pH Neutralization, pH adjustment » MA Wastewater Operator

TCH Course and Good Humor Plant Tour

admin — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 02:04:42 +0000

We are pleased to announce our next TCH course, to be held at the Hilton Hotel in Framingham, followed by a tour of the Good Humor biological wastewater treatment system. The TCH course will be held on Wesnesday, December 15 from 8am to Noon.

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER or call 617-423-5639!

MA Wastewater Operator Exam Prep Course September 2010

Brian — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 19:26:18 +0000

The next round of our successful Wastewater Operator Exam Prep Course begins on WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 22nd.

REGISTER HERE

You may choose from any of the course days, or attend all of them, it’s up to you.

Practical Applications will cover the following topics in order to prepare you for the exam:

Wastewater Chemistry
Wastewater Math
Pollutants and Industrial Sources
Flow Measurement
Dosage Math
Wastewater Treatment Basics
pH Adjustment
Wastewater Equipment
Wastewater Sampling and Testing
Metals Treatment
Special Waste Treatment Methods
Health and Safety

REGISTER HERE

Association of Boards of Certification

admin — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 17:26:35 +0000

Practical Applications is pleased to announce our membership with the Association of Boards of Certification (ABC).

Association of Boards of Certification
Practical Applications is pleased to announce our Associate membership with the Association of Boards of Certification (ABC).

ABC offers a voluntary certification program to water treatment, distribution, collection, wastewater treatment, and industrial waste operators, water and wastewater laboratory analysts, plant maintenance technologists, and biosolids land appliers.

ABC certification is not only a way to protect public health and the environment, but provides numerous career benefits to both employees and employers. In addition, ABC’s Testing Service provides examinations for its Testing Clients. An active technical network of volunteer subject matter experts contribute to ABC’s Testing Service. Each exam discipline has established a Validation & Examination (V&E) committee. Over 70 industry professionals currently serve on ABC’s volunteer committees.

As an Associate member, Practical Applications, Inc. has the opportunity to serve on committees, network with other members and join over 100 certification programs, trainers, educational institutions and professional associations in providing a voice for the environmental certification industry.

Learn more on the ABC website by clicking the link below:

http://www.abccert.org/

Wastewater Operator Exam Prep Course

admin — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 13:05:45 +0000

Starting TUESDAY, JULY 21 Practical Applications will be offering the next session of our rolling Wastewater Exam Prep Course. Wastewater Operators are welcome to attend any or all of the 8 course days we’re offering. If you already have your MA Wastewater Operator License you may audit any of the course days for Training Contact Hours.
The course day is 3 hours long, from 8-11am at our training center in South Boston. The course dates are:

Wednesday, July 21
Wednesday, July 28
Wednesday, August 4
Wednesday, August 11
Wednesday, August 18
Wednesday, August 25
Wednesday, September 1
Wednesday, September 8

See the graphic below for the curriculum for each day. You may attend all of the days or just the days that you feel you’ll need to in order to pass the exam. You will receive 3 TCHs for each course day you attend.

Wastewater Operator Exam Training and TCH Courses

admin — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 14:31:01 +0000

Practical Applications announces the second session of our rolling Massachusetts Wastewater Operator Training Exam Prep and TCH Courses.

The next session begins on June 16th and continues for 8 weeks. You may attend any or all of the classes for this session, or combine them with the classes remaining in session one. Register today at our Wastewater Operator Training registration page.

Course details are as follows:

DAY ONE

Wastewater Chemistry
Wastewater Math

DAY TWO

Chemistry & Math
Pollutants & Industrial Wastewater Sources
Wastewater Flow Measurement

DAY THREE

Wastewater Dosage Math
Wastewater Treatment Basics
pH Adjustment

DAY FOUR

Wastewater Math
Wastewater Treatment Equipment

DAY FIVE

Wastewater Math
Wastewater Sampling & Testing
Wastewater Treatment Methods

DAY SIX

Wastewater Chemistry
Wastewater Metals Treatment

DAY SEVEN

Special Wastewater Treatment Methods

DAY EIGHT

Wastewater Operator Safety
Health Information

Wastewater Operator Status Change

admin — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 19:51:05 +0000

If you are a current MA Wastewater Operator and need to change your status (active, inactive, etc.), please download the form below, or view our Training Page for more information.

Wastewater Operator Status Change
Download this PDF to change your operator status.

Wastewater Operator Status Change Form

Wastewater Operator Exam Prep Course

admin — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 14:21:59 +0000

MA Wastewater Operator Exam Training

The Practical Applications industry-leading Wastewater Operator Training Exam Prep Course will be held for 8 weeks this Autumn.
Participants will be introduced to every element of the state exam, run by the New England Interstate Water Pollution Control Commission (NEIWPCC).
The course is held on Thursday mornings from 8:00 to 11:00 at Practical Applications’ South Boston training center, starting on October 1 and concluding on November 19. The state exam will be held in multiple locations on Saturday, November 21.

THIS COURSE IS FULL

MA DEP Industrial Toxic Reporting Requirements

admin — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 23:46:28 +0000

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

MWRA Rate Increase

admin — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 23:55:47 +0000

Hello Everyone!

We wanted to send out a notification for those who did not attend the MWRA Significant Industrial User (SIU) meetings this week. As many of you know, the EPA audited the MWRA and its Industrial Pretreatment Program(IPP) back in December 2007. The MWRA just received the report back and one of the requirements in the report was to change/streamline their

MWRA Rate Increase - Regulation 310 CMR 10.00

regulations. The MWRA changed some of the terminology surrounding the adjudicatory proceedings(310 CMR 1.00) and clarified the language and provisions surrounding enforcement actions (310 CMR 2.00). Changes to 310 CMR 10.00 included adding definitions for Best Management Practices(BMP) and New Sources, clarifying the definitions for an SIU, adding a prohibition against BOD and COD that could interfere with the POTW function, and proposing a fee increase over the next three years. You can view the proposed regulations by visiting http://www.mwra.com/trac/proposedamendments-2009.htm. The underlined text means an addition, a strike means a deletion.

This fee increase affects ALL industrial users. If you have a permit, whether it is a low-flow general permit or your are a SIU, your fees will be going up. The proposed increase is 4.5% each year for three years. They have not raised their fees since fiscal year 2005 and are looking for feedback regarding the increase. The informal comment period on the fee increase ends April 24th! If you have comments regarding the fee increase (or the other regulations changes), please email Carolyn Fiore at cfiore@mwra.state.ma.us by April 24th.

Commercial and Industrial Greywater Systems

admin — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 02:39:10 +0000

MIT Brain and Cognitive Center Greywater System

Click here to download our PDF brochure of this article at our documents location.

Follow these basic to complete your next successful Greywater System Installation

Successful Greywater projects include the following elements:

1. The project has a favorable Return on Investment (ROI),
2. A wastewater stream characterization was completed,
3. Based on item two, suitable recover and storage equipment was chosen,
4. Based on item two, suitable treatment equipment and piping was chosen, and
5. The system design integrated Plumbing Code & Environmental Regulations including protection, monitoring and regulatory reporting.

Return On Investment
All Greywater projects should have a Return on investment that has a payback of less than two years. Currently the MWRA Water and Sewer Rates Average $9.80/HCF (updated Nov 2008, Boston MA Commercial). A typical Greywater system costs between $50,000.00 and $100,000.00. Based on Boston commercial water and sewer rates, owners need to recycle at least 5,228 gallons of water per day for the system to have a favorable ROI.

Wastewater Stream Characterization
Typical Greywater systems recover water from sources that contain a variety of contaminants that need to be measured to ensure that downstream systems and equipment are not damaged and to prevent exposure of harmful pollutants to the end users. At a minimum the following measurements are made from a representative stream:

a. Suspended Solids
b. Dissolved Solids
c. Organics (synthetic)
d. pH (Acidity & Alkalinity)
e. Bacteria

Once a baseline analysis is performed further sampling and analysis may be necessary to address site specific contaminants.

Recovery and Storage
Cisterns and Day Tanks need to be configured to minimize contaminant loading and to prevent code violations. For example, cisterns can be configured to bypass the first portion of rainwater during a rain event to reduce the organic loading on the system caused by bird waste and other debris which may accumulate on the roof. Second, mixed recovered wastewater streams cannot be discharged to the storm drain and vice versa. It is illegal to discharge rain water to the sewer system and it is illegal to discharge industrial wastewater to the storm system.

The cistern and day tanks need to be sized appropriately to recover the maximum water amount yet minimize the tank’s footprint. Cisterns should be sized large enough to capture typical rain events and oversized to maximize a rain events’ capture.

Sample Calculation
Cistern volumes can be determined by calculating the roof top water yield for any given rainfall, shown in Equation 1 below.
Day tanks are sized based on the process feeding the Greywater System. A day tank used to recover Reverse Osmosis Reject (RO Reject) is sized to capture the entire reject cycle.

Equation 1 : V = A2 x R x 0.90 x 7.5 gals./ ft.3
where:

V= volume of cistern (gallons)
A2= surface area roof (square feet)
R= rainfall (feet)
0.90= losses to system (no units)
7.5= conversion factor (gallons per cubic foot)

Example: one 600-gallon Cistern would provide runoff storage from a rooftop area of approximately 2150 square feet for a 0.5 inch (0.042 ft.) of rainfall.

600 gallons = 2150 ft.2 x 0.042 ft. x 0.90 x 7.5 gallons/ft.3

Treatment Equipment & Piping
Based on the wastewater stream characterization study, the Greywater may require some treatment prior to use. Most systems employ mechanical filtration to remove the suspended dirt to protect downstream equipment such as flush valves. The type of mechanical filtration equipment will depend on the flow rate.

Typical equipment according for flow rates is:

Multimedia Filtration Systems (flows 50gpm and higher)
Bag Filtration (flows 10gpm to 100gpm)
Cartridge Filtration (flows less than 15gpm)

If needed, treatment to remove or protect the Greywater may include; Bleach, Ozone, or UV Light. The choice is site/wastestream dependent.

Piping planned and installed in new construction projects is critical to meeting the ROI budget as it is almost impossible to retrofit an existing building with separate Greywater Systems.

Regulations require that mixed wastewater is discharged to the appropriate drain system (i.e., storm drains, sanitary drains). Therefore, attention is needed to determine if the cistern overflow piping is directed to storm drainage and if the day tank overflow is directed to sanitary drainage. A regulatory review is needed to ensure that the piping is correct.

Plumbing Code and Environmental Regulations
Currently the Massachusetts Plumbing code requires a State issued special permit for Greywater Systems. All permits are issues by the Board of State Examiners of Plumbers and Gasfitters via the “Special Permission Plumbing Request Application Form.” The Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MADEP) regulates Greywater systems under state regulations 314CMR20.00. The MADEP requires that the water not harm the public who come in contact with the Greywater. Therefore, some Greywater systems may need to add chemicals to kill harmful microorganisms or may need special treatment to remove harmful toxins.

The local Board of Health may also require permitting and monitoring.