1. Industrial Wastewater Permits
2017 Environmental Trade Fair
Erika Crespo
Hi, my name is Erika Crespo.
I am an industrial wastewater permit writer with the Water Quality Division of the TCEQ, and I am going to talk about industrial wastewater permits.

2. Overview Who needs a permit? Types of permits The development process
Tips for filling out a permit application
During this presentation, I will discuss:
Who needs to have a permit authorization
The types of industrial wastewater permits that are issued by the TCEQ
I will provide an overview of how industrial permits are developed, and
I will offer up some tips for filling out a permit application

3. Texas Water Code §26.121 Questions? Need Help?
Call the TCEQ at (512) and speak with an industrial permit writer.
Call the Small Business and Local Government Assistance Hotline at
The Texas Water Code Section states that no one can discharge wastewater without a permit authorization to do so.
If you have any questions or need help understanding whether or not this applies to you, please feel free to call the TCEQ to speak to either an industrial permit writer or someone with the Small Business and Local Government Assistance Section.

4. Types of Authorizations
Individual Permits
Direct discharges (TPDES)
Land application (TLAP)
Industrial Reuse Authorizations
30 TAC Chapter 210E
General Permits
Permits By Rule
30 TAC Chapter 321
There are four main types of industrial wastewater permits:
Individual authorizations are for facilities or sites that require a technical review of their specific operations
If you are discharging wastewater INTO WATERS IN THE STATE,
you need a TPDES permit.
If you are disposing of wastewater
by irrigation, evaporation, or subsurface disposal,
you need a TLAP permit.
Industrial Reuse Authorizations allow for wastewater to be reused in a variety of ways
(such as irrigation, fire protection, and toilet flush water)
General permits provide a standard coverage for a specific type of industrial activity that does not require a site-specific technical review.
Permits By Rule are used to establish a set of conditions for which certain industrial activities must abide by

5. Processing Time Frames
New application – 330 days
Major facilities – 330 days
Minor facilities – 300 days
When it comes to the time frames in which the TCEQ issues industrial wastewater permits, we aim to issue new permits within 330 days.
Permit actions for major facilities are set to be completed within 330 days, while minor facilities are allotted 300 days.
These time frames for processing and issuing industrial wastewater permits start on the date that the TCEQ receives the application.

6. The Development Process for Industrial Permits
Data completeness review
Compliance history
Self-reported effluent data
Technology-based effluent limits
Water quality-based effluent limits
Final effluent limits
There are seven main steps to writing an industrial wastewater permit.
When the permit application is received by a permit writer, one of the first things that we do is check the application to make sure that it is complete and that we have all of the information that we need.
The permit writer will also review the compliance history associated with the facility, and we will also take a close look at all of the self-reported effluent data over the past five years.
As we draft the permit, we will determine whether or not technology-based effluent limits apply to the facility based on federal rules and best professional judgement.
We will also determine whether or not any water quality-based effluent limits apply based on the characteristics of the receiving water body and water quality screening that we conduct using TEXTOX.
Finally, the tech-based limits, water quality-based limits, and the limits that in the existing permit, if there is one, are compared.
The final effluent limits that will be included in the current permit action are the most stringent out of the three.

7. Industrial Permits - Review
Team leader
Technical staff
TCEQ Region staff
Applicant
General public
(TCEQ legal staff)
(EPA)
The TCEQ does not issue permits as soon as they are done being written. There is a long rough draft phase, and multiple people participate in the revision process.
Each internal review is done to ensure technical completeness.
The applicant reviews the draft permit and is given the opportunity to provide comments and request changes.
The general public is able to go to the location where the draft permit and the permit application are on display and view the documents. Anyone is able to submit comments or address their concerns, and the TCEQ will respond to formal comments that are submitted on each permit action.
Additional reviews are conducted by the EPA and by the legal staff at the TCEQ, but these review may not occur on every draft permit.

8. Filling out the Application
If an item is not applicable, enter “N/A” and include an explanation. Do not leave the item blank.
If you’re not sure how to fill out part of the application:
Read the instructions, or
Call the Water Quality Division ( ) and ask to speak with an industrial permit writer.
Provide complete information each time, even for renewals.
Permit writers do not have easy access to previous applications, so it is important that each permit application is filled out independently of all of the previous applications.
When filling out the application, if there is a portion of the application that it does not apply to the facility, please clearly indicate that does not apply and provide an explanation.
If you are not sure how to fill out the application, please read the instructions that we have available online or call the Water Quality Division and speak with an industrial permit writer.

9. Technical Report - Tips
The first part of the Technical Report asks for information on the facility.
Please describe the activities and general operations that take place at the site.
Describe ALL of the processes that generate wastewater.
Provide a list of raw materials, major intermediates, and products… this will help your permit writer know about the unique processes taking place at the facility.
Also, please state whether or not the facility or the disposal site is located above the 100-year frequency flood plain… this is a part of the application that is often incorrectly leave blank. The source used to make this determination must also be provided in the application.

10. Technical Report - Tips
Please include at least one legible facility map – a picture is worth 1,000 words… it provides a very good overview of what is going on at the facility for someone who is not familiar with it.
Be sure that the facility map includes:
- production areas
- waste disposal areas
- and the location of each unit of the wastewater treatment system

11. Technical Report - Tips
The second part of the Technical Report asks for information about the treatment system.
List any physical, chemical, or biological treatment processes that the facility uses to treat its wastewater.
The description should start with the initial treatment and describe everything that takes place through the point of discharge or land disposal.

12. Technical Report - Tips
Please include at least one flow diagram.
Flow schematics should include water balance and show each treatment unit, as well as account for all of the sources of wastewater.
The flow diagram that is submitted does not have to be in color.

13. Technical Report - Tips
The third part of the technical report asks for information on the impoundments that are used at the facility. If your facility does not use impoundments, please be sure to indicate this appropriately by stating no to the first question.
All of the information being requested in this section has a purpose, so please appropriately provide it if it applies.

14. Technical Report – Tips
Outfall information
List all contributing waste streams.
Include volumes of all waste streams
Include % of total flow volume of each waste stream
Be sure that the sum of all waste percentages equals 100%
Be sure information in table is consistent with flow schematic/water balance.
The fourth part of the Technical Report requests information on the outfalls at the facility.
Please list all of the contributing wastestreams associated with each outfall, and include the individual volumes of each and every wastestream, no matter how small it may be.
Please include the percentage of the total flow volume for each wastestream. This is important for calculating the toxic rating of the facility, and that affects the billing, so any discrepancies or errors can cost you, literally.
Please sure that the sum of all of the waste percentages equals 100%, which mathematically it should.
Also, please be sure that the information in the table is consistent with the flow schematic and the water balance that are provided with the application.

15. Technical Report – Tips
Amendments/modifications
Try to include all requests for changes up front.
Not doing so may cause significant delay in processing of the permit application.
Amendment or modification requests are listed in Items in the Technical Report.
Please try to include all of these requests for changes up front. Not doing so may cause significant delays in the processing of your permit application.
So don’t be like the guy in the slide, and please plan and prepare ahead of time.

16. Technical Report – Worksheet 1.0
EPA Effluent Categorical Guidelines
Worksheet 1.0 provides information on whether or not the facility is subject to any federal effluent categorical guidelines, and this worksheet is required for all permit applications.
This worksheet is used by your permit writer during the determination of technology-based effluent limits.
There are quite a few industries that have federal effluent guidelines established
for them, so please fill out this worksheet appropriately and thoroughly.

17. Technical Report – Worksheet 2.0
Pollutant Analyses
Plan ahead
Begin sampling and analyzing effluent so that all required data can be submitted with the application.
Effluent data is required for renewal applications.
Analytical labs must be NELAC-certified.
Worksheet 2.0 provides the analytical data that is needed in order to write permits that authorize the discharge of industrial wastewater.
Worksheet 2.0 is required for all applications, unless you are applying for a TLAP permit or for an individual permit to discharge stormwater runoff only.
So, if you have a discharge, no matter how infrequent it may be, it needs to be sampled and analyzed and the results need to be included in the permit application.
Planning ahead for this requirement is critical.
Also, the analytical labs that are used to analyze the samples must be NELAC-certified.

18. Technical Report – Worksheet 2.0
Pollutant Analyses
Minimum analytical levels (MALs) are listed in the application form tables.
Please sure that your lab tests each parameter down to its MAL.
Not doing so can result in:
(1) having to retest for one or more parameters or
(2) having effluent limits for that parameter added to your permit.

19. Technical Report – Worksheet 3
Technical Report – Worksheet 3.0 Texas Land Application Permits - TLAPs
Complete all applicable information (irrigation, evaporation, or both).
Provide cropping plan if irrigating.
Worksheet 3.0 provides the information that is needed in order to write permits that authorize the disposal of industrial wastewater through land application.
Please complete all of the applicable information, and if you plan on using irrigation as a disposal option, please provide a cropping plan as one of your attachments.

20. Technical Report – Worksheet 3
Technical Report – Worksheet 3.0 Texas Land Application Permits - TLAPs
Provide pollutant analysis.
Analytical labs must be NELAC-certified (signature required).
Fill out all required pollutant analysis tables.
In Table 14, include data for all parameters regulated in the permit.
In Tables 15 and 16, include data for all parameters not regulated in the permit.
Worksheet 3.0 also requires pollutant analysis, and the labs that are used must be NELAC-certified.
Please completely fill out all of the analysis tables.
Table 14 is used to provide the monitoring data for the past two years for all of the pollutants that are regulated in the permit.
Tables 15 and 16 are used to provide the analytical data for all of the pollutants that are NOT regulated in the permit.

21. Forms and Instructions
Application forms and instructions, plus additional information, are available at the following TCEQ website:
This page also includes a link to Spanish language notice templates.
All of the information that I referenced in this presentation can be found online through the TCEQ website.
The link in this slide will take you directly to the webpage that details the permitting process for industrial wastewater permits.
However, please feel free to call the Water Quality Division and speak with a permit writer if you have any specific questions.

22. Streamlined Desalination Permits
Collaboration with the Texas General Land Office (GLO) and Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) required
Only for off-shore discharges of reject water and upland discharges of treated marine seawater
Separate, streamlined application forms
If the applicant does not respond to a NOD within the specified timeframe, the application will be returned.
Facilities that use cooling water intake structures can not utilize the streamlined process.
I would like to take a few moments to discuss the new streamlined marine desalination permitting process that the TCEQ has established.
This expedited permitting process is a collaborative effort between the TCEQ, the Texas General Land Office, and the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.
This streamlined permitting process only applies to applications that are seeking to discharge the reject water off-shore, which is defined as being at least 3 miles out past the coastline. Near-shore discharges cannot be expedited because the federal government has jurisdiction over coastal waters up to 3 miles out from the coast.
It is also worth mentioning that facilities using cooling water intake structures will not be able to utilize the streamlined process, and this is because of the 316(b) review.
Until September 1, 2020, applicants that are seeking permits under this expedited process must consult with the GLO and the Parks and Wildlife Department to determine their points of diversion and discharge.
I should also stress that this streamlined process only applies to the industrial wastewater permits. It does not apply to the water rights permit that is also needed. Right now, there is not a streamlined process for obtaining water rights permits for marine desalination projects, but I have heard that one is being developed.

23. Questions ? For More Information: Phone: 512-239-4671
Water Quality Division
Industrial Permits Team
Questions ?
Are there any questions?