The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency presented the Borough of Catasauqua in Lehigh County a national award this week for protecting local waterways with its pretreatment program for industrial wastewater.

Specifically, the borough received the first place award for small publicly owned treatment facilities for its pretreatment program, which ensures that industrial wastewater is properly treated before the water reaches the borough’s treatment facility.

This phase of treatment is important because sewage treatment plants are not usually designed to treat large volumes of industrial waste. If industrial wastewater is not properly pretreated, it can be harmful to a treatment plant, and damaging to the environment.

The borough’s pretreatment program is based on site-specific needs to control industrial and commercial discharges. The program goes beyond the basic regulatory requirements, and also focuses on educating sewer users about the impact that releases have on local watersheds.

To protect treatment plants and the environment, the pretreatment program requires industrial dischargers to use treatment techniques and management practices to reduce or eliminate the discharge of harmful pollutants to sanitary sewers.

For more information, visit the EPA Pretreatment webpage.

6/12/2005