Pollution Prevention Program Overview

POLLUTION PREVENTION PROGRAM OVERVIEW

Pollution Prevention Act of 1990 / Benefits / The District’s Pollution Prevention Program

POLLUTION PREVENTION ACT OF 1990

As the nation's environmental laws and regulations have developed, the U.S. EPA recognized it is more desirable to reduce pollution at its source than to treat it and dispose of it. The EPA now emphasizes preventing or eliminating the generation of waste. The Pollution Prevention Act of 1990 (PPA) established pollution prevention as a national objective.

Pollution prevention is indirectly defined in the PPA as source reduction: any practice that reduces or eliminates the creation of pollutants. Source reduction can be achieved by modifying equipment, technology, or procedures, reformulating or redesigning products, substituting raw materials, or making improvements in housekeeping, maintenance, training, or inventory control.

The PPA established a pollution prevention hierarchy as national policy, declaring that:

• Pollution should be prevented or reduced at the source.

• Pollution that cannot be prevented should be recycled in an environmentally safe manner.

• Pollution that cannot be prevented or recycled should be treated in an environmentally safe manner.

• Disposal or other release into the environment should be employed only as a last resort and should be

conducted in an environmentally safe manner.

	BENEFITS OF POLLUTION PREVENTION	top

	For both industrial users and Publicly Owned Treatment Works (POTW’s), pollution prevention has many benefits that can be broadly categorized under tangible economic rewards and public goodwill and support. Benefits of a pollution prevention program include the following:
	• Saving business costs • Enhancing treatment plant process efficiency • Avoiding or reducing POTW regulatory costs • Reducing future liabilities • Protecting worker health • Increasing public awareness of pollution prevention • Decreasing pollutant loadings to water, air, and sludge • Decreasing pollutant loadings to POTWs which lowers operation and maintenance costs and reduces the need for capital expenditures • Continuing or expanding growth in the community without harm to the environment

	THE DISTRICT'S POLLUTION PREVENTION PROGRAM	top

	The District adopted its Pollution Prevention Program in 1993. The Regional Water Quality Control Board regulates the District’s program. The District’s goal is to educate individuals and businesses (not permitted under the Pretreatment Program) on ways to generate less waste and ways to properly handle wastes that are generated. The District’s Pollution Prevention Program has three major components: reducing pollutants of concern, targeting appropriate businesses to address the pollutants of concern, and reaching out to the public through education and community events. The District participates in Bay area groups and organizations to share and disseminate information. The District submits an annual status report to the Regional Water Quality Control Board on its Pollution Prevention Program.

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