Surcharge Rates
REGION 8 PRETREATMENT CONFERENCE
2017 DEADWOOD SOUTH DAKOTA
What are Surcharge Rates?
A sanitary sewer surcharge is imposed on an
industrial user for discharges containing
concentrations of Biochemical Oxygen Demand
(BOD) and Total Suspended Solids (TSS)
exceeding acceptable values.
What are Surcharge Rates?
When all customers contribute wastewater of comparable
strength, a simple charge based on flow will result in equitable
cost recovery. However, if a customer discharges a waste which,
because of its characteristics, requires treatment which is more
costly than that required by normal strength wastes, then that
customer should bear the extra cost. For the purpose of this study,
a normal strength waste is one which has the general
characteristics of domestic wastewater.
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What are Surcharge Rates?
A Surcharge program is a procedure for recovering costs
incurred while treating high strength waste discharged by
industrial (SIU Surcharge Program) and commercial users
(Customer Classes) into the wastewater system.
It is an additional charge made to a customer that
discharges high strength wastewater that is amenable to
treatment by the wastewater system but that exceeds the
strength of normal wastewater.
What are Surcharge Rates?
Additional fees for treating wastewater
above normal domestic strength.
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When Should Surcharge
Rates Be Implemented?
Clean Water Act Options
Quantity/Quality Approach
Surcharge Limit Approach
When Have Surcharge Rates
Been Implemented?
100
80
60
40
20
AMSA Data
0
1970 1980 1990 2000
What are Typical Surcharge Rates?
Ave Baseline
MTAS (14
WWTPs) Ave Range Concentration Baseline Range
BOD 0.24 .06-.68 305 240-450
TSS 0.19 .072-.68 336 250-500
O&G 0.26 .045-.68 94 50-100
NH3 0.47 .35-2.0 40 15-45
TKN 2 45 30-60
P 2 10 10
COD 0.05 800 800
What are Typical Surcharge Rates?
Surcharge Rate Trends
30
24
18
12
0
1975 1980 1985 1990 1992 1995 2000 2004
Will rates go up?
Commodity price increases
Conservation
Aging Infrastructure
AMSA data indicate rates are re-evaluated and
reset every 4 years on average
How Should Surcharge Rates
Be Determined?
By a State of the Art
Lotus 123 Computer
Program
(1992)
Lotus 123 Directions
If you follow the directions, you shouldn't have any
difficulty. However, if you become completely lost or
enter the wrong information the program can be
stopped by holding down the CRTL key and pressing
BREAK once. After pressing this key sequence an error
message will flash on the screen; just press ENTER
once and then re-load the program from the disk to re-
start. This is usually not necessary; even if the
information entered is incorrect, the program will still
run through to completion.
How Should Surcharge Rates
Be Determined?
Design Basis –
What is the principal
parameter for which a
treatment process is
included in a treatment
plant
Design Basis
Allocation based on engineering design
criteria
Less administrative burden
How Should Surcharge Rates
Be Determined?
Functional Basis -
- What effect
does the
treatment
process have on
a constituent
Functional Basis
Allocation based on process efficiency
Requires operational data to determine
How Should Surcharge Rates
Be Determined?
Hybrid Basis --
May treat capital
and O&M costs
differently
Hybrid Basis
Capital costs may be allocated based
on design while O&M allocaation
may be based on function
Requires use of Best Professional
Judgement (BPJ)
What are the implementation
risks?
Implementation requires legal authority
How reasonable are the rates
Can the methodology be documented
Is the surcharge equitable
Impacts of Surcharge Rates
Elected or Appointed Board Members
WWTP Personnel and Managers
Industries
Impacts of Rates
Pretreatment Surcharge Rate
Case Study
Purpose
Establish a technical basis for the surcharge
rates assessed by the SVWRF
Key Issues
Two tiered rate structure
Commercial and Industrial
No data on how existing rates were determined
Discussions on nutrient limitation proposals
Wastewater Constituents Evaluated
■ Biochemical oxygen demand (BOD)
■ Total suspended solids (TSS)
■ Ammonia (NH3)*
■ Phosphorous (PO4)*
■ Oil and grease
*No current surcharge fee
Baseline Concentrations
Based on typical plant influent concentrations
rather than design data
new previous
■ BOD: 200 mg/l 300 mg/l
■ TSS: 230 mg/l 300 mg/l
■ NH3: 35 mg/l n/a
■ PO4: 4.0 mg/l n/a
Evaluate Treatment Unit Processes
■ Contaminant removal rate based on
sampling
■ Capital cost
■ Operation and maintenance (O&M) cost
■ Allocation of costs
■ Develop cost per pound to remove the
contaminant
Calculated Surcharge Rates
Surcharge Rate
Contaminant
($/lb)
BOD $0.19
TSS $0.15
NH3 $0.32
PO4 $0.67
Oil and Grease
■ Difficult to evaluate costs of impacts with
available data
■ Current surcharge:
■ Baseline: 200 mg/l
■ Surcharge fee: $0.260/lb
Recommendations
■ Adopt proposed baseline levels and calculated
surcharge rates for BOD and TSS.
■ Because there is no current surcharge fee for
NH3 and PO4, evaluate the impact of the
calculated rates on users.
■ Continue current surcharge fee for oil and
grease, but reduce baseline to 100 mg/l.
■ Review surcharge rates every five years at
permit renewal or when there are significant
changes to treatment process.
Questions?
■ Jared Oldroyd, P.E.
Jared@[Link]
Twitter -- @UtCivilEng