Airports Prepare for EPA’S Deicing Regs - Cover Story - Pollution Engineering

Airports Prepare for EPA’S Deicing Regs - Cover Story - Pollution Engineering

IEPA Grants Variance

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE March 12, 2012    Illinois EPA grants DeKalb Sanitary District Provisional Variance from Permit Requirements Springfield—The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (IEPA) has granted the DeKalb Sanitary District a provisional variance from certain National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) water discharge permit conditions, in order to complete necessary repairs to the rotary distributor of the #2 trickling filter.   The DeKalb Sanitary District requested the variance in order to rebuild the rotary distributor, including bearings and seals. The distributor arms must be dismantled to achieve repairs. While the trickling filter is out of service the District will not be able to meet certain effluent limits and design maximum flow. The DeKalb Sanitary District is the designated authority for planning, collection and treatment of wastewater in DeKalb Township, Afton Township and parts of Cortland Township.  The District currently serves approximately 55,000 users.  The District receives and treats all wastewater at its Main wastewater treatment plant.  The DeKalb Sanitary District must continue to meet all other effluent conditions in its NPDES permit and must operate the treatment plant to produce the best effluent possible at all times. In addition, the District must closely monitor the Kishwaukee River and immediately notify the Agency of any adverse environmental impacts as a result of this discharge. The Illinois EPA has determined that any environmental impact from the variance must be closely monitored, and the Agency must be notified immediately of any adverse impacts; no reasonable alternative appears to be available; no public water supplies will be affected; no federal regulations would prohibit granting the request; and the facility would face an arbitrary and unreasonable hardship if the Agency did not grant the requested variance.  The provisional variance will end no later than April 13, 2012.

###

Los Alamos National Laboratory and Zero Wastewater Discharge

News Release from Los Alamos National Laboratory:

LANL achieves milestone on path to zero wastewater discharge

Improved compliance while recycling millions of gallons of industrial wastewater

LOS ALAMOS, New Mexico, January 20, 2012—Millions of gallons of industrial wastewater will be recycled at Los Alamos National Laboratory as the result of a long-term strategy to treat wastewater rather than discharging it into the environment.

The U. S. Environmental Protection Agency, which issues permits for industrial and sanitary wastewater discharges, recently approved the removal of four more outfalls from the Laboratory’s permit. (An outfall is where wastewater from Lab operations is discharged down canyons.)  Only 11 outfalls remain, down from 141 in 1993. 

"One of the objectives of our Environmental Management System is to reduce liquid discharges to a single outfall by the end of 2012," said Dennis Hjeresen, Division Leader of the Environmental Protection Division at the Lab. "Removing four more facilities from our permit is an important step toward reaching that goal."

The wastewater comes from many places at the Laboratory and does many things.  It cools the Los Alamos Neutron Science Center (LANSCE), one of the Lab’s premier science research facilities, and the Strategic Computing Complex, which creates world-class high-performance computing systems. The water also cools the Lab’s power plant and comes out of the sanitary plant that treats water from toilets and sinks.

The treated sanitary wastewater and water flushed from cooling towers is transported to the Lab’s Sanitary Effluent Reclamation Facility (SERF). It then can be reused in cooling towers around the Lab.
"The SERF should be recycling up to 300,000 gallons per day by the summer of 2012," Hjeresen said.


About Los Alamos National Laboratory

Los Alamos National Laboratory, a multidisciplinary research institution engaged in strategic science on behalf of national security, is operated by Los Alamos National Security, LLC, a team composed of Bechtel National, the University of California, The Babcock & Wilcox Company, and URS for the Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration.

Los Alamos enhances national security by ensuring the safety and reliability of the U.S. nuclear stockpile, developing technologies to reduce threats from weapons of mass destruction, and solving problems related to energy, environment, infrastructure, health, and global security concerns.

LANL news media contact: Colleen Curran, (505) 664-0344, colleen_curran@lanl.gov