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Part of Wastewater and storm water management

Wastewater and storm water – Protection

Proactive or preventative measures taken to minimize the impact of treated wastewater on the receiving environment.

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Wastewater and storm water management

Overview

Proactive or preventative measures minimize the impact of treated wastewater on the receiving environment. To maintain public confidence and provide a higher level of assurance in the overall quality of wastewater, strategies should be initiated to:

  • protect the environment
  • inhibit failures
  • decrease challenges in providing environmentally acceptable wastewater effluent

Proactive measures reduce the potential impact on the environment and potential liability of wastewater treatment facilities by anticipating events or situations that may compromise wastewater quality.

Protection has 3 components:

  • Protection of receiving waters and the environment
    Protection involves reducing or eliminating the impact of contaminants on receiving waters or the environment.
  • Water and Wastewater Operator Certification
    Effective operations of wastewater facilities are fundamental to system sustainability.
  • Laboratory Data Quality Assurance Policy
    Good environmental management depends on accurate, validated and reliable environmental information.

Receiving waters and environment

Protection involves reducing or eliminating the impact of contaminants on receiving waters and the environment. The Standards and Guidelines for Municipal Waterworks, Wastewater and Storm Drainage Systems sets out standards for receiving water quality for effluent disposal and provides a list of best practices and best technology.

The procedure to determine receiving water quality based standards is included in the Water Quality Based Effluent Limits Procedures Manual, which also refers to numerous modelling tools for effluent screening and computation.

The Load Screening Tool and Effluent Statistics Tool package and manual is a modelling tool recommended by the Alberta government. Effluent quality standards are also specified for treated effluent disposal on land and include the level of treatment required.

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