Yes, Penn State does have water quality standards and guidelines for water discharges that follow the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Water Act standards. In addition, the university has a Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permitting for all discharges to the environment.
University policy SY40 Disposal of Pollutants in University Sanitary Systems prohibits the disposal of materials that could:
- adversely affect the general public or wastewater personnel in the course of their work;
- interfere with the operation of the University Sanitary Sewer system;
- pass through inadequately treated into the environment or otherwise be incompatible with the University Sanitary System; or
- interfere with the safe reuse and recycling of wastewater and sludge from the University Sanitary System or local Sewer Authority providing sanitary sewer service to the Campus.
Since 1983, spray application of all University Park wastewater goes onto a Living Filter to recharge the groundwater. Begun as a research project in 1962, the Penn State Waste Water Renovation and Conservation project demonstrated that treated effluent could be successfully recycled back into the water supply when applied to agricultural land under the right conditions. Today, the university pumps hundreds of millions of gallons of waste water each year to land north of the university where, instead of being discharged into streams, it is sprayed on agricultural and forest land, and eventually replenishes local groundwater supplies.
Learn more about Penn State’s Progress on SDG 14 HERE.
