Department of Utilities

Department of Utilities Wins First Place in EPA’s 2002 Clean Water Act Awards

Chesterfield County’s Utilities Department has won the first place in the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) 2002 Clean Water Act Recognition Award in the outstanding Pretreatment Program category. There are more than 16,000 publicly owned and 60,000 industrially owned wastewater treatment plants in the United States. The award was presented by USEPA on September 30, 2002, at Water Environment Federation conference in Chicago. This makes it the second time that Chesterfield County’s pretreatment team has won this prestigious award since 1997.

Abha Sharma, industrial pretreatment program manager, for Chesterfield’s Utilities Department, oversees a team of four engineering assistants. The pretreatment team ensures that all industries comply with environmental obligations as it relates to discharge. The team also monitors and enforces the EPA’s pretreatment regulations.

“The EPA's Pretreatment Excellence award for 2002 is the result of a successful partnership between Chesterfield County's pretreatment team and the industries in the county,” Sharma said. “It is a testimony of everyone’s dedication and sincere commitment to the environment."

2002 marks the twelfth year of the EPA's National Pretreatment Excellence Awards Program. The awards recognize publicly owned treatment works (POTWs) with exemplary local pretreatment programs that reduce the risk of pass-through of toxic pollutants and the operational interferences caused by toxic discharges. They are also recognized for their outstanding efforts in the control of industrial discharges, outstanding compliance results, technological achievement and to heighten overall public awareness of and support for these local wastewater treatment-related programs.

Some of the highlights of Chesterfield County’s Pretreatment Program:

• Dynamically streamlining and restructuring the pretreatment program to address the changes in the pollutants of concerns and the loadings of the pollutants of concern in a timely manner to realize greater and more meaningful environmental benefit
  
• Performing on-site inhibition study (on a pilot scale) for pollutants of concern to develop scientifically based local limits with actual inhibition data and true removal efficiencies rather than depending on literature values
  
• Implementing awards program for the permitted industries to encourage 100 percent environmental compliance, pollution prevention and other “going above and beyond requirement” behavior. Thirty percent of Chesterfield County’s SIU are in 100 percent compliance with all environmental regulations
  
• Special emphasis on pollution prevention during inspection – pretreatment personnel constantly research pollution prevention options for various industries and distribute information to them. Also, involve the pollution prevention section of DEQ for assistance whenever warranted. Successful pollution prevention efforts are recognized during the Annual Awards Ceremony
  
• In the process of developing “Oil and Grease Control Program” for all the businesses in the county
  
• A state-of-the-art tracking system tracks the businesses as they come in and categorizes them according to the nature of business. This enables the pretreatment program to perform their permitting, industrial survey and other activities in a timely manner
  
• Successfully controlling the pollutants of concern concentrations to Class A biosolids requirements, despite tremendous growth of businesses in the county
  
• Community outreach efforts include environmental training to industries and school children
  
• Very efficient enforcement response program and compliance assistance program that implements meaningful enforcement to its non-compliant industries and proactively works with industries that need assistance with maintaining their compliance
  
• Some of the environmental achievements include:
  
  1. Despite an increase of 106 percent of Significant Industrial Users since 1993, the pollutant loadings of arsenic, copper, cadmium, lead, nickel and zinc has increase only moderately, whereas, the loadings of chromium, mercury, cyanide and silver have decreased
  2. There has been no pretreatment related violation at either of the treatment plants. Both plants were in 100 percent compliance with their VPDES permits
  3. The Pollutant loadings in the biosolids are far below the ceiling loadings of Class A biosolids

Chesterfield County’s Utilities Director, Craig Bryant saluted the cooperative efforts between the pretreatment team and the industries in the area. “The focus on cooperation rather than enforcement was the major factor,” Bryant said. “Our department working with industries helped in receiving this recognition.” Jay Stegmaier, deputy county administrator, management services, believes that this award adresses an important issue. “This award adds to the evidence demonstrating Chesterfield County’s ongoing commitment to being responsible stewards of the environment.”