The cost for the TCH course, meals and the harbor boat cruise is $800 per person.

The Deer Island tour is FREE.

You will earn up to 5 TCHs for this course. PAI will be conducting the workshops on board one of Boston Harbor Tours’ boats. Breakfast and lunch will be served on board. After the course is complete we will dock at Deer Island and take a tour of the grounds and treatment plant. The Deer Island tour will be run by MWRA staff, and is sponsored by WOOMA, the non-profit Wastewater Operators of Massachusetts Association.

The cost for the TCH course, meals and the harbor boat cruise is $800 per person.

The Deer Island tour is FREE. If you would like to attend ONLY the Deer Island tour, and not earn any TCHs, you are welcome to find transportation to the island and join our group for the tour.

Register today!

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

Is There Mercury In Your Industrial Wastewater Discharge?

This article was written by Practical Applications’ biologist Kimberly Baxter and originally appeared in the December 2005 issue of Plumbing Engineer magazine. A PDF of the article is available HERE.

Abstract

An assessment of sampling locations for three industrial wastewater effluent piping systems is presented. The assessments provided demonstrate that by installing sampling ports at the appropriate location along an effluent stream’s piping system, truly representative samples can be collected. These real and accurate results scientifically prove that a specific industrial wastewater discharge does not contain mercury levels that will trigger regulatory enforcement action.

Continue reading…

Collection, Recycling, Labeling and Sales Ban of Mercury-added Products; and Disposal Prohibition of Mercury-added Products in Solid Waste–310 CMR 19.00 (amended), 74.00 (amended), 75.00 (amended), 76.00 (added).

Brief Explanation and Rationale for Changes

Signed into law in July 2006, the “Massachusetts Mercury Management Act” is designed to keep mercury out of our trash and wastewater, where it is released into the environment. MassDEP is implementing this law in two phases. The Phase 1 regulations (promulgated on December 28, 2007) banned the sale of mercury-added products in Massachusetts unless the manufacturer registers the product with an interstate clearinghouse and establishes a collection program for the end-of-life products, banned schools from buying mercury-containing products, required auto manufacturers to collect and recycle mercury switches from “end of life” vehicles, required manufacturers of mercury containing lamps to educate consumers about mercury hazards and the requirement to recycle discarded lamps and to report on lamp recycling to MassDEP.

The Phase 2 regulations (promulgated on August 21, 2009) ban the sale in Massachusetts of specific mercury-added products, establish a procedure for manufacturers to apply for an exemption from the sales ban, and establish labeling requirements for mercury-added products that are sold in Massachusetts. The regulations also prohibit disposal of any mercury-added product in solid waste.

View the final regulations here: http://www.mass.gov/dep/public/reglist.htm or contact Practical Applications with any questions.

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

Boston, MA – Practical Applications, Inc. (PAI), a leading environmental company, has been awarded the contract to design and build the central wastewater treatment system for the new David H. Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research At MIT. The system is designed to treat wastewater flows continuously at 215,000 GPD (gallons per day) with peak flows at 300 GPM (gallons per minute).
The system employs pH neutralization/pH adjustment to control wastewater generated from laboratory research activities. The system is designed to meet strict compliance discharge limits according to Massachusetts Water Resources Authority (MWRA) sewer discharge regulations.

Koch Institute at MIT Wastewater Treatment System - Elevation View

The system comprises two 2,200-Gallon treatment tanks followed by a corrosive duty pump station. The system incorporates PAI’s proven design and safety features including our transfer free DOT chemical dispensing stations for reagents and automated alarming/reporting systems.

Koch Institute at MIT Wastewater Treatment System - Plan View

PAI has been designing, building, and operating wastewater treatment systems since 1994. Our systems are designed and built by operating engineers and technicians who understand an effective system must ensure performance while remaining economical to operate and maintain.
Download a PDF of this press release.
View the MIT Koch Institute pH Neutralization System Gallery.

MA DEP

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

Read the article at The Boston Globe.

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.

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.