Merrill Wastewater Utility Gets a Perfect Report Card
By Dave Johnson
Merrill City Administrator
Merrill’s Wastewater Treatment Utility recently aced its Compliance Maintenance Annual Report.
The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) regulates the discharge of pollutants to waters of the state through the Wisconsin Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (WPDES) program. Wastewater permits contain all the monitoring requirements, special reports, and compliance schedules appropriate to the facility in question. Permits are issued for a five-year term. The City of Merrill is required to have a WPDES Permit to operate its wastewater treatment facility.
The Compliance Maintenance Annual Report (CMAR) is a self-evaluation tool that promotes the owner’s awareness and responsibility for wastewater collection and treatment needs, measures the performance of a wastewater treatment facility during a calendar year, and assesses its level of compliance with WPDES permit requirements. Annual submittal of an electronic CMAR form (eCMAR) no later than June 30 is required under Wisconsin Administrative Code NR 208 – Compliance Maintenance
The purpose of the eCMAR is to evaluate the wastewater treatment system for problems or deficiencies. Management, operation, and maintenance activities are described. Owners identify proposed actions to prevent violations of WPDES permits and water quality degradation.
The eCMAR program also encourages actions that:
• Promote the owners’ awareness and responsibility for wastewater collection and treatment needs.
• Maximize the useful life of wastewater treatment systems through improved operation & maintenance.
• Initiate formal planning, design and construction for system upgrades.
The eCMAR form is a communication tool for identifying needs for future planning. The eCMAR form:
• Describes the management and physical condition of the wastewater treatment works during the previous calendar year.
• Assesses system performance and wastewater maintenance activities.
• Evaluates compliance with WPDES permit requirements
• Provides an objective analysis to determine whether a more detailed evaluation of the wastewater facility is needed.
• Identifies proposed actions necessary to maintain regulatory compliance.
The report assigns a grade of A through F to each of nine categories. Merrill received an A Grade in each category of the report.
The categories are: 1)Influent Flow and Loadings, 2)Effluent Quality BOD, 3)Effluent Quality TSS, 4)Effluent Quality Phosphorous, 5)Biosolids Quality and Management, 6) Operator Certification, 7)Staffing, 8)Financial Management, and 9)Collection System.
As a City we can be proud of the job that our Wastewater Utility is doing to protect our environment.