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Constituents with the American Decentralized Wastewater Association recently completed a guidance document that can be universally used by the regulatory community as a resource for the implementation of advanced treatment systems.
The ADWA Model Code was designed to be the advanced treatment component of the NOWRA Model Code (see the March/April 2006 issue of Onsite Water Treatment).
The ADWA organization was developed to nurture the onsite wastewater industry by promoting rules, standards, training and related activities consistent with public health and environmental protection standards, engineering practices, and an open and fair market for new technologies. The ADWA includes members from Bio-Microbics Inc., Consolidated Treatment Systems Inc., Delta Environmental Inc., and Norweco Inc.
The code features information on how to regulate the treatment, dispersal and reuse of wastewater from structures served by decentralized wastewater systems. The document can be used in its entirety, used to fine-tune existing rules and regulations, used to develop new rules and regulations, used to develop a new legislative initiative to accomplish deployment and regulation of advanced treatment systems and used as a reference document.
“In the onsite industry there is often a lot of confusion regarding different technologies,” says Robert Rebori, president of Bio-Microbics Inc. “With our small organization, we thought it would be a good idea to put together what they termed to be a ‘model code’ for aerobic wastewater technology. But it is probably as much a guideline as anything else because it is not likely that any governmental jurisdiction is going to adopt the document as a whole for their code. They have their own requirements in their jurisdictions. But it gives them an idea of what to look for and the kinds of questions to ask.”
The Need for the ADWA Model Code
With the variation of regulations from state to state and in some cases even county to county, a universal code on advanced treatment technologies would be ideal. “There’s been a need for it for many years just to use the technology consistently from place to place,” says Gregory Graves, general manager for Norweco Inc. “It seemed natural for those of us involved in the industry to come together and agree on some common basic elements that would help the regulatory officials implement these things.”
Also echoing this need for consistency is Mike Catanzaro, national sales manager for Delta Environmental Products Inc. “The industry in general is very fractured across the country. You go across the country, and there is not a national standard,” he says.
Catanzaro also believes that by accepting the model code, states and regulatory agencies will save time, money, and headaches. “States will rewrite their regulations every so often, and, when they go through this process, a rewrite may take a year or maybe two years. It is very costly and time-consuming. Now if they adopt the model code, they don’t need to rewrite, just accept the code,” he says.
According to the ADWA, another reason for the code is that the regulatory community is constantly is faced with hard decisions regarding advanced wastewater systems.
And the decentralized wastewater treatment system industry struggles with various states and local agencies to get its products accepted. Therefore, “the intent of the ADWA Model Performance Code is to provide state and local regulatory agencies with quality assurance and quality control policy choice options.”
However, Rebori stresses that the document is not intended to promote the companies involved. “It is not a product-specific document for any one company. This is just a generic document to help guide how products like ours might get used.”
Important Highlights
One of the key elements included in the model code is maintenance. The code states that all decentralized wastewater treatment units need to be maintained to provide effective treatment and extend the life of the system and that many problems associated with advanced treatment systems comes from issues of maintenance. “Manufacturers of long-standing and good reputation in this area have always stated that regular maintenance is important,” Graves says. “This is probably the first time that any group of industry companies have come together and publicly stated we are clearly for maintenance, it needs to be done.”
The model code also recognizes that standard designs and manufactured components are deployed in regional and national markets. Therefore, compliance with NSF/ANSI Standard 40 and product listing by an ANSI accredited third party certifier is required. The objectives of this requirement are to avoid duplicate state and county product evaluation and approval programs and to reduce some of the state’s workload associated with evaluation and approvals.
The code recommends that system inspectors, designers, installers, maintenance providers, plan reviewers, site evaluators, and soil evaluators be certified. The purpose of requiring certification is to reduce the risk of errors that affect system performance by system service providers who lack the proper knowledge. Continuing education is also recommended as a requirement as a condition of renewal of the certification or license.
The code states that no onsite wastewater treatment system be installed, constructed, modified, or added to without first obtaining a permit. The purpose of a permit is that it gives the agency notice that a regulated activity is about to occur. Notice of this allows the agency to ensure that related regulations are met and the opportunity to collect any necessary fees involved.
The code includes recommendations for final effluent requirements and flow estimation. It also contains appendixes with soil loading rate tables, tank standards, and a do-not-flush list for decentralized treatment systems.
Work Continues for the ADWA
After more than 1,000 hours of meetings, discussions and consultation with the regulatory community and the decentralized industry, the 57-page document that encompasses the ADWA Model Code is now available. And interest in the model code is already spreading. “I do know there has been a great deal of interest in various state organizations and elsewhere. Some have taken the PowerPoint presentation we have detailing the code and either have already done presentations or are going to use it at future presentations at conferences.” Rebori says.
As a result of this interest, the ADWA is sponsoring two more documents, one on maintenance and another on testing.
“This is just the first of several things to come out of the association to try and help propel the industry forward and address the needs of the American public and of the regulatory community,” Graves says. The code may be viewed online at http://www.adwwa.org/modelcode.html/modelcode.pdf.
Nikki Stiles is a freelance writer based in the city of Fairmont, West Virginia
OW - January/February 2007 |
