Treatment Works Approval

DIVISION: Water Quality - Municipal Financing & Construction Element
GENERAL PHONE NUMBER: (609) 984-6840
FAX NUMBER: (609) 633-8165
WEB SITE

PROGRAM DESCRIPTION:

This program governs the Treatment Works Approval (TWA), the Capacity Assurance Program (CAP) and the Sewer Ban Programs. The primary objective of these programs is to prevent degradation of the water of the state due to inadequately designed and/or poorly operated wastewater treatment and conveyance facilities. The TWA program regulates the construction and operation of domestic and industrial wastewater collection, conveyance and treatment systems. In general, TWA permits are required for building, installing, operating or modifying domestic and industrial treatment works including sewer extensions, sewage treatment systems, holding tanks, equalization tanks, residual treatment units and wastewater treatment and recycling systems.

The CAP is a regulatory tool by which the department and the affected treatment works owner/operator use a cooperative effort approach to assure future capacity at treatment facilities to enable continued growth in the service area communities. When the committed flow to a treatment works reaches 80 percent of permitted capacity, a CAP is instituted. This requires the exploration of measures that can be taken to assure future capacity. Through discussion and implementation of these measures, future capacity can be assured and an overload of the facility, which can lead to violations of discharge limits and penalties, can be avoided.

The Sewer Ban program is a means by which additional pollution from severely malfunctioning and/or overloaded facilities is prevented. The effect of a sewer connection ban is that no additional flow can be introduced into the treatment works, unless a sewer ban exemption is granted. This ban is in effect until the plant or conveyance facilities are again in compliance.

MONETARY ASSISTANCE PROVIDED:

Low cost loans are available to public entities for qualified projects through the New Jersey Environmental Infrastructure Financing (NJEIT) Program.

PERMITTING RESPONSIBILITIES:

This program reviews TWA applications to ensure that the design of the wastewater infrastructure associated with a proposed project complies with departmental regulations. For projects that are subject to the TWA regulations, a TWA permit is required prior to initiation of construction of a project. A TWA permit is issued to those projects that meet the standards.

To obtain a sewer ban exemption, an applicant would determine if their project qualifies under at least one of the sewer ban exemption criteria stated in N.J.A.C. 7:14A-22.22. If the criteria is met, an "Application for Exemption From a Sewer Connection Ban" (Form WFR-001) must be submitted, along with any supporting documentation to the public entity under ban for their approval. If approved by the public entity, the application is then submitted to this office for the department's concurrence

For those projects located in an area subject to a sewer ban, the project would be required to obtain a sewer ban exemption prior to issuance of a TWA.

PUBLICATIONS AVAILABLE:

None