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27 THE USE OF CHRONIC BIOASSAYS FOR PULP AND PAPER MILL EFFLUENTS IN WISCONSIN Michael D. Witt, Natural Resources Administrator Michael D. Hammers, Environmental Engineer Robert G. Masnado, Environmental Specialist Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources Madison, Wisconsin 53707 INTRODUCTION The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources administers the NPDES Permit program in Wisconsin (WPDES). The Department has operated this program since 1974 under a Memorandum of Agreement with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The goal of the permit program is to protect Wisconsin's surface and groundwater resources from impacts which would impair their designated uses. To achieve this goal, the Department issues WPDES permits to municipalities and industries which discharge wastewaters to waters of the State. These permits contain effluent limitations, monitoring requirements and other conditions which control the type and amount of wastewater which may be discharged. Over the last 15 years, emphasis has been placed on the regulation of conventional pollutants such as five-day biochemical oxygen demand (BOD5) and total suspended solids. However, as controls for conventional pollutants were successfully implemented, the emphasis of the permit program shifted towards a new concern, that of toxic substances in wastewater discharges. As a result of this new emphasis, the Department has initiated the use of whole effluent toxicity tests in its permit program. Whole effluent toxicity tests are laboratory tests that use living organisms to quantify toxicity and are commonly referred to as bioassays. In Wisconsin, the expiration of 36 pulp and paper mill permits in late 1986 and early 1987 presented an opportunity for the Department to gain experience with recently developed 7-day chronic bioassays. As part of their application for permit reissuance, these 36 permittees were requested to perform 7-day chronic bioassays on their wastewater discharges. The Department believed that the bioassay results, in addition to the extensive analytical data on chemical parameters normally submitted by the permittee in the reissuance application, would provide a broader data base to evaluate effluent toxicity. The Department's decision during the summer of 1985 to use the 7-day chronic bioassays was quite timely for a number of reasons. First, EPA had recently published in draft a procedure for 7-day chronic bioassays. The final report, entitled Short Term Methods for Estimating the Chronic Toxicity of Effluents and Receiving Waters to Fresh Water Organisms, hereafter referred to as the EPA manual, was published in December 1985.' Secondly, in July 1985, the Institute of Paper Chemistry, located in Appleton, Wisconsin, informed the Department that it was prepared to perform 7-day chronic bioassays on a contractual basis. At that time, the Institute of Paper Chemistry had already worked with the short-term bioassay for over a year and had the laboratory capacity to perform most of the 36 bioassays. Thirdly, the Department did not anticipate that the pulp and paper wastewater discharges would be acutely toxic. Only chronic toxicity testing would provide adequate information to evaluate effluent toxicity. This latter conclusion was supported by the effluent characterization recommendations made in EPA's Technical Support Document for Water Quality-based Toxics Control.2 A draft of EPA's technical support document was available to the Department in July 1985; the final draft was available in September 1985. Finally, EPA was, and is, promoting the use of a whole-effluent approach to measure the toxicity of wastewater discharges.2'3>4 Advantages given by EPA for whole-effluent toxicity testing include: 1) the toxicity of complex effluents is measured without having to identify individual constituents of 257
Object Description
Purdue Identification Number | ETRIWC198727 |
Title | Use of chronic bioassays for pulp and paper mill effluents in Wisconsin |
Author |
Witt, Michael D. Hammers, Michael D. Masnado, Robert G. |
Date of Original | 1987 |
Conference Title | Proceedings of the 42nd Industrial Waste Conference |
Conference Front Matter (copy and paste) | http://e-archives.lib.purdue.edu/u?/engext,38818 |
Extent of Original | p. 257-264 |
Collection Title | Engineering Technical Reports Collection, Purdue University |
Repository | Purdue University Libraries |
Rights Statement | Digital object copyright Purdue University. All rights reserved. |
Language | eng |
Type (DCMI) | text |
Format | JP2 |
Date Digitized | 2009-08-03 |
Capture Device | Fujitsu fi-5650C |
Capture Details | ScandAll 21 |
Resolution | 300 ppi |
Color Depth | 8 bit |
Description
Title | page 257 |
Collection Title | Engineering Technical Reports Collection, Purdue University |
Repository | Purdue University Libraries |
Rights Statement | Digital copyright Purdue University. All rights reserved. |
Language | eng |
Type (DCMI) | text |
Format | JP2 |
Capture Device | Fujitsu fi-5650C |
Capture Details | ScandAll 21 |
Transcript | 27 THE USE OF CHRONIC BIOASSAYS FOR PULP AND PAPER MILL EFFLUENTS IN WISCONSIN Michael D. Witt, Natural Resources Administrator Michael D. Hammers, Environmental Engineer Robert G. Masnado, Environmental Specialist Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources Madison, Wisconsin 53707 INTRODUCTION The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources administers the NPDES Permit program in Wisconsin (WPDES). The Department has operated this program since 1974 under a Memorandum of Agreement with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The goal of the permit program is to protect Wisconsin's surface and groundwater resources from impacts which would impair their designated uses. To achieve this goal, the Department issues WPDES permits to municipalities and industries which discharge wastewaters to waters of the State. These permits contain effluent limitations, monitoring requirements and other conditions which control the type and amount of wastewater which may be discharged. Over the last 15 years, emphasis has been placed on the regulation of conventional pollutants such as five-day biochemical oxygen demand (BOD5) and total suspended solids. However, as controls for conventional pollutants were successfully implemented, the emphasis of the permit program shifted towards a new concern, that of toxic substances in wastewater discharges. As a result of this new emphasis, the Department has initiated the use of whole effluent toxicity tests in its permit program. Whole effluent toxicity tests are laboratory tests that use living organisms to quantify toxicity and are commonly referred to as bioassays. In Wisconsin, the expiration of 36 pulp and paper mill permits in late 1986 and early 1987 presented an opportunity for the Department to gain experience with recently developed 7-day chronic bioassays. As part of their application for permit reissuance, these 36 permittees were requested to perform 7-day chronic bioassays on their wastewater discharges. The Department believed that the bioassay results, in addition to the extensive analytical data on chemical parameters normally submitted by the permittee in the reissuance application, would provide a broader data base to evaluate effluent toxicity. The Department's decision during the summer of 1985 to use the 7-day chronic bioassays was quite timely for a number of reasons. First, EPA had recently published in draft a procedure for 7-day chronic bioassays. The final report, entitled Short Term Methods for Estimating the Chronic Toxicity of Effluents and Receiving Waters to Fresh Water Organisms, hereafter referred to as the EPA manual, was published in December 1985.' Secondly, in July 1985, the Institute of Paper Chemistry, located in Appleton, Wisconsin, informed the Department that it was prepared to perform 7-day chronic bioassays on a contractual basis. At that time, the Institute of Paper Chemistry had already worked with the short-term bioassay for over a year and had the laboratory capacity to perform most of the 36 bioassays. Thirdly, the Department did not anticipate that the pulp and paper wastewater discharges would be acutely toxic. Only chronic toxicity testing would provide adequate information to evaluate effluent toxicity. This latter conclusion was supported by the effluent characterization recommendations made in EPA's Technical Support Document for Water Quality-based Toxics Control.2 A draft of EPA's technical support document was available to the Department in July 1985; the final draft was available in September 1985. Finally, EPA was, and is, promoting the use of a whole-effluent approach to measure the toxicity of wastewater discharges.2'3>4 Advantages given by EPA for whole-effluent toxicity testing include: 1) the toxicity of complex effluents is measured without having to identify individual constituents of 257 |
Resolution | 300 ppi |
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