NC0020354_NOV - Effluent Toxicity Testing_19990707

State of North Carolina
Department of Environment
and Natural Resources
Division of Water Quality
James B. Hunt, Jr., Governor
Wayne McDevitt, Secretary
Kerr T. Stevens, Director
CERTIFIED MAIL
RETURN RECEIPT REQUESTED
Mr. Ken Comatzer
Town of Pittsboro
PO Box 759
Pittsboro, North Carolina 27312
SUBJECT: NOTICE OF VIOLATION
Effluent Toxicity Testing
NPDES Permit No NCO020354
Town of Pittsboro WWTP
Chatham County
Dear Mr. Comatzer:
4 • •
NCDENR
NORTH CAROLINA DEPARTMENT OF
ENVIRONMENT AND NATURAL RESOURCES
July 7, 1999
This is to inform you that the Environmental Sciences Branch of the Division of Water Quality has received your
monthly toxicity monitoring report for the month of April 1999; however, the report form was received late on June 17,
1999. This is in violation of Title 15 of the North Carolina Administrative Code, Chapter 2, Subchapter 2B, Section .0506
(a)(1)(A) which states, "monthly monitoring reports shall be filed no later than 30 days after the end of the reporting period
for which the report is made."
You will be considered noncompliant with the reporting requirements contained in your NPDES Permit for the
month of April until you make acceptable demonstration to the Environmental Sciences Branch that the April 1999 AT
report form was submitted to this office within the 30 day reporting period. In addition, if within the next twelve (12)
months, future reports are not received within the required time frame, you may be assessed a civil penalty.
You are requested to respond in writing to Mr. Kirk Stafford at DENR/DWQ, 3800 Barrett Drive, Suite 101,
Raleigh, NC 27609, within 15 days of receipt of this notice detailing what actions have been or will be undertaken to
prevent this situation from occurring again.
The reverse side of this Notice contains a summary of important toxicity monitoring and reporting
requirements Please read this one page summary page and if you hav y questions concerning this Notice or any
aspect of your toxicity testing requirement, please contact Mr. Kevin Bon with the Aquatic Toxicology Unit at (919)
733-2136. At
for
cc: Ken Schuster -Raleigh Regional Office
Kirk Stafford -Raleigh Regional Office
_Aquatic Toxicology Unit Files
Central Files
?1�
Section Chief
Environmental Sciences Branch 1621 Mad Service Center Raleigh, North Carolina 27699-1621
Telephone [phone] FAX # [phone]
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WHOLE EFFLUENT TOXICITY MONITORING AND REPORTING INFORMATION
The following items are provided in an effort to assist you with identifying critical and sometimes overlooked toxicity testing and reporting
information Please take time to review this information The items below do not address or include all the toxicity testing and reporting
requirements contained in your NPDES permit If you should have any questions about your toxicity testing requirement, please contact Mr.
Kevin Bowden with the Aquatic Toxicology Unit at [phone] or another Unit representative at the same number.
• The permittee is responsible for ensuring that toxicity testing is conducted according to the peanut requirement and that toxicity report forms are
appropriately filed.
• The reporting of whole effluent toxicity testing data is a dual requirement All toxicity test results must be entered (with the appropriate
parameter code) on your monthly Discharge Monitoring Report which is submutted to
Central Files
Division of Water Quality
1617 Mail Service Center
Raleigh, NC 27699-1617
IN ADDITION
• Toxicity test data (original "AT' form) must be submitted to the following address.
Environmental Sciences Branch
Division of Water Quality
1621 Marl Service Center
Raleigh, North Carolina 27699-1621
• Toxicity test results shall be submitted to the Environmental Sciences Branch no later than 30 days after the end of the reporting period
(eg, January test result is due by the end of February).
• Language present in the NPDES Permit may specify an increase in monitoring frequency to monthly upon any single quarterly toxicity test
failure Please keep this in mind as the Environmental Sciences Branch will be expecting test data after any single quarterly test failure.
• Facilities which choose to conduct toxicity testing per the Division's new WET enforcement strategy effective July 1, 1999, may conduct the
first test of the calendar quarter as a single concentration or multiple concentration test. If the pass/fail test fails or if the chronic value is lower
than the permit limit, then at least two multiple concentration toxicity tests (one per month) will be conducted over the following two months.
As many analyses as can be completed will be accepted. Compliance for the three-month period will be determined based on the average of the
follow-up chronic value tests. The initial test will not be considered in the compliance determination
• Toxicity testing months are specified by the NPDES Permit, except for NPDES Permits which contain episodic toxicity monitoring requirements
(eg, if the testing months specified to your NPDES perrmt are March, June, September, and December, then toxicity testing must be conducted
during these months).
• If your NPDES Permit specifies episodic monitoring and your facility does not have a discharge from January 1 -June 30, then you must provide
written notification to the Environmental Sciences Branch by June 30 that a discharge did not occur during the first six months of the calendar
year
• If you receive notification from your contract laboratory that a test was invalidated, you should immediately notify the Environmental Sciences
Branch at [phone] and provide written documentation indicating why the test was invalidated and the date when follow-up testing will
occur
• If your facility is required to conduct toxicity testing during a month in which no discharge occurs, you should complete the information block
located at the top of the AT form indicating the facility name, permit number, pipe number, county and the month/year of the subject report
You should also write "No Flow" on the AT form, sign the form and submit following normal procedures.
• The Aquatic Toxicity Test forms shall be signed by the facility's Operator in Responsible Charge (ORC) except for facilities which have not
received a facility classification. In these cases, a duly authorized facility representative must sign the AT form. The AT form must also be
signed by the performing lab supervisor.
• To determine if your AT test forms were received on time by the Division of Water Quality, you may consider submrttingyour toxicity test
results certified marl return receipt requested to the Environmental Sciences Branch.
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