NPDES permits are a tool for ensuring the protection of our national waters and ultimately restoring impaired waterways back to the goal of “fishable and swimmable.” There are many factors and considerations that go into the development of limits for an individual discharge permit in the United States. Limits determination for industrial permittees can be especially complicated. While most applicants will submit a permit application and wait for the permitting agency to issue a draft permit with limits, understanding the basis of the limits and how the limits are developed is a first step to understanding that there are several options for an applicant to propose, negotiate and/or justify alternative limits, when the projected effluent limits are technically challenging and/or are prohibitively costly for the discharger. Mr. Kissell will present the basis for how permit limits are developed and will discuss alternative methods by which applicants may seek to demonstrate / justify alternative limits while still meeting the NPDES intent for protecting water quality. The discussion will include case examples where various approaches have proven effective.
Tuesday, September 10, 2:00-2:45 pm
Presenter
Jeffrey Kissell, Senior Managing Consultant, Ramboll
Jeff Kissell is an environmental engineer with more than 25 years of industrial water and wastewater process consulting and operations experience. Mr. Kissell advises manufacturing and other industrial clients in understanding their often complex wastewater issues and managing wastewater projects. He assists clients with improving operations of existing facilities by providing training and data management tools, and with implementing new treatment systems or upgrades to existing treatment systems by helping the clients define and manage their projects, including developing the design basis, evaluating technology options, preparing bid documents and specifications for required equipment and services, and interpreting submittals, as wastewater treatment is usually very different than the client’s core business. Mr. Kissell is a technology expert and an exceptional problem solver who can objectively evaluate each client’s facilities to identify sources of perceived issues and/or opportunities to improve performance and operability while reducing costs. Mr. Kissell has also served as a course instructor for Educational Training Courses on NPDES permitting. He has worked for both domestic and international clients representing many types of industries, including food and beverage; home and beauty care; petroleum refining; chemical manufacturing; metals finishing; electronics manufacturing; iron and steel; aluminum; power generation; oil and gas; petroleum and coal coke production; chloralkali; rum distilling; munitions manufacturing; and landfill leachate. Mr. Kissell is a Senior Managing Consultant with Ramboll, a global architecture, engineering, and consultancy company founded in Denmark in 1945.
