Pretreatment

The purpose of the Pretreatment Program is to regulate businesses and industries to ensure that toxic chemicals that could upset the water reclamation process or pass through the reclamation facility to harm fish in the river do not enter the sanitary sewer collection system.  Federal law requires the Pretreatment Program.

Bacteria carry out the water reclamation process.  These are living organisms that can be poisoned by some types of chemicals.  If the treatment bacteria are killed, the reclamation process cannot be completed and improperly treated wastewater would be released to the Arkansas River.  This condition is called an “upset” of the treatment process.

There are other types of chemicals that would not harm the treatment bacteria, and the treatment bacteria would not remove them.  Those chemicals could travel through the water reclamation plant and kill fish in the Arkansas River.  This condition is called a “pass-through.”