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Original Date: 11/03/1996
Revision Date: 01/18/2007
Information : Monitoring Wastewater Outfalls
The Oak Ridge Y-12 Plant employs a well-designed system of monitoring the outflow of treated wastewater to the East Fork Poplar Creek which runs through the site. This state-of-the-art system allows Y-12 to fully comply with the monitoring requirements of its National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permits. In addition, an alarm system provides instant notification of potential permit violations.
After treatment in one of six on-site facilities, Y-12's industrial wastewater is discharged through 223 NPDES permitted outflows to the East Fork Poplar Creek. Immediately downstream from the plant, Y-12 has placed two in-creek, on-line monitoring stations which continuously analyze creek water for a variety of conditions including dissolved oxygen, conductivity, temperature, chlorine, and pH. When the monitors detect that permit parameters have been exceeded, an alarm is telemetried to a manned station. Technicians can be rapidly dispatched to the in-creek monitoring areas to take samples, assess the situation, and recommend corrective action.
Because Y-12 manages a large number of permitted outflows, a durable, efficient and cutting edge monitoring system is essential. The Plant must constantly guard against expensive violations of permit parameters. The monitoring system employed at Y-12 helps the Plant to fully comply with its permits. The system goes beyond compliance with its alarm function that allows rapid detection and correction of problems. This expertise involved in designing the Y-12 monitoring system has applications at any facility with a NPDES permitted wastewater outflow.
For more information see the
Point of Contact for this survey.
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