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EPA proposed effluent standard impacts PWB industry, says IPC
December 21, 2000 |Estimated reading time: 1 minute
EPA proposed standard impacts PWB industry
Northbrook, Illinois--The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has recently signed a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) on metal products and machinery (MP&P) effluent guidelines that could force several PWB facilities to close and cause hundreds more to have difficulty financing compliance and other business investments. The EPA has estimated that the total annualized cost (in 1996 dollars) of the MP&M rule would be about US$147.1 million for the PWB industry, or over a quarter million dollars per facility.
The current effluent guidelines regulate pollutant content in PWB facilities' wastewater discharges. The proposed new guidelines will require extensive and costly process modifications for PWB facilities. See Figure 1 for The Proposed PWB Effluent Guidelines (in mg/l).
Regulated Parameter Current Standards Under d433 Proposed Pretreatment Standards for Existing Sources Proposed New Source Performance Standards Maximum Daily Maximum Monthly Average Maximum Daily Maximum Monthly Average Maximum Daily Maximum Monthly Average TSS (1) 60 31 60 31 28 18
O&G (2)
52
26
52
26
15
15
TOC (3) (as indicator) 101 67 101 67 TTO/TOP (4) 2.13 9.0 4.3 9.0 4.3 Cadmium 0.11 0.07 Chromium 2.77 1.71 0.25 0.14 0.17 0.07 Copper 3.38 2.07 0.55 0.28 0.01 0.01 Cyanide T (5) 1.2 0.65 0.21 0.13 0.21 0.13 Cyanide A (6) 0.14 0.07 0.14 0.07 Lead 0.69 0.43 0.04 0.03 0.04 0.03 Manganese 1.3 0.64 0.29 0.18 Nickel 3.98 2.38 0.30 0.14 1.69 Silver 0.43 0.24 Sulfide (as S) 31 13 31 13 Tin 0.31 0.14 0.09 0.07 Zinc 0.38 0.22 0.08 0.06
Figure 1 Proposed PWB Effluent Guidelines (in mg/l)
(1)Total Suspended Solids (2)Oil and Grease (3)Total Organic Carbon (4)Total Toxic Organics (433); Total Organic Pollutants (Proposed Guidelines, TTO plus 14 additional organics (5)Total Cyanide (6)Amenable Cyanide
"The EPA's supporting technical analysis for this rule is severely flawed," said Fern Abrams, IPC director of environmental policy. "EPA may issue a more reasonable regulation if everyone in the PWB industry works together to lobby the standard."
Industry representatives are encouraged to complete IPC's Environmental, Health and Safety (EHS) surveys regarding how the proposed rule could effect their facilities. In addition to some basic economic and process-related information, the surveys will be asking for current discharge levels of cyanide, sulfides, tin, and copper. Industry representatives may also attend and give testimony at each of the EPA's public meetings on the following dates: February 6, 2001 in Oakland, CA, February 13, 2001 in Dallas, TX, February 22, 2001 in Washington D.C. Individual facilities are urged to develop and submit their own written or oral testimony.
For more information on the proposed standard, public meetings, or submitting comments, contact Abrams at 202-638-6219, or visit the IPC EHS Committee Web site at www.ipc.org/html/fslegislative.htm.