Can I Get a Wastewater Permit?

The short answer to “can I get a wastewater permit” is, “Probably.”

The discharge of treated sewer water is regulated by the EPA under delegation to state environmental agencies.

Every state has its own set of clean water regulations which guide the permitting of wastewater treatment systems.

While every state is different, you’ll need to know the answer to the following two questions to get a wastewater discharge permit:

Question 1: What kind of discharge will it be?

Your state will want to know how much water you intend to discharge, where it’s coming from (e.g. houses, stores, restaurants, etc.), where you plan to dispose of it, and how clean it will be when it’s disposed of. Most of the time, the level of required treatment will be determined by where it will be discharged. Here are some options:

Subsurface

With subsurface discharge systems, much of the treatment of the wastewater is performed in a disposal system such as a traditional septic drain field or sand mound. Generally speaking, these permits are the easiest to obtain because they count on established technologies that don’t require much operation or maintenance. However, discharges of large quantities of primarily treated wastewater have the potential to degrade quality of ground water. Many states impose an upper design flow limit on subsurface systems, or they require pretreatment of the wastewater before it is discharged to a drain field.

Some states such as Georgia and Connecticut have issued General Permits that expedite the approval of subsurface discharges. Other states like North Carolina and Tennessee have privatized the approval of large subsurface disposal systems.

Land Application

This might sound the same as subsurface discharge, but it’s not quite the same. Higher volumes of wastewater can be disposed under a Land Application permit. The water usually must be treated at least to secondary levels before disposal. Because of this pretreatment, Land Application permits can also include surface application such as with spray irrigation or overland flow. These disposal methods can overcome concerns over aquifer contamination associated with subsurface disposal systems. They also have some drawbacks related to a higher potential for public exposure to treated effluent.

Subsurface drip dispersal systems retain the benefits of shallow application without the concern over public exposure.

Subsurface drip dispersal system illustration. Note the depth of the drip lines and the nutrient uptake into the grass.

Land application of treated sewer water can virtually eliminate the risk of environmental degradation. Because of this, these permits are sometimes referred to as “non discharge.” In most cases, applicants should consider disposal to the land first. Though, sometimes, this isn’t feasible where non-infiltrative soils or other environmental factors require large swaths of land and sizeable impoundments for the application and storage of treated effluent.

Direct (Surface Water) Discharge

Open discharge of treated domestic sewer water to a waterway must be permitted under the National Pollution Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) as administrated on the state level. Some states have their own version of the NPDES permit such as Texas’ TPDES, New York’s SPDES, and Arizona’s AZPDES permits. But a clean water law by any other name still smells like a challenge.

NPDES permits are notoriously difficult and time consuming to obtain. This reputation is more or less deserved from state to state. In states like Louisiana, and South Carolina that have general permits for open discharge, it’s less deserved. In states like Connecticut or California, it’s more deserved. Regardless of the state, though, open discharge systems must hit stringent treatment targets that must be maintained through vigilant monitoring.

Besides the difficulty of navigating the regulatory red tape, NPDES permits presume access to a waterway. And that waterway might have to meet certain criteria. Some states, like North Carolina, require that a stream can be proven to always provide some dilution to the treated discharge before an NPDES permit can be approved. Other states, like New York, allow discharges to intermittent waterways but require the effluent to be highly treated beforehand. Sometimes a discharge will be disallowed to a large waterway because it’s already polluted. Before an open discharge can be approved, a waste load allocation must be available from the EPA.

Beneficial Reuse

Treated sewer water can be reclaimed for a variety of uses that include dust reduction at construction sites, crop irrigation, or fire suppression. To qualify for these uses, the water must be treated to a very high level. In many cases, for instance, it must be disinfected until it is completely sterile. This level of treatment can make the wastewater system significantly more expensive than one designed for surface water discharge.

Aqua Tech’s BioTank can hit reuse standards in every state. If you’d like an estimate on one, just click the button below:

In some states, such as Arizona and Montana, concern over aquifer recharge can make beneficial reuse a preferable option despite the higher cost.

All of these discharge details come under the “administrative” portion of any permit application. In most cases, you will need a state-licensed environmental engineer to fill out the administrative section of the wastewater permit.

Speaking of engineers, while Aqua Tech performs the job-specific design engineering for each biological treatment reactor we sell, we count on local P.E.s to perform the overall design. These folks do the siting of the system and put everything together in one place. Which brings us to the second question to be answered on a wastewater discharge permit.

Question 2: How will you clean the sewer water?

The other side of the wastewater discharge permit coin is the technical section. Most of the time, state environmental agencies will have one team to review the administrative side of the permit and another to review the technical side.

Like skinning a cat, wastewater treatment can be performed in many ways. While your engineer will perform the overarching design, they might defer to the end user to select the preferred treatment technology. If you plan to permit a decentralized sewer system for a development or a town, it’s important that you participate in the selection of the technology. That’s because you’re the one paying for it and because you or someone do business with will be responsible for its performance over the long haul.

Here’s a small sample of the design documentation we provide:

Just as important as picking the right equipment is picking the right equipment provider. That’s because regardless of which engineer you engage for permitting, they will need to partner with the equipment provider to complete the technical section of the discharge application and their final engineering report. An incompetent or unresponsive equipment provider extend the permitting process at best. At worst, they can leave you holding the bag with a non-compliant treatment technology.

There are several companies of various sizes that provide wastewater treatment and disposal equipment. It’s always best to reach out to several for an initial discussion and budgetary price. We don’t mind a little competition, we know we have the best equipment and service for the best price!

You can call or email us directly to see for yourself.