Louisiana Administrative Code
Title 33 - ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY
Part IX - Water Quality
Subpart 1 - Water Pollution Control
Chapter 3 - Permits
Subchapter A - General Requirements
Section IX-305 - Permit Limitations and Other Requirements

Universal Citation: LA Admin Code IX-305

Current through Register Vol. 50, No. 9, September 20, 2024

In general, the limitations imposed on discharges shall be those indicated by the appropriate effluent limitations or standards. All permits must contain effluent limitations requiring control and treatment equivalent to secondary treatment, best practicable control technology currently available (BPT), best conventional technology (BCT) for conventional pollutants, and/or best available control technology economically achievable (BAT) for nonconventional or toxic pollutants. However, the permitting authority may impose different or more stringent limitations in accordance with the following.

A. More stringent or seasonally variable effluent limitations or New Source Performance (NSP) standards may be imposed when they are necessary to assure compliance with water quality standards for the receiving water bodies.

B. More stringent or seasonally variable effluent limitations or New Source Performance (NSP) standards may be imposed when so indicated by levels of treatment or wasteload allocations contained in approved basin plans.

C. In the absence of applicable effluent limitations or standards the discharge limitations shall be based on the best professional judgement (BPJ) of the permitting authority. In the exercise of best professional judgement the permitting authority shall consider:

1. the raw materials and processes involved;

2. the potential for waste generation of such materials and processes;

3. applicable in-plant and end-of-pipe treatment and control;

4. the levels of reduction of pollutants attainable by various treatment and control measures;

5. other pertinent factors such as non-water-quality environmental impacts and costs of treatment and control; and

6. potential impacts upon the receiving water body as indicated by predictive mathematical water quality models, biological toxicity tests, and/or other environmental assessment techniques currently in use, established or recognized by relevant environmental scientific disciplines.

D. An individual discharger or other interested person may submit evidence to the permitting authority that factors relating to the equipment or facilities involved, the processes applied, or other factors related to such discharger are fundamentally different from the factors considered in the establishment of the effluent limitations. On the basis of such evidence or other available information, the permitting authority will make a written determination that such factors are, or are not, fundamentally different for that facility compared to those utilized in the establishment of the effluent limitations. If such fundamentally different factors are found to exist, the permitting authority shall establish, to the extent dictated by such fundamentally different factors, water discharge permit limitations either more or less stringent than the limitations indicated by the promulgated effluent limitations and standards.

E. Permits issued to a publicly or privately owned treatment works may impose conditions on one or more users of those treatment works.

F. Pollutants in Intake Water

1. Upon request of the discharger, technology-based effluent limitations or standards shall be adjusted to reflect credit for pollutants in the discharger's intake water if:
a. the applicable effluent limitations and standards contained in Chapter 7 specifically provide that they shall be applied on a net basis; or

b. the discharger demonstrates that the control system it proposes or uses to meet applicable technology-based limitations and standards would, if properly installed and operated, meet the limitations and standards in the absence of pollutants in the intake waters.

2. Credit for generic pollutants such as biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) or total suspended solids (TSS) should not be granted unless the permittee demonstrates that the constituents of the generic measure in the effluent are substantially similar to the constituents of the generic measure in the intake water or unless appropriate additional limits are placed on process water pollutants either at the outfall or elsewhere.

3. Credit shall be granted only to the extent necessary to meet the applicable limitation or standard, up to a maximum value equal to the influent value. Additional monitoring may be necessary to determine eligibility for credits and compliance with permit limits.

4. Credit shall be granted only if the discharger demonstrates that the intake water is drawn from the same body of water into which the discharge is made. The administrative authority may waive this requirement if he finds that no environmental degradation will result.

5. The discharge of raw water clarifier sludge generated from the treatment of intake water will be exempt from the requirements of this Section (LAC 33:IX.303.F).

G. Internal Waste Streams

1. When permit effluent limitations or standards imposed at the point of discharge are impractical or infeasible, effluent limitations or standards for discharges of pollutants may be imposed on internal waste streams before mixing with other waste streams or cooling water streams. In those instances, the monitoring required by these regulations shall also be applied to the internal waste streams.

2. Circumstances which make the imposition of internal waste streams necessary include, but are not limited to:
a. the final discharge point is inaccessible;

b. the wastes at the point of discharge are so diluted as to make monitoring impracticable;

c. the interferences among pollutants at the point of discharge would make detection or analysis impracticable.

AUTHORITY NOTE: Promulgated in accordance with R.S. 30:2001 et seq., and in particular Section 2074(B)(3) and (B)(4)

Disclaimer: These regulations may not be the most recent version. Louisiana may have more current or accurate information. We make no warranties or guarantees about the accuracy, completeness, or adequacy of the information contained on this site or the information linked to on the state site. Please check official sources.
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