bring in pathogenic bacteria.

 

These rules outline the general requirements to the composition of the industrial wastewater, which may be accepted into a city sewage system, and consider the whole range of factors, associated with the combined discharge of domestic and industrial wastewaters and their different components, which can not be removed or which produce negative effect on the performance of city treatment facilities.

 

Given the existing level of industrial development, when the industrial wastewater makes up 60 percent of total drainage arriving at the municipal treatment facilities, and given the joint treatment of domestic and industrial wastewater, it is important to identify the degree of local treatment of industrial wastewater in order to provide technological treatment of the combined wastewater and to ensure that all quality criteria being met.

 

According to acting “Rules of Acceptance of industrial wastewater” it is  monitored for compliance with 28 criteria, their  list varying from 4-8 criteria (for petrochemical, food, fuel, and transport industries) to 10-18 criteria (for construction, chemical, engineering, wood-chemical and electric power industries).

 

The control of compliance with the rules of discharge of industrial waste is exercised by the municipal treatment and water-supply plants.

 

List of maximum allowable concentrations and tentatively safe degrees of impact of hazardous wastes on water bodies used for fishing (1993)

 

Maximum allowable concentrations of pollutants in industrial wastewater are established for the average monthly wastewater discharges specified in the written requests of manufacturing enterprises which they submit to municipal treatment and water-supply plants.

 

Sanitary rules and criteria of protection of surface water from pollution # 4630-88 (Health Ministry of the USSR, Moscow, 1988)

 

Sanitary Rules of Health Ministry establish more than 500 criteria of water quality and MACs for water bodies of recreational and domestic use. This list is more than enough to consider properties of the discharged industrial wastewater.

 

The EU environmental standards regulate the quality of water, soil, air, noise and food. This, however, does not mean that all EU countries necessarily have similar legislation. Most of them have adopted individual practices ensuring progress in environmental field.

 

An good example of the surface water protection is the water legislation in Germany.  It consist of the following laws:

 

-  The law on water management, which covers all continental water bodies (rivers, lakes), surface and subsurface waters (ground wasters) and shoreline  water;

-  The law on fines for water pollution.

 

This list can be added with the law on detergents, the law on protection of ground water from pollution and general legal regulations of environmental field.

 

The major legal tool of water management in Germany is issuing of  a permit or concession for water use.

 

Russia has adopted similar approach to the development of its legal solutions.

 

The rules of acceptance of industrial waste into city sewage systems, which are now effective in the Republic of Belarus, establish maximum allowable concentrations of pollutants in the industrial wastewater at such a level, which is technologically not feasible.

 

In the light of the EU experience it is advisable that the standards of maximum allowable concentrations of pollutants in the treated wastewater are made subject to the following two factors:

 

-  the wastewater treatment technology implemented at specific treatment facilities;

-  the estimated environmental impact of the discharged wastewater (correlation between the volume of the wastewater discharge and the capacity of receiving water body).

 

Basically, there is no significant difference between the approaches to control over the industrial wastewater discharges into municipal sewage systems that were adopted in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. The fundamentals, which make the basis of the Rules of acceptance of industrial wastewater into city sewage systems had been developed in Soviet times and remained the same although the rules were adjusted to consider state interests.

 

As a rule the standards of discharges are much higher than the maximum allowable concentrations set for water bodies and for drinking water. Maximum allowable concentrations and volumes of industrial discharges are estimated depending on the criteria of quality of wastewater at the point of its discharge into a water body. That is why treatment of the excess discharges by municipal and local treatment facilities entails significant costs.

 

The best solution to this problems is to come gradually to meeting of the requirements and at the same time to revise the following issues:

 

-  to adopt a different approach to the establishing of allowable wastewater discharges and pollutant concentrations at a point of discharge into a catch water body after their treatment at municipal treatment facilities;

-  to increase the efficiency of treatment facilities and to improve the quality of the treated wastewater coming into the city sewage systems and catch water bodies;

-  to change the system of taxes imposed on manufacturing enterprises for discharge of wastewater into water bodies;

-  to change the rates charged for the allowable discharges of industrial wastewater into the city sewage systems.

 

It is necessary to develop a unified and unchanging list of pollutants and their MACs. This will encourage plants, discharging wastewater into water bodies to strive to achieve them. The protected water bodies (the Braslavsky lakes, lake Naroch, etc) must make an exception, their list being subject to review and approval of state government.  For them, MACs must be established at the same level as for the water bodies used by fish industry.

 

Installment of the equipment measuring and registering the quality and quantity of wastewater discharged into water bodies by city sewage systems will facilitate the transition from the practice of one-time sampling of wastewater to the practice of average daily sampling, which will lead to a better use of the existing tools of control over the quality of wastewater discharged into water bodies or city sewage systems.

 

Reaching the required standards of treatment of wastewater of surface-active is currently a problem due to the lack of the law on detergents. The adoption of such a law will make it possible to control the content of hard surface-active substances in the treated wastewater and reach the required quality standards.

 

Given the existing level of industrial development, when the industrial wastewater makes up 60 percent of total municipal drainage it is important to identify the degree of local treatment of industrial wastewater  in order to prevent the discharge  of excessive amounts of nitrogen and phosphorus into the city sewage system. As a rule the standards for discharges are higher then the MACs established for water bodies and for drinking water.

 

The best solution to this problems is to come gradually to meeting of the requirements of Sanitary Rules 4630-88 through the increase of the efficiency of treatment facilities and improvement of the quality of the treated wastewater. 

 

Given the importance of this issue, it is necessary to develop and adopt State program for gradual increase of the efficiency of treatment facilities, which  remove nitrogen and phosphorus from industrial and city wastewater.

 

In the Republic of Belarus, the Council of Ministers annually approves the “List of environmental tax rates, limits on the extraction of natural resources and maximum allowable emissions (discharges) of pollutants”.

 

The environmental tax rates in the Republic of Belarus are about 1.5 times higher that the environmental tax rates in Germany. Only for the period of 1999- 2002 the environmental tax rates in Belarus grew almost tenfold. The number of criteria increases every year and currently makes up  30 criteria. Given the degree of concentration of residual pollutant at the point of discharge of wastewater into a catch water body, the burden of environmental tax has become too oppressive. The municipal treatment and water-supply plants tackle this problem by increasing the rates for industrial plants that discharge wastewater with excess concentrations of pollutants.

 

The rates for wastewater discharges must be calculated on “the polluter pays” basis, which must be laid down in the legislation. It may make sense to differentiate between the classes of treatment facilities according to their carrying capacity and to set the requirements to wastewater composition depending on the class of treatment facilities, as it is a common practice in Germany.

 

The amounts of payment must be fixed by authorized agencies on the basis of the analysis made by departments of environmental ministry. The law must provide that the money received in the form of payments must be allocated  for the following purposes:

 

-  funding of the measures aimed at maintenance and improvement of water quality;

-  construction of treatment facilities;

-  construction of catchment reservoirs for storm water and storm water treatment facilities;

-  construction of  silt utilization facilities;

-  research and development of equipment and technologies of water quality improvement;

-  training and professional development of personnel operating treatment facilities and other equipment, which maintains and improves water quality.

 

It is necessary to adopt a new approach and to assess the impact of industrial wastewater on the quality of the treated discharge into a water body in order to establish standards of quality of industrial wastewater, which comes for treatment together with the domestic wastewater. Since the degree of pollution of wastewater predetermines the cost of its treatment, it is necessary to estimate the cost with consideration of both the volume of discharge and the degree of pollution. 

 

As a result of installment of the equipment measuring and registering qualitative and quantitative indices of wastewaters, the administrations of a manufacturing enterprise will be forced to approach the environmental problem more seriously.

 

The establishment of unified criteria for all manufacturing enterprises will make it possible to charge higher or lower rates for the industrial discharges, which differ from the established criteria. The difference between the regular and the increased rates must be paid to the enterprises operating the municipal treatment facilities to cover damage incurred as a result of discharge of wastewater with the excess pollutant concentration. The difference between the regular and reduced rates charged for the discharge of industrial wastewater with pollutant concentration less then the established norm will be kept by enterprises. It must be used to maintain and improve the quality of discharges into municipal sewage system by means of the following:

 

-  construction of local treatment facilities;

-  constriction of facilities utilizing the production waste;

-  control over water quality;

-  research and development.