New PADEP Permitting Strategy for High TDS Discharges Has Broad Implications
By M. Joel Bolstein
ADVERTISEMENTS
The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection recently released a document entitled "Permitting Strategy for High Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) Wastewater Discharges". At first glance, it doesn't sound like something that should have implications for brownfield redevelopers, but it could have a significant impact on them and a wide range of businesses.
In a nutshell, in the permitting strategy document PADEP unilaterally imposes a new method for addressing high TDS discharges. Total Dissolved Solids or TDS is not a primary pollutant but it effects the aesthetic qualities of drinking water and it is a potential indicator of chemical constituents in streams and ground water. Sources of high TDS are agricultural runoff and point source pollution from industrial facilities and sewage treatment plants. Up until now, PADEP has focused more attention on regulating the levels of hazardous substances in water discharges then it has on managing parameters like TDS.
According to PADEP, the justification for its new permitting strategy is a finding of high TDS concentrations in the Monongahela River and West Branch of the Susquehanna River. That surface water is used by power plants as a source of cooling water and the high TDS was causing operational issues. That supposedly triggered an internal PADEP analysis of its regulation of high TDS, which has led to this new permitting strategy. Many people also believe that the activities surrounding the production of oil and gas from the Marcellus Shale formation may also be a driver behind the new strategy.
Under the new permitting strategy, PADEP will be adopting and implementing a new treatment standard for high TDS sources and new in stream water quality criteria for constituents that contribute to high TDS, such as sulfates and chlorides. A high TDS discharge is proposed to be anything that exceeds a TDS concentration of 2,000 mg/l or exceeds 100,000 pounds per day. Existing industrial dischargers, including power plants, chemical manufacturers, food processors, and mining and mineral producers will be impacted inasmuch as many of them have discharge levels that would exceed the proposed limits. The technology required to treat high TDS discharges is very expensive and its availability is limited. One solution, using reverse osmosis, could cost millions of dollars per facility and it would still result in a highly concentrated waste material that would require off-site disposal. In addition to effecting industrial dischargers, the new limits will have a significant impact on municipal wastewater treatment facilities, which also discharge to surface water, and on the businesses that currently discharge into those municipal sewer systems.
Under the PADEP's new permitting strategy, no new or expanded high TDS wastewater source will be permitted unless the applicant proposes to install adequate treatment of TDS by January 1, 2011. How does this effect brownfield redevelopers? First, it will become a consideration in the siting of any new or expanded industrial facility in PA where the process generates wastewater with high TDS. As a result, an existing facility with high TDS that was considering expanding its current operations in PA, for example, onto an adjacent brownfield property, or a company looking to move its manufacturing operations to PA, may chose to go to a state that has no or less stringent requirements for TDS dischargers. Second, developers of brownfield sites that have properties available for such new or expanded industrial uses may find their land less desirable depending on the discharge stream of the potential reusers or the capacity of a POTW to handle the high TDS discharges from potential reusers. Third, brownfield redevelopers who are looking to lease a piece of their property for development of oil and gas or who have been in negotiations over oil and gas leasing in the Marcellus Shale formation may find that the new permitting strategy has acted as a deterrent or that the amount of royalties being proposed is reduced by the increased cost of wastewater treatment for the high TDS discharges.
A number of groups representing the interests of PA businesses have come together in an effort to make PADEP aware of the broader implications of the new permitting strategy. It is expected that draft regulations may be distributed by PADEP to one of its advisory committees later in June or July. What originally looked like a policy targeted at the development of oil and gas wells in the Marcellus Shale formation clearly may have much broader implications, including implications for continued brownfield redevelopment in PA.
