PAGE: 1 of 2 / REPLACES POLICY DATED: 1/12/99, 11/1/2005 (DC.13)
EFFECTIVE DATE: May 1, 2007 / POLICY NUMBER: ENV.013
APPROVED BY: Ethics and Compliance Policy Committee
SCOPE: All Company-affiliated facilities including hospitals, ambulatory surgery centers, outpatient imaging centers, medical office buildings, home health agencies, physician practices, and all Corporate Departments, Groups and Divisions and on-site subcontractors.
PURPOSE: To require that each facility properly manages wastewater discharge in accordance with applicable U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulations.
POLICY:
1.Facilities must properly manage wastewater discharge in accordance with applicable EPA regulations, as well as state laws and regulations that may impose additional compliance requirements. Each facility should consult with Corporate Engineering and Facility Management and the facility’s Operations Counsel to identifyadditional requirements.
2.Municipal wastewater treatment plantscontrol discharge into city/county sewers. Discharge of priority pollutants and certain chemicals are normally prohibited by the municipality. A facility must review in detail the prohibited discharges contained in the local sewer use ordinance. The facility’s hazardous waste management plan must list those materials that cannot be flushed down to the sewer.
3.If a facility treats and discharges wastewater directly to lake, river, ocean, or cistern, the facility must hold aNation Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit. The facility must comply with all permit conditions listed in the NPDES permit.
4.If a facility is classified as a significant industrial user, and the municipal wastewater system requires a pretreatment permit, facility personnel must implement a monitoring program as required in the pretreatment permit.
5.Facilities must skim grease or floatable substances from wastewater discharged to public sewers.
6.If a fuel spill occurs that reaches the sanitary sewer or a storm sewer, facility personnel must activate the environmental emergency response plan, and the city/county wastewater treatment plant must be notified immediately.
PROCEDURE:
- Each facility must have a pretreatment permit from the city/county, an NPDES permit from the state water control agency, or verification that a pretreatment permit from the municipality is not required.
- If a facility is subject to a pretreatment permit or NPDES permit, monitoring and effluent testing must be performed by a certified laboratory in accordance with the permit conditions.
- Facilities must separate waste materials containing metals (such as silver, lead, barium, and mercury) and organic solvents (such as xylene, formalin) from the wastewater and disposeof them separately as hazardous waste.
- Facilities must not discharge petroleum products, such as gasoline, diesel, kerosene, and used motor oil to the wastewater.
- Facilities must properly and safely dilute acid discharges to the sanitary sewer with copious amounts of water.
- Facilities must never connect roof drains, sump discharge, parking lot drains, or storm water catchments to the sanitary sewer.
- Facilities that discharge wastewater containing grease or floatable substances must install grease traps to skim off the grease before wastewater can be discharged to the public sewer. Facility personnel must carry out proper maintenance of the grease trap and proper disposal of waste grease.
- Facilities must implement silver recovery in the Radiology Department where film processing units are in operation.
- If a facility plans to start a construction project that will disturb more than 5 acres of land, the construction manager responsible for the project must obtain, or have the general contractor obtain, an NPDES storm water discharge permit from EPA and/or the state, at least 90 days before the site work starts. Permit conditions must be met during the construction. After construction is complete, a certificate of completion must be filed with EPA and/or the state by theconstruction manager, general contractor, or architect. A copy of this NPDES permit and the certificate of completion must be provided to Corporate Engineering and Facility Management.
RECORDKEEPING:
A compliance file must include at least:- City/County Sewer Use Ordinance;
- Waste grease disposal contract and removal record; and
- Pretreatment monitoring/effluent sampling and testing records.
REFERENCES:
Federal Regulation 40 CFR125, EPA National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System
40 CFR 136, EPA Regulation on Test Procedures for the Analysis of Pollutants
HCA Hazardous Waste Management Plan
4/2007