Sewage regulation and administration
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Sewage disposal regulation and administration describes the governance of sewage treatment and disposal.


Regulation


United States

Sewage treatment systems in the United States are subject to the
Clean Water Act The Clean Water Act (CWA) is the primary federal law in the United States governing water pollution. Its objective is to restore and maintain the chemical, physical, and biological integrity of the nation's waters; recognizing the responsibiliti ...
(CWA) and are regulated by federal and state environmental agencies. In most states, local sewage plants receive discharge permits from state agencies; in the remaining states and
territories A territory is an area of land, sea, or space, particularly belonging or connected to a country, person, or animal. In international politics, a territory is usually either the total area from which a state may extract power resources or an ...
, permits are issued by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The treatment plants, known as publicly owned treatment works (POTW) in CWA parlance, must protect the health and welfare of the local population by ensuring that wastewater does not contaminate the local potable water supply, nor violate additional water quality standards that protect the ecological health of the water body. The basic national standard for U.S. municipal treatment plants is the Secondary Treatment Regulation. Most plants in the U.S. must meet this secondary treatment standard. The permit authority (state agency or EPA) can compel a POTW to meet a higher standard, if there are applicable water quality standards for the receiving water body. For water bodies with stringent standards, such as
Lake Tahoe Lake Tahoe (; was, Dáʔaw, meaning "the lake") is a Fresh water, freshwater lake in the Sierra Nevada (U.S.), Sierra Nevada of the United States. Lying at , it straddles the state line between California and Nevada, west of Carson City, Nevad ...
, POTWs must treat their discharges to
tertiary treatment Sewage treatment (or domestic wastewater treatment, municipal wastewater treatment) is a type of wastewater treatment which aims to remove contaminants from sewage to produce an effluent that is suitable for discharge to the surrounding envir ...
levels, and then pump all treated water out of the drainage basin so that no effluent ever drains to a certain body of water. Such higher standards may require the POTW to construct improvements to its plant(s). If not in compliance with its permit and regulations, POTWs may be subject to heavy fines. Regulation is therefore often the driving force behind increasing sewage treatment costs in the United States, and is directly linked to the high cost of constructing or expanding a sewage treatment facility. Many large cities in the U.S. operate
combined sewer A combined sewer is a type of gravity sewer with a system of pipes, tunnels, pump stations etc. to transport sewage and urban runoff together to a sewage treatment plant or disposal site. This means that during rain events, the sewage gets dilute ...
s, which collect sewage and
stormwater Stormwater, also spelled storm water, is water that originates from precipitation (storm), including heavy rain and meltwater from hail and snow. Stormwater can soak into the soil ( infiltrate) and become groundwater, be stored on depressed la ...
runoff in a single pipe system leading to the treatment plant. Combined sewers can cause serious water pollution problems due to combined sewer overflows, which are caused by large variations in flow between dry and wet weather. These overflows can lead to violation of the Secondary Treatment Regulation and/or water quality standards. Discharge permits for these POTWs typically have additional requirements that require facility improvements to reduce or eliminate the overflows. Ships at sea are forbidden from discharging their sewage overboard unless three miles or more from shore.


United Kingdom

In England and Wales, Ofwat regulates charges and service standards. In England environmental standards and their achievement for sewage disposal are regulated by the
Environment Agency The Environment Agency (EA) is a non-departmental public body, established in 1996 and sponsored by the United Kingdom government's Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with responsibilities relating to the protection and enha ...
. In Wales environmental regulation is undertaken by Natural Resources Wales. In Scotland the Scottish Environment Protection Agency fulfils the environmental regulation role and the Water Industry Commission for Scotland undertakes the economic regulatory role.


Administration


United States

Sewer systems are usually administered on the local level, usually citywide, and usually by the city itself. These systems, which may operate independently or as a subdivision of a city or other municipal agency, are typically operated as ''Enterprises'', meaning that they produce enough revenues to fund their own activities. Revenues are usually generated through two charges to customers: ''connection fees'' and ''use charges''. Connection fees are charged once to new customers as they connect to the sanitary sewer collection system, and are usually designed to recover
capital investments Investment is the dedication of money to purchase of an asset to attain an increase in value over a period of time. Investment requires a sacrifice of some present asset, such as time, money, or effort. In finance, the purpose of investing i ...
made by the enterprise to serve its customers. Use charges are periodic charges for ongoing use of the system, and are designed to recover
operations and maintenance The technical meaning of maintenance involves functional checks, servicing, repairing or replacing of necessary devices, equipment, machinery, building infrastructure, and supporting utilities in industrial, business, and residential install ...
expenses. Both connection fees and use charges are typically proportionate to the amount and strength of wastewater expected to be generated by each customer. Therefore, a single family residence would pay much smaller fees and charges than a food processing plant. Some POTWs are eligible for low-interest loans to finance system improvements, from the Clean Water State Revolving Fund. This program is administered by EPA and state agencies, using a combination of federal and state funds.


United Kingdom

In England sewerage and sewage disposal is undertaken by relatively few large private companies, including several multi-national companies. In Wales and Scotland a "not for profit" company is the responsible body, however in Wales almost all the operational work is sub- contracted by others. Charges to domestic users are based either on the metered volume of incoming water or on the notional value of the property ( rateable basis).


See also

* Public utility * Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive * Water pollution


References

{{waste Sewerage Water pollution Regulation