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Industrial Water Pollution Controls
Effluent Guidelines
Effluent limitations guidelines and standards are established by EPA for different non-municipal industries. These guidelines are based on the degree of pollutant reduction that can be attained by an industry when they apply recommended pollutant control technologies.
The Clean Water Act requires EPA to specifically develop effluent guidelines that represent the following:
- Best conventional pollutant control technology (BCT) for conventional pollutants and applicable to existing dischargers.
- Best practicable control technology currently available (BPT) for conventional, toxic and nonconventional pollutants and applicable to existing dischargers.
- Best available technology economically achievable (BAT) for toxic and nonconventional pollutants and applicable to existing dischargers.
- New source performance standards (NSPS) for conventional pollutants and applicable to new sources.
Cooling Water Intake Structures—CWA §316(b)
Cooling water intake structures cause adverse environmental impact by pulling large numbers of fish and shellfish or their eggs into a power plant's or factory's cooling system. There, the organisms may be killed or injured by heat, physical stress, or by chemicals used to clean the cooling system. Larger organisms may be killed or injured when they are trapped against screens at the front of an intake structure.
EPA is developing regulations under section §316(b) of the Clean Water Act. Section §316(b) requires that the location, design, construction and capacity of cooling water intake structures reflect the best technology available for minimizing adverse environmental impact.
More than 1,500 industrial facilities use large volumes of cooling water from lakes, rivers, estuaries or oceans to cool their plants, including steam electric power plants, pulp and paper makers, chemical manufacturers, petroleum refiners, and manufacturers of primary metals like iron and steel and aluminum.
Uniform National Discharge Standards (UNDS) for Armed Forces Vessels
Uniform National Discharge Standards (UNDS) are required by Section 312 of the Clean Water Act to regulate discharges incidental to the normal operation of Armed Forces Vessels.
Related Information
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- Publicly owned treatment works (POTWs) Wastewater Pretreatment Program is a cooperative effort of environmental agencies to protect water quality.
- Secondary Treatment Standards provide the basis for technology-based effluent limits for POTWs.
- National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit program
- U.S. EPA NPDES Permit Writer's Manual (PDF) (37 pages, 168 K): Chapter 5 of this manual provides overview of the process for establishing technology-based effluent limits.
- Estimated Per Capita Fish Consumption in the United States (PDF) (262 pages, 3.3 Mb; EPA-821-C-02-003) (August 2002): This report displays daily average per capita fish consumption estimates that may be used in estimating risk to human health from the consumption of contaminated freshwater and estuarine finfish and shellfish species.