API PUBL 4673-1999

$30.55

Impacts of Petroleum Product Marketing Terminals on the Aquatic Environment

Published By	Publication Date	Number of Pages
API	1999	45

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Description

Rapid growth of population and industrialization significantly altered the U.S.'s aquatic environments by the mid 20^thcentury. At that time, the discharge of large quantities of untreated or poorly treated wastewaters often exceeded the receiving stream's capacity to assimilate or detoxify contaminants contained in those wastewaters. As a result, populations of many aquatic organisms were reduced or completely eliminated in sections of many water bodies.

Consequently, by the early 1970s the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), state, and local environmental regulatory agencies began developing and implementing comprehensive regulations to improve the quality of the nation's aquatic environments. These regulations were primarily intended to improve the quality of effluents discharged by large industrial and municipal wastewater dischargers. Improvements in effluent quality were directly achieved by implementing aggressive treatment programs to remove effluent contaminants. As a result water quality has shown marked improvement during the last two decades.

However, regulations continue to evolve on national, state and local levels. New, strict regulations require increased effluent treatment and contaminant monitoring to ensure compliance. In some instances, there is no treatment technology currently available to meet the proposed regulations. Consequently, expensive research and development programs have developed, and continue to develop, new cost-effective treatment options.

In some situations, dischargers may or may not have to monitor or treat for a particular contaminant depending on the location in which the discharger operates. Due to differences in state and local environmental laws, discharge permit requirements vary among locations.

Increasingly stringent regulations are being applied to small and intermittent dischargers, such as petroleum product marketing terminals (PPMTs). Unnecessary monitoring and treatment maybe required at some locations despite the good quality and intermittent low volume of wastewater discharged by PPMTs. This additional cost is unjustified if discharge of the untreated wastewater will not result in undue risk to human health or to the aquatic environment to which the wastewater is to be discharged. This paper presents a brief overview of PPMT facilities and products; and reviews the sources, quantity and quality of PPMT wastewater streams. It also examines the potential impact of PPMT wastewater discharges to aquatic environments, to ascertain whether a need exists for more stringent regulations and treatment requirements.

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