Water & Waste

The Clean Water Act and RCRA put a lot of demands on EHS personnel. There are permit requirements under NPDES and many limits, such as those related to discharge and waste generation. Reporting can be very time-consuming and frustrating because there are a lot of and different time periods for reporting: DMR, Form R, Bienniel Waste. In addition, you have sampling and inspection requirements and SWPPP to maintain.

In order to be compliant with your NPDES permit, you have to make sure all of the sampling is completed on time. After receiving the results back from the lab, you have to compare it to your permit limitations for any possible exceedances. Most companies receive information in a rigid format. It is easy to print and read but in order to manipulate the data you have to enter it into a database or spreadsheet. Some people are still using their memory to compare the results against their permit limits. Reporting can be tedious because you have to manually conduct calculations or manipulate multiple spreadsheets for the appropriate parameters.

Waste collection may seem easy but it is not. You have to keep a close eye on your inventory limits and dates of accumulation. You have to make sure that you inspect the waste accumulation areas and correct any problems. Lack of attention to these items can increase your chances of receiving an NOV and fine. In order to keep down costs, many companies are using multiple disposal companies for waste. This is great for the bottom line but it creates a lot of work ensuring that you receive all your return manifests in time.

One way to alleviate some of the burden is to maintain a centralized system that will send you alerts to remind you when you have to sample or are reaching storage limitations. How nice would it be if you uploaded data from the lab and calculations would automatically occur and compare to your permit limitation. Think about how valuable it would be to generate all the different reports in minutes instead of weeks.

Eliminate costly errors from handling data too much. Save time and money by decreasing the amount of time it takes to generate reports. Control costs by having better visibility to waste inventories.