October 5, 2005—The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has finalized the Pretreatment Streamlining Rule, which revises how industrial and commercial facilities manage their wastewater discharges before sending it on to publicly owned treatment works (POTW) for final treatment.
The pretreatment program requires manufacturing dischargers to use treatment techniques and management practices to reduce or eliminate the discharge of harmful pollutants that could compromise municipal treatment plant processes or contaminate waterways.
The new rule maintains that protection, but removes process requirements for industrial operations, including sampling their discharges for pollutants that are not present at their facilities. This change will substantially reduce the costs to facilities while requiring them to maintain the same federal discharge limits.
