SITE INFORMATION AND CORRESPONDENCE

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ORDER NO.R5-2002-0148 - 4 - INFORMATION 4 -INFORMATION SHEET MUSCO FAMILY OLIVE COMPANY AND THE STUDLEY COMPANY WASTEWATER TREATMENT AND LAND DISPOSAL FACILITY SAN JOAQUIN COUNTY The tentative WDRs contain the Discharger's proposed flow limit of 800,000 gpd (as a monthly average), subject to a number of additional restrictions. Application of wastewater on the land application areas and then bypassing the wastewater/stormwater mix may result in discharge of wastewater off site, a situation that is expressly prohibited by the WDRs. Therefore, the tentative WDRs included a prohibition against applying wastewater during the three months (December-February) when stormwater bypass is proposed and when the water balance indicates that wastewater will not be applied to land. In response to the tentative WDRs, the Discharger asked that this prohibition be removed. Staff are uncertain how the Discharger will be able to irrigate the LTUs during the winter and still be able to bypass stormwater. However, this proposed prohibition has been deleted with the Discharger's understanding that, as described in the last paragraph of this section, there is a higher likelihood that it may need to cease production at its facility if it has to collect more stormwater than anticipated. Because of the uncertainties of tailwater generation and the importance to preparation of any future water balances, it is reasonable to require monitoring of the amount of tailwater generated. The Discharger has verbally described a plan (but has yet submitted a written description)to collect tailwater from the application areas in collection ditches and return the water to the storage pond in a sump/pump/piping arrangement. Monitoring of the tailwater will allow a better evaluation of the flow rate for fixture preparation of water balances. The monitoring might consist of totalizing meters or pump run time meters. If pump run time meters are used, annual calibration of the meters should be required because the Discharger has reported inaccurate metered flow rates in the wastewater discharge self- monitoring data. The Discharger also needs to either directly measure, or accurately estimate, the amount of stormwater which runs off the land application area and is collected in the storage pond. Finally, because the water balance contains optimistic assumptions, it is reasonable to include a requirement to cease the discharge to the either the 1-Mgal settling pond or the 84-Mgal storage pond if the freeboard in either is less than two feet at any time. This will minimize the possibility of spilling wastewater into the natural surface water drainage. The Discharger is also required to inform Regional Board staff of the freeboard violation immediately. REGULATORY CRITERIA Based on the available information regarding groundwater quality, the wastewater contains higher concentration of DIS, sodium, and chloride than the groundwater. It may also contain other analytes in concentrations higher than the underlying groundwater. The discharge is nonhazardous, but exhibits characteristics of"designated waste," as defined by CWC Section 13173(b), as the concentrations of some waste constituents when applied to land have potential for causing exceedances of water quality objectives or affecting beneficial uses. The discharge contains decomposable waste constituents (e.g., organic carbon and nutrient compounds) and inorganic dissolved solids in concentrations orders of magnitude greater than water quality objectives.