Environmental Conditions of Illinois
Water Resources
Excess Pollutant Load Discharged
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 The
percentage of non-compliant pollutant load discharged by the priority
targeted facilities in the year 2000 will be less than 0.5 percent of
the total permitted pollutant load discharged by these same facilities.
 All
wastewater discharged from industrial or municipal sources into Illinois
waterways must meet certain limits on pollutant discharges. These limits
are set to prevent violation of the receiving waters. Exceedences of these
permit limits are an indication of additional stress that is placed on
our water resources. The Goal Attainment Figure illustrates the percentage
of excess pollutant load discharged during 1995 and 1996 from 325 priority
targeted facilities. As illustrated, the percent of excess pollutant load
discharged by the priority targeted facilities during 1995 was 0.79 percent
and the percent of excess pollutant load discharged during 1996 was 0.49
percent. In other words, the goal for the year 2000 of less than 0.5 percent
was achieved for the initial group of 325 priority targeted facilities!
By identifying critical watersheds and facilities with significant levels
of noncompliant load, the Agency prioritized its efforts at eliminating
the most significant impacts to our water resources. Achieving the goal
in the first year of this targeted activity indicates that this prioritization
effort is an effective tool at reducing excess pollutant loading. In view
of this apparent success, the Illinois EPA will expand the target group
of facilities for next year and continue efforts to further reduce excesses
(non-compliant) pollutant loads.
The NPDES Facility Excess Pollutant Loads Figure provides a more detailed illustration
of the pollutant load excess percent by individual facilities within targeted watersheds.
As shown, the excess during 1996 was less than 0.5 percent for 209 facilities, greater
than 0.5 percent but less than 10 percent for 69 facilities, and greater than 10 percent
for 47 facilities. Data for both figures were obtained from priority targeted watershed
facilities which include large (major) dischargers (268) and small (minor) facilities of
concern (57).
Conventional vs. Priority Pollutants
Further analysis of these exceedances shows that 99.7 percent of the excess pollutant
loading relates to conventional pollutants and only 0.3 percent to priority pollutants
(toxics). |
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