Save Your WWTP Money By Doing This One Thing

Let’s cut to the chase, everyone and every organization loves to save money. One overlooked strategy to save your wastewater plant some money is to look at your NPDES permit and see if there are any testing parameters that can be reduced. For instance, maybe you are required to do Whole Effluent Toxicity testing monthly but every single month your results are good. That is a parameter that you may want to petition the state to have reduced to annually or quarterly. There is no real logical reason to keep such a specialized test at that frequency if you have the data to prove your effluent is fine. And that is the key. Data, lots of data. Once you identify a parameter for reduction, the regulatory authority is going to want to see the data to back up your request. You should be able to provide that to them with ease. I did this at my current facility with two different parameters (WET Testing and PFAS) and was able to save the city thousands of dollars per year by just reducing the test frequency of two parameters.

Here's how I did it: 

1) E-mailed my compliance officer with the State about it my request to see if it was viable. He agreed that it would be possible to reduce those two parameters if we had the data to back it up. I then compiled a years’ worth of data for both parameters.

2) Fill out whatever forms are required by the state. Below is the online form I used to submit the request for the State of Michigan.

3) Success! Well, assuming your regulatory authority approves it. You may have to wait a little bit for them to review your request. But if you're approved, you just saved your organization thousands of dollars in lab fees by just reducing testing frequency. Amazing, I know.

While this may be an obvious tactic for some, not everyone realizes that you can have testing frequency reduced and sometimes even eliminated altogether. If it’s something you do internally and not one of the more specialized tests, you just saved yourself manhours and thus saved money that way. In my mind it only makes sense to periodically check your NPDES permit and see if there are any ways you can reduce the frequency of testing on certain parameters. This will save you time, money, and overall make your operations life easier.

Pro tip: maintain a good relationship with your compliance officer. You'll likely have better luck with this whole process if you do.