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MA DEP Industrial Toxic Reporting Requirements

MA DEP

MA DEP

The MA DEP (http://www.mass.gov/dep/) is implementing a new Industrial Toxic Reporting Requirement this year. This requirement has been added to fulfill a provision included along with the regulations changes made in January 2007 for the DEP to better determine the toxics present in industrial wastewater. They realized that despite all the regulations in place for wastewater, they really do not have
a handle on toxics concentrations in industrial wastewater. The DEP set up an advisory committee to determine the best means to gather real information on toxics in industrial wastewater. PAI participated in this advisory
committee. The committee discussed how to gather information on toxics, what companies to target, and what chemicals to target. PAI believes that representative sampling by the DEP within the sewer systems would have been
the best route to accomplish this goal. This was turned down for a number of
reasons. The final program is described below:

Information will be collected through an electronic survey. 1900 chemicals and approximately 3500 individual businesses will be targeted. The survey will be conducted in three phases with the first phase beginning in July.

The first phase targets all 1200 large quantity generators within the state. Notification postcards will go out in July and reporting will begin in August.

The second and third phases include a statistical representation of different business categories within the state. Approximately 2500 businesses have been chosen as part of the statistical sample. These
businesses will be split into Phases two and three, with about 1200 businesses participating in each phase. Notification will be via postcard in August for Phase II and December for Phase III. Phase II reporting begins in
mid-October and Phase III in the beginning of February.

All phases will receive a postcard about 45 days before reporting begins and a reporting package about two weeks before reporting begins. Every company will have 60 days in which to complete the report. Non-respondents will
receive a notice of non-compliance(NON). If the NON is ignored, the DEP will implement fines.

The survey is similar to other e-DEP forms. You will receive a toxic discharger id in your reporting packet. The form asks for general facility identification, toxics information, and a standard DEP certification
statement. You will be asked if you discharge wastewater to the sewer, what pretreatment you use, if you are solely or party research, and if you are a health care facility. You are then asked to compare the list of 1900
chemicals to the MSD sheets in your facility for chemicals that are discharged or have a reasonable potential to be discharged to the sewer. You are required to list all of these chemicals on the form and give a very
generalized frequency of discharge. If your company has an electronic file for the MSDSs, you will have the opportunity to upload the file to the DEP system and it will compare your MSDS with their chemical list. Their
chemical list is presented as a database searchable by name and CAS number.

Note: Research and development facilities will not have to fill out the toxics section at this time. If you are solely R&D, you must check off the box stating so and then sign the certification statement. The DEP will look
into R&D facilities further down the road.

The DEP will have training available through their website.

The DEP is looking for volunteers to come in and test the new electronic system during the first week in July. They were working on getting TCH credits for this testing. If you are interested, you can contact John
Reinhardt at: john.reinhardt@state.ma.us

 

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