£EPA
United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
20W-4003
September 1990
Water (WH-546)
The Onsite
Assistance Program
Helping Small
Wastewater
Treatment Plants
Achieve
Permit Compliance
Printed on Recycled Paper
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The Onsite Assistance Program
"Helping Small Wastewater Treatment
Plants Achieve Permit Compliance"
From Kennebunkport, Maine to Lake Alfred, Florida, and from
Clifton Forge, Virginia to Wahiawa, Hawaii, the highly successful
Onsite Assistance Program helps small municipal wastewater
treatment plants achieve and maintain compliance with their
discharge permit.
Background
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Onsite Assistance
Program is authorized under Section 104(g)(l) of the Clean Water
Act It was implemented in 1982 to address the problem of
non-compliance at small wastewater treatment plants through
onsite operator training and other operation and maintenance
(O&M) assistance. Through fiscal year 1990, federal funding for
the program totalled nearly $21 million, which is administered
through grants to States.
Effluent that meets permit limits - the goal of the Onsite Assistance Program.
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Compliance Problems In
Small Communities
j .'!"
The need for individualized technical assistance is great and is
_directly.related" to community size. There are over 12,500
municipal wastewater treatment plants smaller than 1.0 mgd
operating today in this country. Over half of these plants have
sophisticated activated sludge treatment technology which
requires operating skills many small town operators don't have.
Small plant staff turnover rates are high. Budgets and salaries are
too low. Community support is lacking. These are ingredients for
non-compliance. Towns with these problems are candidates for
the Ohsite Assistance Program.
How The Program Works
The Onsite Assistance Program operates through a network of
operator training personnel in States and EPA regional offices.
Most States have an Environmental Training Center for classroom
training of wastewater plant operators located in either the water
pollution control agency or an educational institution. These same
State Training Centers provide the personnel that work in the
field with small communities to help them solve their O&M and
management problems. These men and women serve as
troubleshooters and, more importantly, as trainers. Training is
essential to help eliminate treatment process control problems, the
most frequent cause of non-compliance at small plants.
States administer the Onsite Assistance Assistance Program in
different ways. Many States have successfully integrated technical
assistance with enforcement in their compliance program. In other
States, the assistance is offered on a voluntary basis.
Currently, the Onsite Assistance Program is working with about
600 communities in 46 States to correct and, in some cases,
prevent compliance problems. Each State funds its program with
help from an EPA grant.
What An Onsite Trainer Does
• .Meets with plant personnel and town officials to discuss
problems and establish groundrules.
• Diagnoses the specific cause(s) of non-compliance, such as
improper process control, insufficient staffing or budget,
inadequate sludge disposal, or design errors.
• Develops a training and assistance schedule.
• Provides over-the-shoulder operator training and financial
management assistance as required.
• Completes an Operations and Management Evaluation which
documents the assistance effort.
• Follows up with visits to the plant for about six months to see
that agreed-to activities are being continued.
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Additional Benefits Of
Onsite Assistance
Besides helping a small community achieve compliance, the
Onsite assistance Program helps in other ways:
• Identifies any need to repair or build new facilities to meet
existing or future permit limits. Trainers often assist the town
during the process of selecting an engineering consultant and
provide operability reviews during design.
• Recommends ways to improve preventive maintenance of
equipment and structures.
• Often reduces energy and chemical costs through more efficient
operating techniques.
Most importantly, the Onsite Assistance Program gets the plant
operating staff and the local elected' officials working together on
the problems at the treatment plant. By the end of the schedule,
not only does the operator understand the plant better, but the
local official better understands the town's wastewater treatment
responsibilities and the needs of the plant and its staff.
How Much Does Onsite
Assistance Cost?
The community pays nothing for onsite assistance. The
community will be expected, however, to make the necessary
improvements to achieve compliance. This may require an
expenditure by the town if, for example, equipment needs to be
repaired or replaced.
The total average cost to provide onsite assistance is about
$10,000 per facility. But costs vary widely because an individual
assistance effort may take six weeks to two years or longer,
depending on the complexity of the problem. Compared to the
cost of a formal enforcement action, onsite assistance is a real
bargain!
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Results Of The Program-
w ': 'I® 70% Success Rate!
The Onsite Assistance Program measures its success by the actual
improvement achieved in treatment plant performance not by the
number of technical assistance visits. The goal of the program is
to return plants to compliance and the results have been
phenomenal! Of the more than 2500 plants that have "graduated"
from the program, 1800 returned to compliance — a hefty 7-0%
success rate! Considering the complexities of wastewater
treatment, that's a remarkable record.
Another 430 plants, or 17% of those assisted, significantly
improved their performance. Only 13% had no improvement. 6'f
the plants did not return to compliance, many required major
repairs or construction of new facilities in order to meet permit
limits.
State Environmental
Training Centers
In most cases, onsite assistance is administered by a State
Environmental Training Center. There are 37 of these centers,
almost all constructed with the help of EPA grant funds.
Established to provide classroom training in wastewater treatment
plant operation and maintenance, many Environmental Training
Centers have expanded their training to include the fields of
drinking water treatment and supply, solid waste management,
and hazardous waste management.
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"Without Tim Hobson and the Onsite Assistance trainers we
would probably still be struggling to get our plant under
control . . . we were in trouble. They gave us the incentive to
strive harder and make our best even better. Now our plant is an
award winner."
Jerry Davies, Plant Manager
Clay Center (Kansas) WWTP
Winner: Most Improved Plant
EPA 1990 National O&M Award
"Watson, Minnesota winning a national award as runner-up in
the Most Improved Plant category shows how a plant that was
almost 'out of service' can be turned around with good advice, a
hard-working operator, and support from city officials. The city, by
making a commitment to improving O&M of the existing facility
and thus avoiding a costly upgrade, saved themselves hundreds of
thousands of dollars."
Dwayne Nelson, Operator Trainer
Minnesota Pollution Control Agency
Laboratory training is an important part of onsite assistance.
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For more information about the Onsite Assistance Program or
about State Environmental Training Centers, contact the
Operations and Maintenance coordinator in your
EPA Regional Office:
Region 1
JFK Federal Building
Boston, MA 02203
617-565-3517
(CT, MA, ME, NH, RI, VT)
Region 2
•> 26 Federal Plaza,
New York, NY 10278
212-264-5677
(NJ, NY, PR, VI)
Region 3
841 Chestnut St.,
Philadelphia, PA 19107
215-597-3423
(DE, MD, PA, VA, WV,
DC)
Region 4
345 Courtland St. NE,
Atlanta, GA 30365
404-347-3633
(AL, FL, GA, KY, MS, NC,
SC, TN)
Region 5
230 S. Dearborn St.,
Chicago, IL 60604
312-353-2124
'IL, IN, MI, MN, OH, WI)
Region 6
1445 Ross Ave.,
Suite 1200,
Dallas, TX 75202
214-655-7130
(AR, LA, NM, OK, TX)
Region 7
726 Minnesota Ave.,
Kansas City, KS 66101
913-551-7450
(IA, KS, MO, NE)
Region 8
999 18th St.,
Suite 500,
Denver,CO 80202
303-293-1551
(CO, MT, ND, SD, UT,
WY)
Region 9
1235 Mission St.,
San Francisco, CA 94103
415-705-2146
(AZ, CA, HI, NV, Amer.
Samoa, Guam)
Region 10
1200 Sixth Ave.,
Seattle, WA 98101
206-442-8575
(AK, ID, OR, WA)
or contact: John Flowers
National Program Coordinator
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
401 M St. S.W. (WH-546)
Washington, DC 20460
202-382-/
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