Industrial UAA to Modify Designated Uses and Develop Site Specific Criteria
Industrial UAA to Modify Designated Uses and Develop Site Specific Criteria for
- Selenium
- Chloride
- Sulfate
- Total Dissolved Solids
An active hazardous waste treatment and incineration facility operates near El Dorado, Union County, AR. The location was a former petroleum refining site with documented contamination of surface water runoff and groundwater.The current National Pollutants Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit for the facility contained new requirements for total dissolved solids (TDS) and selenium (Se). These permit requirements included monitoring and reporting TDS and Se for the first 3 years with numeric limitations for these parameters becoming enforceable after that. Analytical data for both TDS and Se indicate the discharge would not meet the permit limitations. FTN was contracted to study the sources of TDS and Se and to provide recommendations for possible methods to manage the new limitations. The UAA provided an analysis of alternatives for meeting effluent limitations including treatment, modified plant operations and site specific water quality criteria for Se, chloride, sulfate and TDS that are protective of existing and attainable designated uses in the receiving stream. The work demonstrated that the discharge of the plant effluent supports existing and attainable uses in the receiving stream by documenting through sampling, analysis and modeling that existing concentrations of chloride, TDS and Se will not limit aquatic life and will not impair existing or attainable uses. The receiving stream was impacted by historical petroleum extraction and/or refining operations. Therefore it was necessary to distinguish between aquatic life limitation due to TDS, chlorides and Se vs. that due to petroleum contamination.Selenium Why is this UAA Unique? The initial site specific criterion for selenium in EPA Region 6 was developed during this project.
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