Facility Planning Services

HydroQual’s comprehensive ability to model the behavior of conventional water quality parameters (e.g., BOD5/BODU, dissolved oxygen, suspended solids, pathogens, nutrients, color, pH, floatables, unionized ammonia toxicity) in a variety of receiving waters (i.e., rivers, lakes, streams, estuaries, impoundments, embayments, coastal ocean etc.) provides the framework for assisting dischargers in performing facility planning projects.

HydroQual’s range of facility planning services includes evaluations of potential benefits/impacts to receiving waters associated with:

• wastewater treatment plant upgrade and expansion
• outfall relocation
• outfall aggregation/bubble permits
• increased CSO capture
• temporary bypass
• temporarily deteriorated effluent quality associated with facility construction

Further, HydroQual’s facility planning services may include the calculation of allowable effluent limits given a new or anticipated receiving water quality standard or the determination of Water Quality Based Effluent Limits (WQBELs). HydroQual’s approach to these projects is often innovative, taking advantage of variability inherent in background conditions and effluent discharge quality, for example.

HydroQual has performed numerous facility planning projects for the New York City Department of Environmental Protection and other permitted dischargers in the NY/NJ Harbor Estuary including STP upgrades, planned bypasses, construction-impacted effluents, effluent relocation, and effluent aggregation/bubble permitting. Additionally, HydroQual has performed similar services for other municipal and industrial private sector clients in a variety of locations. A critical success factor in many of these projects has been HydroQual’s ability to demonstrate the validity of the results and findings to the regulatory entities involved (i.e., local water boards, state environmental agencies, the proximal EPA region(s)).