General Permit for Low Flow and Low Pollutant Dischargers

The General Permit for Low Flow and Low Pollutant Dischargers authorizes Persons with facilities in the Authority Sewerage District with low industrial flows and no or low levels of regulated pollutants in their Industrial Wastewater to Discharge Industrial Wastewater from those facilities to the Authority sewer system, subject to the requirements of the General Permit, 360 CMR 10.062, and 360 CMR 10.000. A Person with a facility covered by the General Permit is responsible for the discharge from the facility and for compliance with the requirements of the General Permit and 360 CMR 10.000. (1) Permit Eligibility. (a) A Person is eligible for and must be covered by the General Permit for a facility that meets one of the following criteria: 1. It discharges less than an average of 25,000 gallons per day of wastewater to the sewer (excluding sanitary, noncontact cooling, and boiler blowdown wastewater) and its processes would result in a sewer discharge before pretreatment and dilution not containing a substance regulated by 360 CMR 10.022 through 10.024; 2. It discharges less than an average of 300 gallons per day of Wastewater to the Sewer (excluding sanitary, noncontact cooling, boiler blowdown, and incoming water treatment reject stream Wastewater) and does not require an active pretreatment system to meet the requirements of 360 CMR 10.021 through 10.025 except it may adjust the pH of its discharge with a chemical addition to meet Authority pH discharge requirements if it: a. has an automatic alarm and chart recorder or electronic memory on its pH adjustment system; or b. discharges in batches, treats each batch if necessary to meet pH discharge requirements, and tests each batch to confirm that it meets pH requirements); and c. it does not otherwise have a reasonable potential to violate 360 CMR 10.021 through 10.025; 3. It is a Photo Processing or Printing operation that is not required or eligible to be covered by the Group Permit for Photo Processing and Printing Operations (360 CMR 10.061) or the Combined Permit (360 CMR 10.064) because: a. its fixer, bleach-fix, stabilizers, and functionally similar solutions containing silver bearing wastes are hauled for disposal outside the Authority Sewerage District; and b. it discharges only rinse water, developer, activator, water from occasional incidental cleaning of pre-wiped equipment with water and detergent, and less than 55 gallons per month of spent fountain solution from its Photo Processing and Printing operations; or 4. It is a Photo Processing or Printing operation whose discharge or discharges from that operation meets the requirements of 360 CMR 10.062(1)(a)3. and it has discharges from other operations that all meet the requirements of 360 CMR 10.062(1)(a)1. or 2. (b) Notwithstanding 360 CMR 10.062(1)(a), a Person’s facility is not eligible to be covered by the General Permit if: 1. It is subject to a Categorical Pretreatment Standard under 40 CFR 403.6 and 40 CFR Chapter I, Subchapter N; 2. It is otherwise notified by the Authority that it is a Significant Industrial User as defined in 360 CMR 10.004; 3. It discharges an average of 300 gallons per day or more of Wastewater to the Sewer (excluding sanitary, non-contact cooling, boiler blowdown, and incoming water treatment reject stream Wastewater) and it adjusts the pH of its Discharge by chemical addition to meet Authority pH discharge requirements (360 CMR 10.023(6)); or 4. It is required to have Septage Discharge Permits (360 CMR 10.031), Group Permit for Photo Processing and Printing Operations (360 CMR 10.061), Combined Permit (360 CMR 10.064), Landfill Discharge Permit (360 CMR 10.071), Temporary Construction Site Dewatering Permit (360 CMR 10.091), or it is a Water Treatment Plant Owned and Operated by a Municipality or by a water district (360 CMR 10.057). (2) Determining the Average Daily Discharge Amount of a Facility for Purposes of 360 CMR 10.062. To determine the average daily discharge amount of a facility, the amount of Wastewater discharged on each calendar day in an ordinary week shall be totaled and then divided by the number of days in the week during which a discharge occurred, except: if a facility discharges a small amount on a weekend day relative to its discharge on other days, that weekend day shall not be considered; and, if a facility discharges on fewer than five days per week, the amount of Wastewater discharged on each calendar day in an ordinary week shall be totaled and divided by five to determine the average discharge amount per day. The preceding 12 months of a facility's operations shall be used to determine a facility's ordinary week, except a more current time period shall be used if the facility's average amount of discharge changed within the past 12 months or began more recently. (3) Applying for and Receiving the General Permit. (a) A Person with a facility eligible for the General Permit must be issued the General Permit for the facility in order to discharge from the facility, except, with the approval of the Authority the Person may discharge under another permit issued by the Authority for the facility if it has applied or will apply for the General Permit for the facility. To apply for the General Permit, a Person must submit a completed Permit Application or Notice of Intent (NOI) for its facility to be covered by the General Permit, on the form prescribed by the Authority, to the Authority and, if required by the Permit Application or NOI, to the municipality into whose Sewer System the facility will discharge. The Authority may require additional information and may deny the application or NOI if the Authority considers the application or NOI to be incomplete or inadequate. (b) A Person operating a facility under another Authority permit may submit a new and completed Permit Application or NOI to the Authority and, if required by the Permit Application or NOI, to the municipality into whose Sewer System the facility discharges, and request that its other permit be revoked and that its specified facility be covered by the General Permit. (c) The Authority may require a Person to complete and file a Permit Application or NOI for the General Permit if it has reason to believe that the Person's facility, which has another Permit issued by the Authority, may be eligible for the General Permit. (d) If the Person's facility is eligible to be covered by the General Permit, and meets all the other requirements of the Authority, the Authority will issue the General Permit to the Person for the facility. (4) What May Be Discharged to the Authority Sewer System under the General Permit. (a) A facility that is covered by the General Permit may discharge its Industrial Wastewater to the Authority Sewer System, subject to the requirements of 360 CMR 10.062 and the General Permit. (b) A facility's discharge to the Authority Sewer System must comply with 360 CMR 10.000, including the regulations on Prohibited Wastes and Local Limits, 360 CMR 10.021 through 10.026. (c) The only Industrial Waste that 360 CMR 10.062 and the General Permit authorize a facility to discharge to the Authority Sewer System is from the processes generating Wastewater as noted in the Permit Application or NOI submitted to request coverage by the General Permit. A facility covered by the General Permit shall not Discharge Wastewater that would make it ineligible for the General Permit. (5) Additional Requirements for Photo Processing and Printing Operations Covered by the General Permit. (a) A Photo Processing or Printing facility covered by the General Permit may discharge rinse water, developer, activator, water from occasional incidental cleaning of pre-wiped equipment with water and detergent, and less than 55 gallons per month of spent fountain solution. (b) A Photo Processing or Printing facility covered by the General Permit shall not discharge any of the following to the Authority Sewer System: 1. Treated or untreated fixer, bleach-fix, stabilizers, and functionally similar solutions containing silver bearing wastes; 2. Ink; 3. Chromium based cleaner; 4. Press cleaning solvent; or 5. More than 55 gallons of spent fountain solution in any month. (c) A Photo Processing or Printing facility covered by the General Permit shall: 1. Have, for employee use, written disposal procedures describing proper methods to dispose of Photo Processing and Printing wastes; 2. Properly label and handle all Photo Processing and Printing wastes; 3. Not use chromium based film processor cleaning solutions; and 4. Post signs near all sinks and drains in the work area indicating that sewer disposal of silver bearing wastes is prohibited. Printing facility signs must also indicate that sewer disposal of press cleaning solvents and inks is prohibited. (d) A printing facility covered by the General Permit may clean its plates, blankets, press fountains, and rollers in a sink with water and detergents. Before doing so, it must pre-clean the equipment with industrial wipers (rags) to minimize the amount of inks and other products that will be washed off the equipment and enter the sewer. It may not use solvents in a sink connected to the Sewer. (6) Additional Requirements for Laboratories Covered by the General Permit. A laboratory covered by the General Permit shall have and implement a written laboratory chemicals management plan to control the discharge of regulated materials to the Sewer System. Regulated materials are those that contain pollutants regulated by the Authority at 360 CMR 10.021 through 10.024. At a minimum, the plan shall include procedures to: (a) Ensure that regulated materials do not spill or leak into the Sewer System; (b) Eliminate or minimize the disposal of regulated materials to the Sewer System so that Authority discharge limits are met; (c) Properly handle, store, collect, and dispose of laboratory chemicals and maintain disposal manifests; (d) Train laboratory employees in proper laboratory chemical usage and disposal; and (e) Ensure that the laboratory chemical management plan is followed by, among other measures, posting appropriate notices of proper chemicals usage and disposal practices at sinks where laboratory chemicals are used. (7) Additional Requirements for Facilities Required to Have Grease Traps and Covered by the General Permit. A facility covered by the General Permit that is required by Massachusetts law or regulation to have a grease trap or grease interceptor for food related grease or oil (see 360 CMR 10.017, 310 CMR 15.230: Pretreatment Units - Grease Traps and 248 CMR