Supporting Regulatory Compliance Strategies through Water Quality Modeling

摘要

This manuscript summarizes the value Citizens Energy Group has realized by using water quality modeling to develop compliance strategies for its combined sewer overflow (CSO) Consent Decree and National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permits. Citizens is presently implementing a 20-year LTCP with required completion in 2025 and has an NPDES permit for two advanced wastewater treatment (AWT) plants. Both the Consent Decree and permit are derived from instream water quality standards (WQS). Citizens utilizes an integrated collection system and water quality model to evaluate the impacts of CSO and AWT plant discharges to instream water quality for bacteria and dissolved oxygen (DO). The dissolved oxygen model includes the effects of nitrogen, phosphorus, sediment oxygen demand, and algae (Rubchinskaya et. al, 2015).