There are a lot of potential stormwater violations for public utilities and power plants alike.  There are a lot of different contaminants from oils to heavy metals to coal dust.  See a few fines below, as well as applications for our products as solutions.

A Western Massachusetts coal-fired power station is facing federal fines of more than $177,000 for allegedly discharging muddy storm water and other pollutants into the Connecticut River.

The Taunton Municipal Lighting Plant may pay a penalty of up to $157,500 for violations of the federal Clean Water Act, according to an administrative complaint filed by EPA.

The complaint alleges Hilo Coast Power Co., a subsidiary of Brewer Environmental Industries, improperly discharged waste water and lacked storm-water controls at its Pepeekeo Mill Power Generating Facility, a coal-fired power plant that produces nearly 20 percent of the Big Island’s power, mostly along the Hamakua coast.  Poma said Brewer, which has 30 days to respond, has begun negotiations with EPA and hopes to negotiate a “successful fine.” The EPA said the complaint could lead to fines of up to $137,500.

Product Applications:

• Secondary Spill Containment for Drums or IBC totes to protect against spills of oils, chlorine, etc.
• Damaged or Leaking drums … Spill response products such as Ultra-Drain Seals, Pop Up Pools, etc.
• Single Drum portable pumping / dispensing … Ultra-Spill Collectors
• Outdoor storage of Drums or IBC totes … Ultra-Hard Top Plus
• Bulk Storage area for dispensing … Ultra-Containment Berms, Ultra-Spill Pallets, IBC Pallets
• Flammable Safety Cabinets … Safety Cabinet Bladder Systems
• Battery Charging Station for Fork trucks … Ultra-Spill Deck Plus, Ultra-Containment Trays
• Loading dock spill prevention loading / unloading … Ultra-Drain Seals, Drain Plugs
• Maintenance & Janitorial oil cans / fuel cans / paint cans … Ultra Containment Trays, Utility Trays
• Fleet maintenance area … Various Spill Response products & Secondary Spill  Containment
• Fueling area … Ultra-Drain Seals for spill response
• Chemicals / any product that could leak sitting on shelving … Ultra-Utility Trays
• Loading dock / Internal Building drains in need of protection loading / unloading product … Ultra-Drain Seals
• Storm Drains … Ultra-Drain Guards & Ultra-HydroKleen for filtration and Ultra-Drain Seals for sealing them off
• Oil / Water separator, Dumpsters, Cooling towers … Ultra-Microbes & Ultra X-Tex
• Runoff from Roof / Galvanized fence … Ultra-Downspout Guard, Ultra-HydroKleen for Heavy Metals
• Leaking Pipes, leaking roof, maintenance on pipes, flushing fire sprinkler systems … Ultra-Drip Diverter for capturing leaks & Ultra- Pipe Sock for flushing fire sprinkler systems
• Pumping out utility vaults for maintenance … Ultra-Pipe Sock, Ultra-Dewatering Bags
• Sampling stormwater … Ultra-Universal Sampler
• Smoking areas … Ultra-Smoke Stops

Aside from the obvious construction stormwater opportunities currently in progress at many major airports across the country due to funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, there are a lot of other applications and opportunities for EPA Stormwater / SPCC compliance.

BELLEVUE – The Department of Ecology (Ecology) has fined the Port of Seattle and two contractors $20,000 for allowing four releases of muddy stormwater from Sea-Tac Airport’s north expressway project into storm systems that drain to Gilliam Creek and Des Moines Creek.

The Hawaii Department of Transportation has agreed to pay $52 million for stormwater violations, with $50 million being used to address federal Clean Water Act issues at highways and airports. Some of the violations resulted from construction projects, including one in which oily water ran into airport drains.
Construction Compliance Applications & Solutions:

• Concrete Washout Area:  Ultra-Concrete Washout Berm & Filter
• Generators & other pieces of equipment that could leak:  Ultra -Containment Berms
• Fuel Tanks, whether double walled or not (double walled tanks meet containment regs but not stormwater regs):  Ultra -Containment Sumps
• Secondary Spill Containment for concrete curer, oils and other chemicals used onsite:  Ultra-Spill Pallets, Hardtop Plus units, etc.
• Emergency Spill Response:  Spill kits, Pop Up Pools, Drain Seals, etc.
• Stock dirt piles and waste:  Ultra-Filter Socks
• Protection of storm drains:  Ultra-Drain Guards, Inlet Guards, etc.
• Construction Site Ponding:  Ultra-Dewatering Bags
• Construction site barriers for surrounding site, site entry and exit:  Ultra-Silt Dike, Ultra-Gravel Bags, Ultra-Filter Socks, etc.
• Sampling and testing of Stormwater Runoff (Turbidity & pH) :  Ultra-Sampling Kit

There are a variety of other potential areas of concern at airports for Stormwater issues to include, but not limited to:

• Refueling Trucks:  Though there is a lot of controversy over having to comply with the regs at minimum refueling trucks when unmanned and not being used for refueling, the EPA requires secondary spill containment, Drain Seals, spill kits and / or a combination of, to prevent oils and fuels from contaminating stormn drains & waterways
• Maintenance area storm drains with the potential for multiple contaminants:  Ultra-HydroKleen or new Ultra Heavy Metal Drain Guard
• Secondary containment for maintenance areas to store used oils and other potential contaminants
• Spill response products, such as the Drain Seal, Spill Berm, and Pop Up Pools, for spill response
• Zipper / trench drains:  Ultra-X-Tex fabric for filtering oils & sediment from stormwater runoff
• Perimeter areas near sensitive oceans or marshes:  Ultra-Filter Socks

A picture is worth a thousand words.  This picture is certainly no exception.  This photo shows what was collected by (50) Drain Guards that were installed in the southern California area after only two weeks!  If this is what is collected in 50 drains in 2 weeks, imagine what is happening nationwide.  This is a tremendous visual reminder that our products are not only helping companies and industry stay in compliance but they are helping to maintain our water ways and stormwater systems.

Deepwater Horizon was one of the largest oil spills in history. But not THE largest! Check out this list of the ten largest oil spills in history

http://www.spillcontainment.com/ten-largest-oil-spills-history

Agricultural use of fertilizers for crops, that meet strict quality criteria and application rates, have been shown to produce significant improvements in crop growth and yield.  The nutrients found in fertilizers, such as nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium and trace elements such as calcium, copper, iron, magnesium, manganese, sulfur and zinc, are necessary for crop production and growth.  Fertilizers reduce the farmer’s production costs and replenishes the organic matter that has been depleted over time through crop absorption.  Fertilizer, improves the soil by increasing its ability to absorb and store moisture.  The nitrogen and phosphorous in the fertilizer are used very efficiently by crops as they are absorbed slowly by the plants.

Manure and wastewater have the potential to contribute pollutants such as nitrogen and phosphorus, organic matter, sediments, pathogens, heavy metals, hormones, antibiotics, and ammonia to the environment, if not properly managed.  Excess nutrients in water (i.e., nitrogen and phosphorus) can result in or contribute to low levels of dissolved oxygen, and toxic algae blooms.  Decomposing organic matter (i.e., animal waste) can reduce oxygen levels and cause fish kills.  Bacteria has been linked to sickness and deaths in humans.  Bacteria in manure can also create a food safety concern if manure is applied directly to crops at inappropriate times.  Nitrogen in the form of nitrate, can contaminate drinking water supplies drawn from ground water.

(Boston, Mass. – October 19, 2011) The Charles River Pollution Control District will pay a $16,500 fine and perform a Supplemental Environmental Project (SEP) at a cost of approximately $60,000 to resolve federal Clean Water Act (CWA) violations related to the operation of its wastewater treatment facility.  In March, EPA’s New England office filed a complaint against the Charles River Pollution Control District, which operates a wastewater treatment facility in Medway, Mass., alleging violations of the federal Clean Water Act for discharging phosphorus and suspended solids into the Charles River at levels above those allowed by its federal permit.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced Wednesday, August 18, 2010, that Sorrento Lactalis Inc., a cheese manufacturer, will pay the United States $315,000 for Clean Water Act violations. According to the press release, Sorrento discharged excess levels of wastewater into Mason Creek from its factory operations in Nampa, Idaho.  Exceeding its monthly and daily discharge limits for total suspended solids, E.coli, biological oxygen demand, phosphorus, and pH
UltraTech’s Phos Filter is an engineered filtration media that can retain 1 1/2 times its weight in phosphorus with up to a 90% removal.  We offer a variety of products as solutions for filtering phosphorus from Stormwater, to include the Ultra-HydroKleen, Ultra-Filter Sock as well as a variety of custom solutions.

Even City and County Municipalities are not exempt from getting cited for Stormwater Violations!!!

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recently cited 79 municipalities in south central Pennsylvania for administrative failures in their storm-water management programs. Of those, 31 municipalities were in Dauphin, Lebanon, York and Cumberland counties.
(San Juan, P.R.) The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has filed individual complaints against the municipalities of Cayey, Hatillo, Las Piedras, Loiza, Rio Grande and Toa Alta in Puerto Rico for failing to comply with federal Clean Water Act requirements related to stormwater management for small municipal sewer systems. The six municipalities face a total amount of $291,177 in fines.

The Environmental Protection Agency Region 1 office issued the following news release: The town of Atkinson, New Hampshire has been fined for violating the federal Clean Water Act (CWA).
With Increased Regulations, Municipalities themselves are not even safe from the Federal and State EPA regional authorities. Municipalities typically will go the extra mile to be proactive to sure they are in compliance with the Clean Water Act, very seldom do they get cited or fined for that reason. We have many products to assist Municipalities with being in compliance. Those products include, but are not limited to …

• Ultra-Drain Guards, Ultra-HydroKleen and other drain inlet protection for use in their maintenance yards, for flushing fire hydrants, and other applications throughout the city and county municipality storm drains.
• Dewatering Bags for pumping out sediment laden water from the holes in street when there are water main breaks.
• New Sampling kits for sampling reports to submit to State and Federal water boards and EPA as part of the NPDES permits.
• New Trash and Debris Strainer for keeping trash out of the ocean, lakes, rivers, streams and other bodies of water that storm drains discharge to.
• Microbes for various stormwater applications to clean up oils.
• Spill Containment products, such as spill pallets and Ultra-Hard Top Plus units as BMPs against chemical spills … yes, Spill Containment and response products are also considered a BMP to prevent chemical spills from going into storm drains.
• Pop Up pools and Containment Berms for generators, leaking vehicles and other gasoline powered equipment.
• Spill Response products such the Ultra-Drain Seal and Ultra-Spill Berm.

Ok, maybe the elimination of automobiles is not the answer. We have some other ideas…

What is the source of heavy metal contaminants in stormwater? Copper, zinc, and lead are some of the more common heavy metal contaminants most widely found in stormwater.  Copper and zinc are found in brake pads, thus as they wear, discharge dust particles of heavy metals which are washed away in stormwater.

One landmark study estimated that cars and other vehicles contributed 75 percent of the total copper load to the lower San Francisco Bay through runoff. Brake pad wear contributed 50 percent of the total load, and 25 percent came from atmospheric deposition — the eventual settling of metals from tailpipe emissions onto the ground. Tires are a source of zinc contaminants in stormwater, used as it provides properties which enhance the ability to absorb frictional heat an important property in tire performance. Galvanized fencing, metal roofs and down spouts are additional sources of zinc into stormwater.  Industrial areas, scrap yards, paints and other points of contamination add to the issue of heavy metals in stormwater. Potential solutions include the Ultra-Drain Guard Heavy Metal Model, Ultra-HydroKleen (shown in illustration), and Ultra-Filter Sock are a few of the products that UltraTech mnaufactures as solutions to filter heavy metals from stormwater.