Outfalls are points where water emissions are discharged at your facility. Your permits require you to monitor for various pollutants in your outfalls. For example, you may establish an outfall named "001A" that will be monitored to obtain results for several parameters, such as pH, Flow Rate, and Total Organic Carbon. In the Essential Water module, you can keep track of these pollutants that are discharged from your outfalls into surrounding bodies of water, injection wells, land, or other destinations. The destination of emissions is important for reports such as the form R.
In the Essential Water module, an outfall is a process unit that you mark as an Emission Point and assign access to the Water module. Use the Outfall form to view information entered about an outfall on the Process Unit form, assign monitoring parameters, and indicate whether an outfall relates to stormwater emissions. Additionally, text for the Comments field on your discharge monitoring report can be entered in the DMR Comments section.
You can associate the following additional information about an outfall monitoring parameter on the Outfall Parameter Definition form.
Monitoring Result Settings
Parameter Limits
Loading Options
Permit Sample Requirements
Parameter Groups
The form can be accessed in the Monitoring Parameters section on the Outfall form, and once the parameter exists, via the Parameter Definition form.
Enter your outfall monitoring data using the Parameter Group Data Entry form, Sample Quickfill form, or the Parameter Data Entry form. Review parameter results on the Parameter Results View.
For additional instruction on monitoring pollutants for outfalls, click the following links or use the scroll bar to scan the page.
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An outfall is a process unit that you mark as an Emission Point and assign access to the Water module. To establish new outfalls or edit existing outfall setup information, you must open the Process Unit form.
To view outfall information
Click Data
Entry > Outfall Information > Outfalls in the Navigation
Tree.
The Outfalls list appears.
Locate the outfall and click the
enterprise entity link to open the Outfalls
form.
If your outfall is not listed, open the Process
Unit form and add it. You MUST mark the process unit as an
Emission Point and
assign it access to the Water
module.
Expand the General, Location, Monitoring Parameters, and DMR Comments sections when necessary to review existing outfall information.
Designate the Outfall represents stormwater emissions by clicking the Stormwater Emissions check box in the General section.
Enter monitoring parameters and/or DMR comments via the Outfall form. Refer to Assigning Outfall Monitoring Parameters and/or Adding DMR Comments when applicable.
Click the Save button on the form after any edits have been made.
Identify that an outfall or discharge point is related to stormwater runoff in the General section on the Outfall form. Click the Stormwater Emissions check box and click Save. This option allows you to document pollutants in stormwater run off for your operating permits and the form R.
In the Monitoring Parameters section on the Outfall form, assign parameters that you want to monitor for a particular outfall, such as the flow at an outfall. Assigned parameters can be used for SARA reporting or internal reporting only. The SARA Reportable check box in the General section on the Outfall Parameter Definition form determines the reporting state.
To establish a monitoring parameter, select the parameter and a material qualifier (if applicable) and save the record. Material qualifiers indicate that the parameter is material-specific, such as the concentration of benzene in water. The information listed below can be entered on the Outfall Parameter Definition form to specify how you actually monitor the parameter. This information can be the same or different from how your permit requires you to monitor, so you can follow stricter monitoring requirements at your facility. Refer to Parameter Definitions for additional information.
In the General section, enter information about how you sample for a parameter, such as the frequency, type, analytical method, matrix, and determination method. Specify whether monitoring results are SARA reportable and if deviations are to be tracked.
In the Result Settings section, enter a default unit of measure and data origin. Specify whether a data origin and/or a reason for change value is required when monitoring results are entered. Indicate the percentage of the detection limit to use as a result when the result is below an instrument's Detection Limit. In the % Variation From Previous Value fields, define an acceptable variation between the previous parameter result and the current result. When the current result being entered is above or below the percentage limit, a comment is required to save the parameter result record.
In the Permit Sample Information section, set up the permit-driven or corporate performance limits for each monitoring parameter to ensure that the monitoring data you collect complies with your requirements, such as how often you must monitor the parameter. Document your operating permits on the Permit form before you set up the requirements. You can also change how your sampling frequency appears on reports. For example, in Essential, you might indicate the frequency at which you monitor as "Once a Week". However, a report might require you to document the frequency as "1/7". When you enter a user-defined frequency for the parameter in this section, any reports you generate will use this frequency. You can also enter a code for the frequency if it is required by certain reports.
In the outfall Loading Information section, specify how the loading values for the parameter are calculated. A loading value is a quantity of a monitoring parameter over a certain amount of time. An expression that will calculate the quantity from the values of other monitoring parameters can be set up. This section is available only when the Parameter Definition form is accessed via the Water module.
In the Limits section, enter limits, such as minimum/average/maximum quality and quantity, for parameter monitoring results. Indicate whether the monitoring results you collect for the parameter should be greater than or less than the limit. Limits may change depending on the time of year. For example, during the ozone season, air emission limits may be more strict. To accommodate this fluctuation, specify a date range for the limit. The effective and end dates establish the time period when the limits are applicable. These dates allow you to account for time-dependent regulatory requirements and to retain past limit values for historical reporting and recordkeeping.
In the Parameter Groups section, assign a parameter to one or more parameter groups whose results are commonly entered at the same time. Parameter groups can be established on the Parameter Group form.
In the User Defined Properties section, assign properties to track values in emission equations and/or for reporting and recordkeeping purposes. Properties are fixed characteristics of a parameter that do not change over time. Validation criteria for each property can be entered when applicable.
To assign parameters to
an outfall
Click Data
Entry > Outfall Information > Outfalls in the Navigation
Tree.
The Outfalls list appears.
Locate the appropriate outfall, click the enterprise entity link to display the Outfall form, and expand the Monitoring Parameters section when necessary.
Click Add Monitoring Parameter.
Select a Parameter
and Material Qualifier from
the list for each field.
If the appropriate value is not listed, click the Ellipsis
button next to the field and add it.
Enter information in the General
and Result Settings sections
and click Save.
The Permit Sample Information,
Loading Information, Limits, Parameter
Groups, and User Defined Properties
sections are displayed.
Refer to Parameter Definitions for specific information about entering parameter data.
Click the Save
button when all entries have been made and close the window.
The parameter is added as a line item in the Monitoring
Parameters section. Edit existing parameter information using
the buttons adjacent to the line item. Or, open the Parameter
Definition form for the outfall.
Repeat steps 3 through 7 to assign another parameter to the outfall.
In the DMR Comments section on the Outfall form, enter text that you want to appear in the Comments field on your discharge monitoring report, such as "Only sampled one time this month because water level was too low." You can enter a comment specific to an outfall, permit-effective date, and date range. Using the start and end dates, you can control the time period when a comment appears on a report. For example, you could write a comment to appear on all DMR reports generated for Outfall 003B regulated by permit 125-12/01/96 between 1/1/11 and 1/31/11, and you could write a different comment to appear on all reports generated for the same outfall-permit effective date between 2/1/11 and 2/28/11. Or, if an outfall operates under multiple permits, you can type different comments applicable to specific permits.
Note:
The comment start date must chronologically precede the comment
end date. If you plan to use the same comment on all reports generated
for a specific outfall-permit-effective date combination, you can specify
a longer range of dates that you can edit (if necessary) in the future.
To enter DMR comments for
an outfall
Tip: Just one set of comments can be entered for a given
permit-outfall-date range combination.
Click Data
Entry > Outfall Information > Outfalls in the Navigation
Tree.
The Outfalls list appears.
Locate the appropriate outfall, click the enterprise entity link to display the Outfall form, and expand the DMR Comments section when necessary.
Click Add DMR Comment.
Select a Permit
- Effective Date combination from the list.
If the appropriate value is not listed, click the Ellipsis
button and add it.
Enter a Comment Start Date that represents the first date the comment text should be displayed on your generated DMRs. The Calendar button is available to select the date.
Enter a Comment End Date that represents the last date the comment text should be displayed on your generated DMRs. The Calendar button is available to select the date.
Enter the Comment text and click Save.
Add other DMR Comments by clicking New and repeating steps 4 through 7 to add other comments.
Click Close.
Comment information is displayed as a line item in the DMR
Comments section. Edit existing comment information using the
buttons adjacent to the line item.
Click the Save button on the form.
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