Current through Register 1531, September 27, 2024
The General Permit for Low Flow and Low Pollutant Dischargers
authorizes Persons with facilities in the Authority Sewerage District with low
industrial flows and no or low levels of regulated pollutants in their
Industrial Wastewater to Discharge Industrial Wastewater from those facilities
to the Authority sewer system, subject to the requirements of the General
Permit, 360 CMR 10.062, and 360 CMR 10.000. A Person with a facility covered by
the General Permit is responsible for the discharge from the facility and for
compliance with the requirements of the General Permit and 360 CMR
10.000.
(1)
Permit
Eligibility.
(a) A Person is
eligible for and must be covered by the General Permit for a facility that
meets one of the following criteria:
1. It
discharges less than an average of 25,000 gallons per day of wastewater to the
sewer (excluding sanitary, noncontact cooling, and boiler blowdown wastewater)
and its processes would result in a sewer discharge before pretreatment and
dilution not containing a substance regulated by
360 CMR
10.022 through
10.024;
2. It discharges less than an average of 300
gallons per day of Wastewater to the Sewer (excluding sanitary, noncontact
cooling, boiler blowdown, and incoming water treatment reject stream
Wastewater) and does not require an active pretreatment system to meet the
requirements of
360 CMR
10.021 through
10.025
except it may adjust the pH of its discharge with a chemical addition to meet
Authority pH discharge requirements if it:
a.
has an automatic alarm and chart recorder or electronic memory on its pH
adjustment system; or
b. discharges
in batches, treats each batch if necessary to meet pH discharge requirements,
and tests each batch to confirm that it meets pH requirements); and
c. it does not otherwise have a reasonable
potential to violate
360 CMR
10.021 through
10.025;
3. It is a Photo Processing or
Printing operation that is not required or eligible to be covered by the Group
Permit for Photo Processing and Printing Operations (
360 CMR
10.061) or the Combined Permit (
360
CMR 10.064) because:
a. its fixer, bleach-fix, stabilizers, and
functionally similar solutions containing silver bearing wastes are hauled for
disposal outside the Authority Sewerage District; and
b. it discharges only rinse water, developer,
activator, water from occasional incidental cleaning of pre-wiped equipment
with water and detergent, and less than 55 gallons per month of spent fountain
solution from its Photo Processing and Printing operations; or
4. It is a Photo Processing or
Printing operation whose discharge or discharges from that operation meets the
requirements of 360 CMR 10.062(1)(a)3. and it has discharges from other
operations that all meet the requirements of 360 CMR 10.062(1)(a) 1. or
2.
(b) Notwithstanding
360 CMR 10.062(1)(a), a Person's facility is not eligible to be covered by the
General Permit if:
1. It is subject to a
Categorical Pretreatment Standard under
40 CFR
403.6 and 40 CFR Chapter I, Subchapter
N;
2. It is otherwise notified by
the Authority that it is a Significant Industrial User as defined in
360 CMR
10.004;
3. It discharges an average of 300 gallons
per day or more of Wastewater to the Sewer (excluding sanitary, non-contact
cooling, boiler blowdown, and incoming water treatment reject stream
Wastewater) and it adjusts the pH of its Discharge by chemical addition to meet
Authority pH discharge requirements (
360 CMR
10.023(6)); or
4. It is required to have Septage Discharge
Permits (
360
CMR 10.031) , Group Permit for Photo
Processing and Printing Operations (
360 CMR
10.061) , Combined Permit (
360
CMR 10.064) , Landfill Discharge Permit (
360 CMR
10.071) , Temporary Construction Site
Dewatering Permit (
360 CMR 10.091) ,
or it is a Water Treatment Plant Owned and Operated by a Municipality or by a
water district (
360
CMR 10.057) .
(2)
Determining the Average Daily
Discharge Amount of a Facility for Purposes of 360 CMR 10.062. To
determine the average daily discharge amount of a facility, the amount of
Wastewater discharged on each calendar day in an ordinary week shall be totaled
and then divided by the number of days in the week during which a discharge
occurred, except: if a facility discharges a small amount on a weekend day
relative to its discharge on other days, that weekend day shall not be
considered; and, if a facility discharges on fewer than five days per week, the
amount of Wastewater discharged on each calendar day in an ordinary week shall
be totaled and divided by five to determine the average discharge amount per
day. The preceding 12 months of a facility's operations shall be used to
determine a facility's ordinary week, except a more current time period shall
be used if the facility's average amount of discharge changed within the past
12 months or began more recently.
(3)
Applying for and Receiving
the General Permit.
(a) A Person
with a facility eligible for the General Permit must be issued the General
Permit for the facility in order to discharge from the facility, except, with
the approval of the Authority the Person may discharge under another permit
issued by the Authority for the facility if it has applied or will apply for
the General Permit for the facility. To apply for the General Permit, a Person
must submit a completed Permit Application or Notice of Intent (NOI) for its
facility to be covered by the General Permit, on the form prescribed by the
Authority, to the Authority and, if required by the Permit Application or NOI,
to the municipality into whose Sewer System the facility will discharge. The
Authority may require additional information and may deny the application or
NOI if the Authority considers the application or NOI to be incomplete or
inadequate.
(b) A Person operating
a facility under another Authority permit may submit a new and completed Permit
Application or NOI to the Authority and, if required by the Permit Application
or NOI, to the municipality into whose Sewer System the facility discharges,
and request that its other permit be revoked and that its specified facility be
covered by the General Permit.
(c)
The Authority may require a Person to complete and file a Permit Application or
NOI for the General Permit if it has reason to believe that the Person's
facility, which has another Permit issued by the Authority, may be eligible for
the General Permit.
(d) If the
Person's facility is eligible to be covered by the General Permit, and meets
all the other requirements of the Authority, the Authority will issue the
General Permit to the Person for the facility.
(4)
What May Be Discharged to the
Authority Sewer System under the General Permit.
(a) A facility that is covered by the General
Permit may discharge its Industrial Wastewater to the Authority Sewer System,
subject to the requirements of 360 CMR 10.062 and the General Permit.
(b) A facility's discharge to the Authority
Sewer System must comply with 360 CMR 10.000, including the regulations on
Prohibited Wastes and Local Limits,
360 CMR
10.021 through
10.026.
(c) The only Industrial Waste that 360 CMR
10.062 and the General Permit authorize a facility to discharge to the
Authority Sewer System is from the processes generating Wastewater as noted in
the Permit Application or NOI submitted to request coverage by the General
Permit. A facility covered by the General Permit shall not Discharge Wastewater
that would make it ineligible for the General Permit.
(5)
Additional Requirements for
Photo Processing and Printing Operations Covered by the General
Permit.
(a) A Photo Processing or
Printing facility covered by the General Permit may discharge rinse water,
developer, activator, water from occasional incidental cleaning of pre-wiped
equipment with water and detergent, and less than 55 gallons per month of spent
fountain solution.
(b) A Photo
Processing or Printing facility covered by the General Permit shall not
discharge any of the following to the Authority Sewer System:
1. Treated or untreated fixer, bleach-fix,
stabilizers, and functionally similar solutions containing silver bearing
wastes;
2. Ink;
3. Chromium based cleaner;
4. Press cleaning solvent; or
5. More than 55 gallons of spent fountain
solution in any month.
(c) A Photo Processing or Printing facility
covered by the General Permit shall:
1. Have,
for employee use, written disposal procedures describing proper methods to
dispose of Photo Processing and Printing wastes;
2. Properly label and handle all Photo
Processing and Printing wastes;
3.
Not use chromium based film processor cleaning solutions; and
4. Post signs near all sinks and drains in
the work area indicating that sewer disposal of silver bearing wastes is
prohibited. Printing facility signs must also indicate that sewer disposal of
press cleaning solvents and inks is prohibited.
(d) A printing facility covered by the
General Permit may clean its plates, blankets, press fountains, and rollers in
a sink with water and detergents. Before doing so, it must pre-clean the
equipment with industrial wipers (rags) to minimize the amount of inks and
other products that will be washed off the equipment and enter the sewer. It
may not use solvents in a sink connected to the Sewer.
(6)
Additional Requirements for
Laboratories Covered by the General Permit. A laboratory covered
by the General Permit shall have and implement a written laboratory chemicals
management plan to control the discharge of regulated materials to the Sewer
System. Regulated materials are those that contain pollutants regulated by the
Authority at
360 CMR
10.021 through
10.024.
At a minimum, the plan shall include procedures to:
(a) Ensure that regulated materials do not
spill or leak into the Sewer System;
(b) Eliminate or minimize the disposal of
regulated materials to the Sewer System so that Authority discharge limits are
met;
(c) Properly handle, store,
collect, and dispose of laboratory chemicals and maintain disposal
manifests;
(d) Train laboratory
employees in proper laboratory chemical usage and disposal; and
(e) Ensure that the laboratory chemical
management plan is followed by, among other measures, posting appropriate
notices of proper chemicals usage and disposal practices at sinks where
laboratory chemicals are used.
(7)
Additional Requirements for
Facilities Required to Have Grease Traps and Covered by the General
Permit. A facility covered by the General Permit that is required
by Massachusetts law or regulation to have a grease trap or grease interceptor
for food related grease or oil (see
360 CMR
10.017,
310 CMR
15.230: Pretreatment Units - Grease
Traps and
248
CMR 10.00: Uniform State Plumbing Code
shall:
(a) Inspect its grease traps
and interceptors at least monthly; and
(b) Have its grease traps and interceptors
cleaned, with their contents hauled for disposal, whenever the level of grease
is at least 25% of the effective depth of the trap, or at least every three
months, whichever is sooner.
(8)
Required Notices to the
Authority. In addition to the notices otherwise required by 360
CMR 10.000, a Person with the General Permit must notify the Authority in
writing at least 30 days before it closes or moves a facility covered by the
General Permit, changes its facility's operations such that the discharge will
change so that the facility may no longer be eligible for the General Permit,
or makes any other substantial change in the volume or character of its
facility's discharge.
(9)
Change in Volume or Character of Discharge. If a
change in the volume or character of a facility's discharge will make it
ineligible for coverage by the General Permit, the Person must obtain the
applicable Authority permit for the facility before beginning the changed
discharge. The Authority may require a Person to complete and file a Permit
Application or NOI if it has reason to believe that the Person's facility may
no longer be eligible for the General Permit or the Person has made substantial
changes to its facility since receiving the General Permit.
(10)
Record Keeping
Requirements. A Person with the General Permit for a facility must
keep for at least five years all hazardous waste manifests and records of any
Photo Processing and Printing wastes and grease trap wastes it had hauled from
its facility and make a copy of the documents available to the Authority upon
request.
