Water Treatment Regulation Country Wise

USA
To protect the water of the country, USA government passed Clean Water Act in 1972. Through this act U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and other related state agencies were given power to regulate activities that threaten the quality of the nation's water resources. The government further adopted the Federal Clean Water Act, which aimed to eliminate all the pollutant discharges to the navigable waters of the U.S. by 1985. A set of guidelines were adopted to reach this goal:

• Dischargers of pollutants will have to take permit.
• Limit was fixed on the concentration of the pollutants being discharged. A violation of the limits will considered as breach of law and will be dealt accordingly.
• To control the discharges, best technology will be used.

Water treatment plant is to require permit. In case the discharge from water treatment plants enters a stream, a NPDES permit is required. NPDES permit contains clear specifications as to how much of suspended solids, biochemical oxygen demand, nutrients and bacteria can be discharged to a stream as well as the minimum level of dissolved oxygen that must be present in the discharge. On the basis of condition of the receiving stream, the levels specified in the NPDES permit are determined. The regulatory practices also deals with the sewage discharge from small or multiple dwellings.

Finland
New regulations have been drafted and implemented in Finland that aims to improve the water quality. The main objective of the regulation is to reduce the discharge of the nutrients from the single-family homes and to improve general environment.

Requirements
As per new regulation:

• Regarding organic matter the nutrient discharges must be reduced by 90 %.
• Regarding phosphorus this discharge should be reduced by 85 %.
• Regarding nitrogen reduction should be 40%.

The regulation simply imply that households with a low nutrient load don't need to invest in expensive constructions. Houses that are constructed before 2004 are given relaxation to mold their systems to meet the parameters of the regulations.

European Communities Wastewater Regulation
European Communities Act 1972(2) was drafted in relation to the collection, treatment and discharge of urban wastewater, and the treatment and discharge of waste water from certain industrial sectors. The regulation specifically deals with the definition of various wastewaters and treatment of sewer wastewater, urban wastewater, industrial wastewater, sludge dumping from ships and monitoring of the discharge of the wastewater.