The Environmental Protection Agency recognized the Hanover Water Reclamation Facility for a 2014 Regional Industrial Pretreatment Program Excellence Award, the EPA reported on Feb. 9. This follows what Town Manager Julia Griffin said is a recent increase in awareness in the Hanover community about the impact of climate change and a renewed effort to reduce the town’s carbon footprint.
Pretreatment programs reduce the amount or change the nature of pollutants in wastewater prior to it being introduced to a public water reclamation facility or wastewater treatment plant. This extra step helps to ensure that the water that is discharged meets all of the EPA’s requirements, Griffin said.
Hanover is the only non-approved program — meaning it is not regulated according to federal standards — that has ever been recognized by the EPA in the New England region.
Hanover runs a non-approved pretreatment program because it is not legally required to develop a federal industrial program- — the town produces 2.3 million gallons of wastewater per day, while the EPA only requires communities that produce over 5 million gallons per day or have certain categorical industries to have an approved program, Hanover Industrial Pretreatment Coordinator Mark Roper said.
“We don’t have non-approved programs putting forth the level of effort that Hanover has put forward, mainly because they are not federally required to do it,” regional pretreatment coordinator for EPA New England Justin Pimpare said.
Roper said that at his previous place of employment, the town of Lebanon, he was told that the EPA would never give awards to towns with non-approved programs.
“It’s an honor to get an award when they said that non-approved programs would never receive that award,” he said. “It’s recognition for a lot of hard work over the past several years.”
EPA-approved pretreatment programs are often needed in larger communities that have a lot of industrial or non-domestic users discharging into the sewer system, Pimpare said. There are 13 or 14 of these approved programs in the state of New Hampshire, upon which there are several requirements regarding permitting, sampling and inspections.
Hanover, however, operates like it has an approved program. The town implements most of the federal requirements that are in place and submits an annual pretreatment report, Pimpare said, which is only required of approved programs.
Griffin said that Hanover is committed to upholding high standards of environmental management.
“We are trying to ensure the best water quality possible in terms of our discharge water,” she said.
Hanover’s pretreatment program, which was created in 2006, developed a sewer use ordinance that was not approved until 2010, Roper said, adding that the pretreatment program enforces the rules in the sewer use ordinance through inspections and permitting.
There are about 115 establishments in Hanover, including Dartmouth College and food establishments, that are classified as industrial users, Roper said.
He added that there are several Industrial Discharge Permits and several Food Establishment Wastewater Discharge Permits issued to Dartmouth College.
The College already has “a really great environmental health and safety division” with staff who work very closely with faculty and other staff on campus to make sure that Dartmouth’s wastewater discharge is very well-managed, Griffin said.
“The College staff have made it very easy for us to work with them on the industrial pretreatment program, in part because Dartmouth has been as committed to managing wastewater discharge as we have,” Griffin said.
She called the school “a good institutional citizen on this front.”
Pimpare both nominated Hanover for the award and presented it.
“They have done a tremendous amount of work, and I thought that they should be recognized,” Pimpare said. “They go above and beyond what they are required to do.”
Eighteen months ago, the town upgraded its wastewater treatment plant. The update included replacing several pieces of equipment and changing the treatment process to reduce the plant’s carbon footprint, Griffin said.
Griffin said that the town does not have a to-do list of sustainable changes and is not trying to win an award, although it has been recognized by the EPA several times for best practices at their water reclamation facility.
“We’re committed to environmental sustainability, and anything we can do to reduce that footprint we’re actively working on,” she said.
