ENVS 2256 Lecture Notes - Lecture 25: Clean Water Act, Coliform Bacteria, Institute For Operations Research And The Management Sciences
16 May 2018
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CWA!
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Point Sources -> any discernible, confined, or discrete conveyance... from which pollutants
may be discharged!
pipe, ditch, challenge, tunnel, well, discrete tissue, animal feed operation, vessel or floating •
craft!
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Pollutant -> traditional contaminants, solids (dredge, soil, sand, solid earth)!
can change the ecology of the land!•
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Non-Point Sources -> not a priority of much of the score, much trickier system!
!•
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something conveyed from point A to point B!•
no matter how many steps!◦
doesn't have to be A directly to B -> long chain but needs to be somewhat connected!◦
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Discharge -> the conveyance from the point sources to the body of water!
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NPDES Permits!
bigger legal issues of (1) do I need a permit, (2) does Federal government have jurisdiction over •
the waters in my backyard?!
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2 Components of NPDES Permits!
1) Harm based standards!
2) technologically based standards!
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Types of Pollutants that Might need to be regulated
Harm Based Standards -> identity the harms and how we want to limit them, setting specific
standards!
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### Min/Max###24 Hr Max # # Instantanous Max!
pH###>4.5,#<11.5#### ---## # # ---!
Coliform# # --- # # 500 ppm ### 700 ppm!
Other oil and grease ---- 500 grams !
H20 Flow 100 gal/hr, min 50 gal/hr!
Biochemical on demand!
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water flow is important -> energy facility that needs to discharge heated water!•
need a NPDES permit for the flow of that water!•
in a small calm water, don't want to be discharging a lot of hot water!•
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EPA passes binders of the pollutants we have to think about for specific facilities and bodies of •
water!
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Harm Based -> EPA looks broadly at different categories at harm and this informs what kind of
things they want to limit !
toxicity!•
