USE OF EPA'S TOXICITY REDUCTION EVALUATION PROTOCOL IN IDENTIFYING TOXICANTS IN MUNICIPAL WASTEWATER TREATMENT PLANTS
Public Deposited- Last Modified
- February 28, 2019
- Creator
-
Backus, Patricia M.
- Affiliation: Gillings School of Global Public Health, Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering
- Abstract
- Since the passage of the Water Quality Act of 1987, biomonitoring has been incorporated into the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permits for wastewater treatment plants. A Toxicity Reduction Evaluation (TRE) is required when the toxicity limits of the permit are repeatedly violated to determine the cause of the toxicity and to identify a corrective action. Many municipal wastewater treatment plants have been required to conduct TREs and have found them to be expensive and time-consuming. A protocol was issued by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in 1988 to provide guidance to municipalities in conducting TRE assessments. While several studies have focused on the details of how to perform a TRE, none has addressed the effectiveness of the TRE in resolving toxicity problems. This study attempted to do this by directly contacting 37 municipalities in EPA Region IV that had or are presently conducting TREs and questioning them on their use of the EPA protocol. They were asked via a questionnaire to assess the benefits of the protocol in identifying the toxicant and corrective action and to identify any problems or concerns they had with the TRE process and the EPA protocol. Twenty-six completed questionnaires were received. The survey indicated that the protocol has been successful in resolving acute toxicity problems but has had limited success and more difficulties when dealing with chronic toxicity. The protocol is also less successful when toxicity is intermittent or appears to result from multiple toxicants. Major complaints about the TRE process concern the cost and time required especially when tests are inconclusive. While biomonitoring was noted as a useful indicator of effluent toxicity, several respondents believed the protocol is not sufficiently developed to be used as an enforcement tool.
- Date of publication
- August 1993
- DOI
- Resource type
- Rights statement
- In Copyright
- Advisor
- Aitken, Michael
- Francisco, Donald E.
- DiGiano, Francis A.
- Degree
- Master of Science in Environmental Engineering
- Academic concentration
- Water Resources Engineering
- Degree granting institution
- University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
- Graduation year
- 1993
- Language
- Deposit record
- c2589085-57f7-4434-bf45-a2666ba162b9
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