INDUSTRIAL WASTE & FOG
What is Industrial Waste &
FOG? Issues Solutions
Until Congress passed the U.S. Clean Water Act* in 1972, many industrial
users** discharged water into collection systems without removing chemicals
and pollutants added during their processes. To correct this environmental
hazard, the EPA set requirements for maximum levels of some pollutants,
and complete elimination or alteration of others to be less harmful.
Examples include arsenic, cadmium, chromium, copper, lead, mercury,
nickel, silver, zinc and cyanide.
Today, industrial users must “pretreat” water used in
manufacturing before discharging it. Monitoring and control of pretreatment
helps:
- Prevent damage to public treatment facilities
- Protect public health and the environment
- Protect the sewerage systems and workers
- Ensure that industrial users pay their fair share of treatment costs
In most cases, wastewater agencies manage these industrial pretreatment programs. They issue and maintain water discharge permits; collect and test water samples; report to the U.S. EPA, state and local agencies; and enforce actions for violations (e.g., suspension of water use permits, fines and even criminal prosecution).
Monitoring the discharge of fats, oil and grease (FOG) into collection systems involves similar functions of collecting and testing samples, enforcing regulations and model practices and billing customers who discharge more than their share of strong waste. These functions for nonindustrial customers are frequently performed by the same organizations within a utility that are responsible for industrial waste pretreatment.
Over the years, wastewater agencies have applied various computer systems to manage pretreatment and FOG monitoring and compliance. These systems range from custom-designed software, to one-off database systems, to simple spreadsheets. Today commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) software can assist in management of the entire pretreatment and strong-waste program – from permitting to annual compliance reporting.
Issues
There are several major issues surrounding industrial-waste and strong-waste
programs:
- Industrial water-use regulations have been updated at least 18 times since 1972. Each change can add pollutants to monitor, modify acceptable levels or change annual reporting requirements.
- Agency workers are retiring – often with more than 30 years of knowledge and experience. In many jurisdictions, the need to capture knowledge and automate processes is critical.
- Information from various systems and paper reports must align with annual reporting requirements. Producing these reports is labor-intensive and prone to inaccuracy and delay.
- Billing customers who discharge more than their share of strong waste usually requires repeatable processes, auditability and integration with customer information systems.
- Historically, agencies have developed piecemeal systems from different technical tools (software or hardware). These systems have different interfaces, platforms and data models. They are difficult to manage, require redundant data entry, limit reporting capability and lack cohesive process management.
Given these circumstances, many agencies grasp at any system that claims to help. To address this need, several vendors have developed specialized COTS software for industrial and strong-waste operations. This introduces a new challenge: successfully selecting the “best-fit” system.
Selecting the right system requires that agencies understand best practices, define achievable objectives, fully understand their business processes and clearly define functional and nonfunctional requirements. This provides the basis for objectively evaluating system strengths and limitations in the context of an agency’s specific needs. Organizations that fully understand their requirements and the selected system’s implications for their business are able to harness system strengths and avoid costly customization.
Solutions
Westin applies our proven SILC™ methodology
to system-requirements definition, application selection and implementation.
Westin works with you to document your business processes and requirements,
articulate these requirements to prospective vendors and select systems
that align with your requirements and business workflows. Because we
have no alliance with software vendors, Westin represents your interests
objectively to ensure that you obtain maximum value.
Once you’ve procured the right system, Westin can help you use it to initiate and sustain changes that will accurately track and document all facets of pretreatment, permitting, inspection, monitoring and compliance reporting.
A fully implemented system supports your primary mission
– to operate your treatment plant effectively and reduce residual
pollutants in the environment. A system that captures information during
business processes also helps you produce an accurate annual report
in an efficient and timely manner.
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* The landmark U.S. Clean Water Act of 1972 sets forth the following objectives for all pretreatment programs:
- Prevent upset, interference and pass-through in the publicly owned treatment works (POTW)
- Provide protection with regard to the health and safety of the public and the environment
- Provide a) protection to the structure and integrity of the collection system and b) safety for the personnel working the system
- Prevent deterioration of the quality standards of the receiving waters and prevent contamination of POTW sludge that could affect its disposal or its future use