Pretreatment Program
The City of Lakeland's Pretreatment Program was initially approved on May 28, 1985. The main goals of the Pretreatment Program are to protect the City's wastewater treatment plants and collection system from interference and pass-through, protect the Employees and the general public from adverse industrial impacts and to ensure that effluent water quality standards and sludge regulations are maintained.
The City's Program is mandated by the Federal, State and Local discharge regulations and is one of approximately 57 active programs in the state. Local regulations are contained in Chapter 102 of the City of Lakeland Code. Federal and State regulations can be found at the links listed below for the EPA and FDEP.
The City's Pretreatment Program main duties are centered around the industrial customers who discharge potentially harmful chemicals into the wastewater collection system. In order to control these chemicals, the City of Lakeland has contained in its local regulations a section on discharge limitations (DIVISION 4).
Composite Samplers
Local industrial and commercial customers' discharges are monitored by the use of composite samplers. These units are designed to take samples on predetermined intervals thus allowing for the sampling of the customer over an extended period of time, usually 24 hours. After samples are collected in the field, they are brought back to the wastewater laboratory for analysis to determine compliance with discharge regulations. Not all parameters are regulatory in nature. Parameters like BOD, TSS, TN are analyzed and excess fees are charged for high strength discharges by the Water Utilities Billing Office.
Permitted Users
During the 1999 and 2000 Pretreatment Year, the Pretreatment Program monitored 23 Permitted Industrial Users. Permitted Users are determined either by discharge volume, characteristics, and/or their potential to impact the Treatment Plant, Collection System, or harm the environment or public safety. Every year the City must publish all users who are classified during the year as being in Significant Noncompliance (SNC). SNC is determined by a series of violations or could be based on a single harmful discharge.