The Georgia Environmental Protection Division (EPD) recently proposed amendments to regulations concerning emergency actions procedures to handle any emergency that endangers the waters of the state.
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Download NowThe proposed amendments would clarify the conditions that warrant the characterization of a major spill. According to EPD, the amendments are aimed at reducing operational costs incurred by publicly owned treatment works plants (POTWs).
Under the existing rule, a single daily excursion of a specific effluent limitation for POTWs that meets the definition of a major spill triggers requirements for notifying local media and establishing a 1-year stream-monitoring program. According to EPD, these actions are appropriate for some spills, but for POTWs with very strict effluent limits, a daily excursion should not always warrant the same actions.
Under the proposed amendments, the definition of a “major spill” would be changed to “The discharge of pollutants into the waters of the State by a POTW that exceeds the weekly average permitted effluent limit for biochemical oxygen demand (5-day) or total suspended solids by 50 percent or greater for any one day, provided that the effluent discharge concentration is equal to or greater than 25 mq/L for biochemical oxygen demand or total suspended solids.”
INFO: Contact EPD at 404-362-2680.