Regional and Large scale Wastewater Treatment Threats addressed: Altered Hydrology, Water Quality, Degradation, Loss, and Fragmentation of Habitat, Climate Change As discussed in Section 4.1.3, large-scale Regional WWTPs in the DFW area have been instrumental in restoring water quality and fish assemblages to include the known or presumed host fish for the Covered Species in the Upper and Middle Trinity River. Simply, most of the Covered Parties’ major regional WWTPs use “activated sludge” as one part of the wastewater treatment process. This is a process whereby microorganisms are introduced to the wastewater under controlled conditions within a highly oxygenated holding tank. The microorganisms oxidize organic pollutants that produces a solid which is then removed. The healthier the microorganism community, the better the quality of the wastewater. To protect the treatment plants, the covered parties will continue to fund and implement industrial pre- treatment programs, described in Section 4, to ensure that industrial facilities are meeting their permit requirements, which helps the WWTP treatment process and ensure proper function of the facility. When needed, the Covered Parties will continue to investigate illicit discharges, discussed in Section 4, by deploying sampling equipment within the system and tracing potential sources of illicit discharges. If located, the Covered Parties will work with stakeholders to stop the illicit discharges. Where appropriate, the Covered Parties will continue to support the regionalization of WWTPs through comments on new and renewing water quality permit applications to TCEQ and will work with local development permitting entities like cities and counties to encourage and or require new developments to tie into existing regional WWTPs when they are within an existing service area or facilitate new ones when feasible. As stated before, the Covered Parties will work with stakeholders and regulators to facilitate the regionalization of wastewater infrastructure whenever feasible. WWTPs are regulated by the TCEQ’s TPDES process described in Section 1.2. Generally, WWTPs do not discharge at the maximum permitted amount. According to Texas Administrative Code Rule §305.126, if any sewage treatment plant facility in the state reaches 75% of the permitted average daily or annual average flow for three consecutive months, the permittee must initiate engineering and financial planning for expansion and/or upgrading of the wastewater treatment ...
