Industrial Pretreatment Program

If the IPP has determined if a business is a significant industrial user (SIU), that business will be required to have a sewer use permit.

A sewer use permit application package is available which includes a copy of the City’s sewer use ordinance, an application form for the permit including permit conditions, and any promulgated federal categorical pretreatment standards that apply.

Permit conditions are based upon discharge characteristics and limitations imposed by the City’s Ordinance. They are developed to ensure the proper operation of the wastewater collection and treatment system. As new Federal or local requirements are promulgated, affected industrial users will be notified, and your permits will be modified.

The Sewer use permit must be renewed every three years, and these reapplications will be used, in part, to detect any modifications in processes or wastewater characteristics. Additionally, industries required to have a sewer use permit must notify the IPP of any new or increased contribution of pollutants that were not initially indicated in their permit applications.

If you have questions regarding sewer use permits, or wastewater generated by your business, please contact the Industrial Pretreatment Program at 970-350-9363.

The monitoring portion of the Industrial Pretreatment Program includes significant industrial user (SIU) wastewater sampling and inspections. This is the greatest source of industrial discharge data available to IPP personnel. Scheduled compliance monitoring is used to determine compliance with the City’s Sewer Use Ordinance, to develop user charges, and to provide data needed for required reports.

Sampling and analysis must also be conducted by the industry. This is called self-monitoring. To help ensure that proper sampling and analysis techniques are being followed, please refer to our sampling protocol documents, Wastewater Sampling Procedures and Wastewater Flow Meter Accuracy Verification Guidelines.

Regulations require all industrial and commercial users to provide the Industrial Pretreatment Program a notification of hazardous wastes discharged to the sanitary sewer system. You can check the EPA's definition of hazardous waste to determine if your waste meets any part of the definition. Industrial and commercial users can also check to see if any chemicals, solvents, or other hazardous materials are listed on the EPA's Lists of Hazardous Materials .

A Hazardous Waste Notification Questionnaire must be completed by all industrial and commercial users. The questionnaire consists of three (3) parts. Part I requests general information about your business. Part II requests information pertaining to hazardous wastes. Part III is a certification statement that requires your signature and date. If your business has several outfalls, then a separate notification for each outfall must be submitted.

The IPP has provided assistance to several SIU's setting up automatic samplers and flow meters. If your business is having any difficulties with self-monitoring equipment or procedures, please contact us.

The Silver BMP Program is a program designed to address the discharge of silver by the local business community into the sewer system.

The Silver Best Management Practices program is based on an approach known as the Code of Management Practices (CMP). The CMP was developed by the Silver Council and the Association of Metropolitan Sewerage Agencies (AMSA). It is designed to encourage silver users to minimize the release of silver to wastewater treatment facilities, increase water conservation, maximize silver recovery, and protect the environment and wastewater treatment plant.

The CMP combines current technology and pollution prevention practices to ensure that silver is reduced in the waste stream in a cost-effective but environmentally sound manner. It is a performance-based approach that imposes fewer burdens on silver users and regulators alike.

Program Details and Documents

On-site recovery option: This applies to your business if you have a silver recovery unit on your x-ray or film processor. Listed below are the requirements of the Silver BMP Program. Along with your original category determination, all log forms and maintenance records must be kept on site for a minimum of three years.

Weekly: With your silver test strips, check the fixer going into your silver recovery unit, and then check the waste coming out of the unit into the drain pipe. As indicated in your program notebook, this will indicate a pass/fail situation regarding your cartridge. If the cartridge fails, arrange to have it replaced immediately. Log your weekly silver test results on this form: Weekly Log

Annually: Conduct analytical tests to verify silver recovery percentages for Silver BMP requirements. The Industrial Pretreatment Program (IPP) will collect the sample and deliver it to the laboratory. Record the results on the following form: Annual Log

Annually: Submit your Letter of Participation: Letter of Participation

Record any maintenance performed, such as a cartridge replacement, on the Equipment Maintenance Log: Equipment Maintenance

Off-site recovery (zero discharge) option: This applies to your business if no silver-rich solutions, such as fixer, are discharged to the local wastewater treatment system. The silver-rich solutions are transported off site for treatment. Listed below are the requirements of the Silver BMP Program. Your logbook should contain the dates and amounts of silver-rich waste hauled, receipts/invoices, manifests, and your category determination. Along with your original category determination, all log forms and manifests must be kept on-site for a minimum of three years.

Annually: Submit your Letter of Participation: Letter of Participation

Annually: Submit your Zero Discharge Certification: Zero Discharge

Each time silver-rich solutions are transported off-site for treatment, fill out the Off-Site Chemical Log and keep your manifests: Off Site Recovery

In response to a large volume of calls regarding sewer lines blocked with fat, oil and grease, the IPP created a training video for restaurant personnel. The video provides training on grease interceptors, demonstrating how they work, causes of malfunction, and the need for regular maintenance. Click here for information regarding Grease Interceptor Policy and Procedures.

Improper disposal of grease may impact a restaurant business in many ways. If grease builds up in drains and sewer lines, sewage can back up into the floor drains, restrooms and sinks. It can then expose people inside your establishment, other businesses and homes to raw sewage.

A significant grease blockage may also interrupt operation of your business and others on your sewer line. If your business is responsible, the costs of having the affected sewer lines cleaned and other property damage may be charged back to you. The IPP is dedicated to preventing grease blockages. This video demonstrates simple but effective ways to keep potential damages to a minimum.

We call these Best Management Practices (BMPs). The main principle to remember is: Keep as much grease as possible from going down the drain. Download a copy of the Food Service Establishment BMP Manual for your facility.

1. Avoid the use of a garbage disposal.
2. Keep waste grease buckets handy.
3. Boil out deep fryers only when necessary.
4. Avoid the use of microbial and enzymatic cleaners.
5. Dump mop water only through drains connected to your grease interceptor.
6. Clean your grease interceptor or trap frequently.

To help prevent Fats, Oil and Grease (FOG) blockages in the City’s sewer system, a new FOG BMP is being implemented. The program requirements are that the FSE review the BMP as outlined, and completing a certification form.

To order a video, or for more information, please call Eddie Trevino at 970-350-9724. The video is available in English and Spanish. Greeley restaurants may obtain the video free of charge. Other pretreatment programs may order it for a small fee, with the option of having it personalized with your program's name and telephone number. You may also download a video order form as a PDF file, and fax it back to: 970-350-9366.

The Greeley Wastewater Treatment and Reclamation Facility does not accept hauled wastewater or portable toilet waste for treatment.

Pollution Prevention through Elementary Education, or P2E2, is an education and awareness program developed by the City of Greeley Industrial Pretreatment Program. It was originally developed for 4th or 5th grade students, although it can be adapted to fit the needs of middle school students as well. P2E2 is comprised of four different modules that can be checked out from the City to teach in your classroom. The modules cover different subjects relating to water, wastewater and the environment. Water Pollution Control Facility staff is available to help teach the P2E2 modules.

P2E2 Brochure

The wastewater story

Wastewater is cleaned using processes similar to those in nature, except treatment plants allow the processes to occur at a much faster rate.

• Take a tour of the Water Pollution Control Facility and learn the processes.
• Learn how to apply a flow chart to the processes.
• Apply classroom learning to real-life situations.
• Learn about the different careers in the wastewater treatment field.

The microbiology of wastewater

• Microorganisms perform the majority of the work when wastewater is cleaned.
• Learn how to properly use a microscope.
• Learn how to identify and count microorganisms.
• Learn how different chemicals affect the microorganisms.

Water conservation

• Water is a precious resource that many people waste without even realizing.
• Learn how to audit your home to see where water might be wasted.
• Learn how to calculate the total amount of water wasted per year.
• Learn simple methods to conserve water in your home.

Hazardous household products and their alternatives

• Many household products can be hazardous to you or your environment.
• Learn how to recognize these products by ”signal words”.
• Experiment with alternative cleaning methods and products.
• Compare and contrast the hazardous vs. non-hazardous products.

History of the Clean Water Act and the Cache La Poudre River

This PowerPoint presentation examines the history of the Clean Water Act and the Cache La Poudre River. Includes archive photos of the Cuyahoga River, which caught fire in 1952, and the effects of the paper mills on the Wisconsin River. The slide show includes a brief history of the Cache La Poudre River and its connection to Greeley. This is an excellent presentation showing a photo history of Greeley's relationship with the Cache La Poudre River.

Water Is Life, and Infrastructure Makes It Happen™

Earth is the only planet known to have stable bodies of liquid water. Humans, who can last a month without food, die after a week without water. Most of us are not aware of the vast network of reservoirs, plants and pipes - infrastructure - that provides, processes, and treats our water. As the United States developed, life-sustaining investments in water and wastewater infrastructure have ensured that clean, safe water is available. This PowerPoint presentation provides some of the little known facts regarding our infrastructure!

Healthy Stream Exercise

Students can learn about the health of a stream by looking at the diversity of aquatic insects in that stream. The Water Environment Federation or WEF has created an exercise that examines the types and populations of various aquatic organisms and correlates this information to the health of the stream that these organisms live in. The exercise, Indicating Insects, instructs children how to set up and collect the data needed to determine the health or quality of the stream. Please be sure to download the indicating insects data sheet needed to record the information collected.

Video Library 

The IPP and WPCF have started a video library that consists of DVD's related to water and wastewater issues. Therefore, schools, educators and other organizations can borrow the following titles by the History Channel's Modern Marvels series:

City Water

Follow the flow in cities like New York, Chicago and Los Angeles.

Get the inside scoop on how 99% of Americans get their water.

See what the next generation of water tech may bring.

When we turn on a faucet, we expect clean, pure water to flow out. We also expect our cities to provide ample water for industry, fighting fires, and cleaning streets. Public water supply systems in the United States serve about 267 million people--about 99 percent of the population--but most of us know little about the vast networks of aqueducts, pipes, and pumps that make this possible.

City Water Systems examines how clean water gets to millions of taps in Chicago, New York City, and Los Angeles, as well as telling the colorful history of the water systems in those cities. Along the way, Modern Marvelsdocuments the history of public water systems worldwide, from the time of the pharaohs to today. Finally, we'll get a glimpse of cutting-edge modern technologies, including a new state-of-the-art desalination plant in Tampa, Florida.

Sewers

Experts debunk urban myths and reveal surprising true tales.

Follow the flow through sewage history.

Meet a man whose job it is to dive in this hidden underworld.

A simple flush and it's forgotten. But haven't you secretly wondered where it all goes when we go? Join Modern Marvels to explore this less-than-polite topic, and examine the network of underground pipes and tunnels that carries human waste (and much else) away. SEWERS flows through history from ancient Rome's pristine sewage-conveying systems, through the foul, out-the-window system of Europe in the Middle Ages, and into the revolutionary sanitation engineering of the 19th and 20th centuries. Delve into the sewers of Paris, Boston, and Los Angeles to study waste management's evolution. Meet a sewer diver (and his robotic counterpart) who inspects and ensures the efficient operation of the conduits; decipher the myths about "treasures" and creatures found in the murky depths; and find out exactly where it goes, how it gets there, and how we've learned to use it to our benefit.

Liquid Assets: The Story Of Our Water Infrastructure

It may be out of sight and out of mind, but aged and crumbling water infrastructure is threatening our public health, the environment, economic prosperity and even our quality of life! This 90 minute, $1 million documentary project produced by Penn State Public Broadcasting highlights the current state of our nation’s essential water, wastewater and stormwater infrastructure.