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EPA is also required to review and revise regulations as needed, and since 1972 it has promulgated ELGs for 59 industrial categories, with over 450 subcategories. Approximately 40,000 facilities that discharge directly to the nation's waters, 129,000 facilities that discharge to POTWs, and construction sites, are covered by the regulations.
The basis for these limitations depends on the type of discharging facility, the discharge characteristics and status of the specific surface water body receiving the discharge. National technology-based standards apply to many industries (these standards are called "effluent guidelines"), [1]: 5-14–5-22 and to municipal sewage treatment plants.
New Source Performance Standards (NSPS) are pollution control standards issued by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The term is used in the Clean Air Act Extension of 1970 (CAA) to refer to air pollution emission standards, and in the Clean Water Act (CWA) referring to standards for water pollution discharges of industrial wastewater to surface waters.
[1] [2] These sources include all industries, businesses, municipal sewage treatment plants and storm sewer systems, and other facilities that discharge to surface waters. Effluent limitations are implemented in discharge permits issued by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and state agencies, through the National Pollutant Discharge ...
EPA promotes "compliance assistance" as an enforcement technique, and has developed sector-specific assistance centers for various industries. [26] EPA and authorized state agencies perform periodic inspections of some discharging facilities. The states are responsible for enforcing the permit requirements that they have issued.
To implement TMDLs with point sources, wasteload allocations are incorporated into discharge permits for these sources. [13] The permits are issued by EPA or delegated state agencies under the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System . Nonpoint source discharges (e.g. agriculture) are generally in a voluntary compliance scenario.
The EPA regulations require each facility to apply for a specific permit for its wastewater discharges, and consequently require that each facility treat its wastewater. [101] In addition to effluent limitations , the permits include monitoring and reporting requirements, which are used by EPA and states to enforce the limitations. [ 17 ]
Effluent is defined by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as "wastewater–treated or untreated–that flows out of a treatment plant, sewer, or industrial outfall. Generally refers to wastes discharged into surface waters". [ 1 ]