V O L U M E 1 7, I S S U E I I. View from the Chair/ Dental Update

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1 THE CIPCA MONITOR Inside This Issue V O L U M E 1 7, I S S U E I I J U N E View From The Chair/ Dental Update 1 Please direct questions, comments, and submissions to: hgreeno@csu.org (719) Communication Is Key 2 Drake Power Plant Tour 3 Message From EPA 4-5 Dental Update 6 Upcoming Events 7 View from the Chair/ Dental Update Scott Caldwell Colorado Springs Utilities Greeting CIPCA, can you believe the year is already half way over? As you all know, the dental rule (40 CFR Part 441) was published to the Federal Register on June 14 th. The final rule became effective on July 14, 2017.This rule calls for three primary requirements to be satisfies by dental offices. The compliance date for existing sources that are subject to the rule to comply with the standards of the rule is July 14, After the effective date of the rule new sources subject to this rule must comply immediately with the standards of the rule. That means starting this July you may have new dental facilities that need to be compliant with the rule. The rule requires dental offices to install an amalgam separator and to adopt two Best Management Practices. Dental facilities will be required to submit a one-time compliance report to demonstrate compliance with the performance standards and BMPs. This final rule exempts dental offices from the General Pretreatment Regulations oversight and reporting requirements associated with categorical pretreatment standards. The final rule establishes that dental dischargers are not SIUs or CIUs. The final rule does not require electronic reporting nor does it prevent it. This final dental rule does not apply to wastewater discharges from dental offices where the practice of dentistry consists exclusively of one or more of the following dental specialties: oral-pathology, oral and maxillofacial radiology, oral and maxillofacial surgery, orthodontics, periodontics, prosthodontics, or mobile dental units. Dental offices that provide general and cosmetic dentistry, pediatric dentistry, and endodontics are not excluded from the requirements of the rule. These are some of the important things to consider for your offices that are required to demonstrate compliance with the final dental rule: Amalgam separators shall meet the ISO 11143:2008 standards. You may also see the American National Standards Institute s Standard for Amalgam Separators (ANSI/ ADA Standard No. 108). This ANSI Standard incorporates the ISO standard. Amalgam separators should be appropriately sized, maintained in accordance with manufacturer suggestions, and should collect wastewater from all potential sources of amalgam contamination. The EPA has returned to a performance based standard rather than a numerical limit based on public comments. A typical amalgam separator will be a sedimentation device with a collection container that fills with solids over time. Before the collection container is at maximum capacity it should be changed to prevent operational failure or loss of suction at the dental chair. Amalgam separator manufacturers provide directions to maintain the device at a frequency that should prevent this from happening but the dental facility will be responsible for developing an operation and maintenance plan that may be more stringent than the manufacturers to satisfy the requirements of the rule. (Continued on page 6)

2 P A G E 2 Pretreatment Issues: Communication Is Key! Jack Mirable Metro Wastewater Reclamation District Guiding new industries through the entire permitting process can be a real challenge. This can be compounded when your POTW is not the only entity the industry needs to go through. More often than not, the city or municipality, connector, and even the building owner have different and sometimes conflicting requirements for a new industry that is simply trying to get up and running. This process can become quite tedious, lengthy, and frustrating for an industry that will need multiple permits with more than one jurisdiction. This process can be mitigated by explaining to the IU why they need a pretreatment system or monitoring point, and even offering guidance if the IU requests it. It can be beneficial to begin with the fundamentals and explain what the POTW does and how the Federal regulations apply to them. Getting them to buy in, and understand the reasons why, can be half the battle, but can go a long way to achieving the outcome you desire. From there you can discuss monitoring point design needs and how all this ties back to your pretreatment program. The industry can and often does feel overwhelmed at all these requirements and this is a good time to recommend they contact an engineering firm to aid them. As a POTW with an approved pretreatment program, it is a good idea to have the contact information for an engineering firm experienced in monitoring point design at your disposal. While it is not general practice to tell them exactly what to build, it can be beneficial to give examples of similar permitted IUs and what you have seen work for them. Not only does this provide guidance and direction for the IU, it also gives them a sense you are there to help them and builds a foundation for early rapport. Having the relationship be in good standing will make it easier for you if you ever have to issue an enforcement action against them in the future. Open communication during the construction phase is also important to make sure the industry meets all the requirements set forth in any compliance schedule issued. It is better to correct missteps as they occur rather than after completion when it is far more costly to remedy. Finally, once the monitoring point is completed and approved, both you and the industry have hopefully built a positive working relationship allowing for good communication in administration of the newly issued permit.

3 PAGE 3 VOLUME 17, ISSUE II CIPCA Does Martin Drake Power Plant in Colorado Springs. On April 20th, CIPCA Members had the opportunity to visit Martin Drake Power Plant in Colorado Springs. As of 2015, Drake Power Plant has a net generation of 1,387,314.5 Megawatt hour (Mwh). Drake used to have 3 separate power generating units, but one was retired last year and there are plans to retire the remaining 2 units by Drake Power plant burns 100 % Powder River Basin coal. The power plant aims to maintain 100,000 tons on the coal pile for reserve supply in case of delivery problems. The water usage for the plant is roughly 9,000,000 ft3. Drake Power Plant recently installed scrubbers to help in the removal of SO 2 and so far the results have been better than expected. As usual, this was another engaging tour for our members and another opportunity to network with colleagues. We look forward to seeing you in August! Cooling Tower Drainage pond SO2 Scrubber installation Coal pulverizing ball bearings THE CIPCA MONITOR

4 P A G E 4 V O L U M E 1 7, I S S U E I I Message From The EPA Al Garcia EPA Region 8 Hello CIPCA members, I always have a hard time in the Spring and the Fall of every year transitioning from my winter and summer passions. I always am bummed that the snowboarding winter is over in the Spring and try to hold onto the winter as long as possible even riding in less than ideal conditions. Then Spring arrives into Summer and I get into the mountain biking season full bore. I love both seasonal activities, although biking for me is year round, because both keep you focused and on edge with a significant potential for funny and painful crashes. This may also be analogous to our experiences with Pretreatment. I have always enjoyed Pretreatment implementation because of the opportunities to communicate with various industry representatives, the public, scientists, engineers, State, EPA, peers, etc. and the decisions made during permitting, sampling, enforcement based on available data/information and your expertise. How does a person gather expertise in Pretreatment or for that matter, mountain biking or snowboarding or any aspect of life? By making mistakes, wrong decisions or crashing what defines you when you make a mistake, a wrong decision or a major snowboard crash this year coming off a sweet jump and overrotating is how you get back up and learn from the mistake and yes, develop expertise. I see mistakes during Pretreatment audits but I do believe that we are all trying to challenge ourselves and do the best that we can. I may change my mind if I see systemic and historic mistakes or decisions that appear to be based on lack of motivation to do research or implement a very significant implementation responsibility, such as sample or inspect an SIU at least 1/year but these situations are rare. I and the rest of the EPA do our best to help correct these mistakes during the audit by having conversations or providing adequate follow up action items. By the way, I still make mistakes too, I respect when the local programs point these out, and have corrected these in an addendum audit report. Trust me, I have been humbled in almost every aspect of Pretreatment implementa- tion I shudder to think about what I have had spilled on me during sampling activities, emotional scars I still don t want to talk about. I understand that we are all human and want the message of this article to be that I have been there as a local Pretreatment Coordinator and am available to help talk through a difficult interpretation or decision that you may have. Dental Amalgam Rule: The Final Dental Amalgam Rule was published in the Federal Register on June 14, I will be sending a regional soon regarding the impact of the Final rule on your program and the components of your program such as legal authority, resources, industrial waste survey, inspections, sampling, permitting, etc. I have to admit; I

5 P A G E 5 Message From The EPA (cont.) the dental facilities 10 years to replace their existing amalgam separators or if it needs to be replaced because it doesn t function properly, whichever comes sooner. We at the EPA are releasing a corrected date that is planned to be in the Federal Register on June 26, I told you that we make mistakes (Continued from page 4) was preparing to develop this in January when this rule was supposed to be published as final but held off because the rule was put on hold by the new administration. I did not believe it would be published anytime soon and only found out the day before it was scheduled to be published last week weird times! Speaking of mistakes, the Final Rule was supposed to give existing dental sources a grandfather clause of 10 years for their existing amalgam separators to be in compliance with the rule, if not already after the final rule is promulgated. The final copy I had a clause in parentheses that stated [10 years after promulgation date]. Well, the Final Rule unfortunately, did not include the correct date. 40 CFR (a)(iii) states the following: A dental discharger subject to this part that operates an amalgam separator that was installed at a dental facility prior to June 14, 2017, satisfies the requirements of paragraphs (a)(1)(i) and (ii) of this section until the existing separator is replaced as described in paragraph (a)(1)(v) of this section or until June 14, 2017, whichever is sooner. [emphasis added by me] The correct date should be June 14, 2027 which gives

6 P A G E 6 Dental Update (cont.) The first BMP prohibits the discharge of scrap amalgam. Scrap amalgam can include but is not limited to used amalgam capsules, waste collected in chairside traps, waste collected in vacuum filters, waste collected in amalgam separators or filters, and any other scrap, bulk, or elemental mercury that might be at the dental facility. The second BMP prohibits the use of line cleaners that may lead to the dissolution of solid mercury when cleaning chairside traps and vacuum lines. This means that no oxidizing or acidic line cleaners can be used. No bleach, chlorine, iodine, peroxide, or cleaners that fall outside of the ph range of 6 8 standard units. Dental facilities are required to provide a description of the practices employed by the office to ensure proper operation and maintenance of the amalgam separator. EPA suggests the use of posted signs, electronic calendar reminders, and documented monthly inspections of the amalgam separator. These records must be maintained by the dental facility and be made available for inspection. Here are a few things that I think are worthy of additional thought when developing your dental program or your response to this rule: The rule allows an exemption for dental offices that do not place dental amalgams, and do not remove dental amalgams except in limited emergency or unplanned, unanticipated circumstances. The de minimis threshold described in the rule allows amalgams to be removed in less than 5% of a dental facilities procedures. The one-time reporting requirement is the only document required by the rule to be submitted to the control authority. Amalgam waste needs to be transported and treated, or recovered, in accordance with federal, state, and local regulations. Several of the amalgam separator manufacturers offer services that satisfy these regulations. There is a grandfather clause that allows offices that operate an amalgam separator that was installed prior to June 14, 2017 to continue use of the separator for 10 years or the life of the separator, whichever comes first. At least this is my interpretation of the statement, as it has been corrected in an incorrect way. This may or may not be important to your program as the vast majority of readily available separators are already ISO :2008 Certified In an effort to satisfy the requirements of this rule, your program will need to develop a database of your current dental offices. These offices have until July 14, 2020 to achieve compliance with the dental rule. A good database will also allow you to track new offices that need to be in compliance with the rule immediately after July 14, I know this was a long newsletter article and if the rule could be summarized more concisely I would have attempted to shorten this. I hope it helps but if you have any questions please feel free to contact me personally and we can discuss things in greater detail. Regards, Scott

7 OUR MISSION: STRIVING TO MAKE THE ENVIRONMENT A CLEANER, SAFER PLACE FOR TODAY S AND FUTURE GENERATIONS. UPCOMING EVENTS CONFERENCE CIPCA has some great ideas coming for our membership event that will happen sometime in August. We ve really enjoyed bringing you great events and tours and August will be no exception. We will be sending out an informational soon to let you know what s going on. If you haven t been to an event, it would be a great opportunity to reconnect and see familiar faces and learn about upcoming events! Ameristar Hotel & Casino Blackhawk, CO Be on the look out for s regarding Fall Conference! Things to know: New and exciting venue! Sessions for Pretreatment Professionals and Industry Representatives Discounted room rates for the weekend! With the implementation of the Dental Rule, it has a lot folks scrambling trying to figure out what their program needs to do to make sure they are in compliance. CIPCA wants to help ease the burden. We will be hosting a workshop soon to help answer your burning questions. An with more information regarding the event will be sent out soon! P A G E 7