Wastewater: When Stone Isn’t Natural

While each shop owner weighs the cost of a reliable water source against the bottom line, wastewater is often more than an individual pocketbook issue. The reason: Many people like to think they’re producing a completely safe and natural by-product, but that isn’t always the case.
Even when it is nothing more than water and stone dust, it’s an area that local, state and the federal governments can regulate, according to Bill Miller, a director of environmental services with the Albany, N.Y.-based Continental Placer Inc. (CPI), a consulting company that works in the fields of geology, geophysics, hydrology and environmental management.
“The process of cutting the stone and having the wash water mix with the dust can indeed change the chemistry of the water,” says Miller.
One of the most common situations involves the cutting and polishing of marble or other carbonates. Discharging wash water into a stream or other body of water from that process could increase its pH level. Still another concern is that lubricants from equipment could add petroleum-based products to the water.
“If you’re putting it down the drain and that drain discharges to a wastewater-treatment plant, there are probably some requirements for water quality based on effluent limits on that discharge,” says Miller.
However, if you’re discharging into a stream, then it’s likely that – depending on the jurisdiction – you’ll need either a national pollution discharge elimination system permit (NPDES) or a state pollution discharge elimination system permit (SPDES).
That permit will likely have water-quality effluent limits for pH. There might also be a turbidity limit or a total suspended solids (TSS) limit, a total dissolved solids (TDS) limit or other parameters.
For shops that are simply dumping their used water on dry land, Miller says the long-term news isn’t good either. Although the federal government believes anything that goes on the ground could affect groundwater and it should be regulated, most states and local entities haven’t taken that position.
That seems to be changing, though. For instance, Miller cites Long Island, N.Y., where anyone discharging water on the ground now must obtain a SPDES permit or an underground injection control (UIC) permit.
“Not only are there a lot of people there, but they get most of their drinking water from underground aquifers,” he says. “Some other states are also starting to pick up on that, such as California and New Jersey.”
Miller readily admits that water quality issues aren’t necessarily at the top of government mining regulators’ concerns, nor are the practices of individual shops – now. However, for business owners who want to learn how to be in compliance or are concerned they may not be, simply calling up your nearest environmental agency isn’t necessarily a smart thing to do.
Instead, he recommends contacting a company (such as his) that understands the issues and the way the regulations work to perform a compliance audit.
“It’s safer to have a consultant do a compliance audit,” he says. “If you go to the regulators, they might fine you if something is wrong. An intermediary can identify the problem and help you work out a way to come into compliance and avoid potential repercussions.”

This article first appeared in the April 2005 print edition of Stone Business. ©2005 Western Business Media Inc.