Industrial Pretreatment

The Environmental Services Section administers the Industrial Pretreatment Program as mandated by the Federal Clean Water Act. This program regulates local businesses and industries and provides information to them concerning their wastewater discharges. This section also inspects and monitors these discharges in order to protect the wastewater treatment plants, workers, sewer system and the receiving stream.

All new commercial businesses wishing to locate within the City of Gainesville should complete an Industrial Pretreatment Permit application. After reviewing the application, the Environmental Services staff will make a decision as to what level permitting is required.

The City of Gainesville has two classifications of industrial users; the first classification is a Significant Industrial User, and the second is an Industrial User. All perspective users that meet any of the six categories listed below shall be subject to both Permitting and Industrial Pretreatment.

Industrial Classification Information

Significant Industrial User (SIU) is based on one or more of the following criteria:

1.	Discharges 25,000 gallons per day or more of wastewater;
2.	Contributes a waste stream which makes up five percent or more of the average dry weather hydraulic or organic capacity of the treatment plant;
3.	Contains in its waste a priority pollutant in amounts as defined in standards issued under Section 307 (a) of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act;
4.	Impacts, either singly or in combination with other contributing industries, on the treatment works or upon the quality of effluent from the treatment works as found by the control authority, in connection with the issuance of a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination permit to the public owned treatment works receiving the waste;
5.	Is designated as such by the City of Gainesville on the basis that the industrial user has a reasonable potential for adversely affecting the publicly owned treatment works operation or for violating any pretreatment standard or requirement or;
6.	Is subject to Categorical Pretreatment Standards

If the perspective user does not meet the categories listed above, the application will be reviewed to determine what level of management will be required to comply with local ordinances.

Industrial User

Any nonresidential user of a publicly owned treatment works which discharges up to the equivalent of 25,000 gallons per day of process wastewater and/or contaminated non-process wastewater and in the opinion of the Director may have a significant impact, either singly or in combination with other contributing industries, on the treatment works or upon the quality of effluent from the treatment works.

For further information or to obtain an Industrial Pretreatment application, contact our Industrial Pretreatment Coordinator, Erik Lunsford, or our Environmental Services Administrator, Horace Gee at 770-532-7462.