Renewable Water Resources’ (ReWa) board of commissioners approved modifications to the Sewer Use Regulation that mean operational changes for some food service establishments (FSEs) and likely increased fees for all.
Joel Jones, industrial pretreatment manager at ReWa, said the agency is tightening its oversight of discharges into the sewer system in response to harmful chemicals detected in January. The agency found PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls), industrial chemicals that were banned by Congress in 1979. The entry point was traced back to FSE grease interceptors where someone had apparently been dumping the chemicals.
The agency said the costs associated with increased oversight would require additional funding from the food service businesses, though exactly how much is yet to be determined. Jones said the fees are not new, though the cost to business owners would be.
“These fees have always been in place, but we never have assessed them to anyone,” he said. “They were subsidized through other means in the past, but now since we’re having to do more, we need to make up the cost.” The fees are currently listed as $75 for a permit once every 3 years, and a $130 annual administrative fee. ReWa will begin assessing fees in early 2014 but it has yet to determine how much of that businesses will now have to pay.
Businesses will also be required to secure their in-ground grease interceptors against unauthorized access and designate a representative to oversee all maintenance of the interceptors. Of the 1,350 FSEs regulated through general permit, 830 will have to have their in-ground grease interceptors certified as secure because they are vulnerable to abuse.
“We can provide training as needed. They just need to be there to open the device to ensure that no one other than who they want to” can access it, Jones said. ReWa will implement a permitting and grease interceptor certification system for FSEs beginning in early 2014 and additional guidance will be available at the first of the year.
ReWa serves more than 400,000 industrial, commercial and residential customers in Greenville County and parts of Anderson, Spartanburg, Pickens and Laurens Counties.
