Wastewater Systems Effluent Regulations 2017 Annual Report: Section 3

3.0 Authorizations

There are three types of authorizations under the WSER that allow wastewater systems to temporarily exceed all or some of the WSER effluent quality limits: transitional authorizations, temporary bypass authorizations and temporary authorizations to deposit un-ionized ammonia. Information on these authorizations is presented below.

3.1 Transitional Authorizations

Owners or operators of a wastewater system subject to the WSER and not designed to achieve the national effluent quality limits had until June 30, 2014 to apply for a transitional authorization (TA). A TA establishes the conditions under which such systems may continue to operate and sets the deadline (end of 2020, 2030 or 2040) to meet the mandatory national effluent quality limits. The deadline for upgrading a given wastewater system is based on criteria set out in the WSER. The criteria in the regulations take into consideration effluent volume, quality and the receiving environment.

A total of 65 wastewater systems in the country were issued a TA. The complete list of systems with TAs is posted on the Government of Canada website.

3.2 Temporary Bypass Authorizations

The owner or operator of a wastewater system may apply for a Temporary Bypass Authorization if the wastewater system will need to bypass treatment processes to conduct maintenance, repairs or upgrades and, as a result, exceed the effluent quality limits of the regulations. The bypass must be designed within the constraints of technical and economic feasibility, to minimize the volume of effluent deposited and the concentration of deleterious substances in the effluent deposited.

Table 9 outlines the 30 temporary bypass authorizations that were issued for 20 wastewater systems in 2017.

Table 9. Temporary bypass authorizations issued in 2017.

3.3 Temporary Authorization to Deposit Un-ionized Ammonia

The owner or operator of a wastewater system that is at secondary level of treatment (i.e. meets the effluent quality limits for CBOD and SS) may apply for a temporary authorization to deposit un-ionized ammonia if the effluent from the system is acutely lethal due to the presence of un-ionized ammonia. To be accepted, the concentration of un-ionized ammonia in the receiving water at any point that is 100 m from the point of entry where the effluent is deposited must be less than or equal to 0.016 mg/L, expressed as nitrogen (N).

In 2017, there were two active temporary authorizations to deposit unionized ammonia, both were issued in 2015 and presented in Table 10.

Table 10. Systems with a Temporary Authorization to Deposit Un-ionized Ammonia.