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Effluent Monitoring

Beside effluent discharge limits, permits almost always include effluent monitoring requirements. Fundamentally, permitting authorities require monitoring of pollutants limited in the permit so that the permittee can demonstrate compliance with its limits. If the monitoring demonstrates noncompliance, then the data can be used as the basis for an enforcement action.

The permittee must retain records for all monitoring information, which includes maintenance and calibration records, strip charts, reports, etc., for at least three years from the date of sampling (sewage sludge data must be maintained for five years). Monitoring also can provide data about treatment efficiency and to characterize effluents for permit reissuance. Instream monitoring (above and below the outfall) can be useful to assess impacts of the discharge, but it is infrequently required.

Biosolids
EPA has published national regulations dealing with municipal sludge. The focus of these regulations is on toxics, pathogens, and “vectors” (flies, mosquitoes, rodents, and other carriers of disease).

Sewage sludge can be disposed of in landfills, lagoons, incinerated, or land applied to serve as a soil enhancer or fertilizer. Land application of sewage sludge is often done on parks, golf courses, abandoned mines, and construction site restoration. It also can be applied to crops, including crops for human consumption.

The sludge program is designed to encourage communities to keep levels of contaminants in their sludge as low as possible. The cleaner a city’s sludge is, the fewer the federal limitations are on disposal and use.

Web Resources
EPA’s Bio Solids website