Davis Waste Removal Company (DWRC) operates the curbside recycling program for the City of Davis. The facility includes a transfer building, shop building, truck wash, truck parking, refueling area, administration building, and storage of recycling, scrap metal and roll-off bins. The facility has one discharge location. In 2010, DWRC was served a 60-day Notice of Intent to Sue by the California Sport Fishing Alliance (CSPA) under Section 505 of the Clean Water Act citing the failure of DWRC to achieve benchmark values for aluminum, copper, iron, zinc, and chemical oxygen demand.
VESTRA served as the first line of defense against CSPA technical staff and worked with DWRC to identify sources of pollution onsite. This included the development of a sampling plan to determine onsite sources of metals, including anthropogenic deposition from the adjoining highway. The sampling plan also included an evaluation of the partitioning of the metals into “dissolved” and “total” to better understand sources and determine possible treatment technologies. Roof runoff at the facility was not separated prior to the CSPA filing and was allowed to co-mingle with storm water. The roof runoff was found to be a source of zinc. Crushed aluminum cans stored outside prior to transport for recycling were found to be a source of elevated pH and aluminum. Other pollution sources were also identified.
Based on the findings of the supplemental sampling, additional BMPs were designed and implemented. These include re-coating of building roofs onsite, paving of a rear storage yard, removal of unused vehicles and waste bins, and the installation of an active treatment system consisting of holding tanks, sand filters, bag filter and, later, the addition of specialized media filter. Since the installation of the additional BMPs and treatment system, measured parameters are now below benchmark values.
Work with DWRC also included updating the site SWPPP, training staff on sample collection and reporting, and negotiation of the final settlement agreement.