The U.S Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has ordered Metalast Intl. Inc. to comply with federal Clean Water Act (CWA) requirements for the company’s wastewater discharges to the Douglas County, Nev., sewer system and, ultimately, the municipal wastewater treatment plant.

Metalast Intl. operates the Metalast Tech Center at 2241 Park Place that provides anodizing and chemical conversion coating solutions as a consulting service. The facility discharges process-related wastewater into the Douglas County sewer system. The company began operations at this facility in 1996.

“Pretreatment of industrial waste reduces pollutants entering our waterways,” said Alexis Strauss, director of the Water Division in the EPA’s Pacific Southwest region. “Metalast Intl. and other industries are responsible for complying with pretreatment control standards to protect the local sewer system, the wastewater treatment plant and the people who work in these areas.”

The EPA’s order requires the facility to self-monitor, report to EPA and change its rinse systems to systems that use water more efficiently. Corrective actions must be complete by the end of February 2009. The required one year of self-monitoring ends on Oct. 31, 2009.

The violations were discovered during a routine CWA industrial user inspection conducted jointly by the EPA and Douglas County. The EPA determined that the facility is subject to federal pretreatment standards, including pollutant limits for metal finishers. The facility was not complying with CWA requirements for self-monitoring and reporting. The EPA also found that the facility used an excessive amount of process water.

Federal pretreatment standards prohibit using dilution as a substitute for treatment to achieve compliance with federal pretreatment standards. Nevada is authorized to implement most aspects of the federal CWA programs, but the implementation and enforcement of the pretreatment program remains under EPA’s jurisdiction.

For more information, visit www.epa.gov/region09/water/pretreatment/compliance.html.

Source: U.S. EPA