Learn what a water treatment specialist should cover in a site assessment when your stormwater or discharge results miss your permit. Covers what to bring, how media and format are matched, and why testing comes first.
If you hold a stormwater or discharge permit and your results aren't meeting it, the water treatment specialist you need will assess your site, water quality, permit requirements and existing infrastructure. They then choose a treatment media for your contaminants and a format for your site, and confirm the fit with lab, pilot and operating data. At Abtech Industries, we make the Smart Sponge® media family (standard, HM, Plus, AC and Quanta™), and every project we take on starts with a site assessment. Because results depend on each site's water, larger jobs can add column testing and a pilot on your own water before full-scale deployment.
Operator or specifier: which one you need
The same title covers two different jobs. A licensed contract operator runs and staffs a plant that already exists. A treatment specialist designs the fix for a gap: a benchmark exceedance, a TMDL wasteload allocation, or a discharge or reuse limit your current treatment doesn't meet.
If the gap is your problem, you need the specifier. Our process runs in four stages: an assessment of your site, water and permit; selection of the Smart Sponge® media, or media mix, and a deployment format; integration into new or existing infrastructure; and validation through lab, pilot and operating data.
We design that work to fit infrastructure you already have. That includes MS4 storm drains, airport catchments that carry deicing-season runoff, metal recycling yards and fabrication shops under MSGP coverage, wastewater plants working toward reuse limits, and marina deck drains and fuel docks. The Water Treatment & Compliance Blog has guides for each of those settings.
What to bring to the first conversation
The assessment goes faster when you have these ready:
- Contaminant results, with dissolved and total reported separately. If zinc is reported only as total, the specialist can't tell how much is bound to particles that sediment controls already catch and how much is dissolved and passing through.
- Typical and peak flows. Peak flow drives sizing and bypass behavior.
- Footprint and existing assets. List your catch basins, vaults, pressure vessels, tanks and outfalls, with dimensions where you have them.
- Effluent targets. Bring the specific numbers written in your permit, since general goals can't be designed to.
- Maintenance access. Note who can reach the unit, with what equipment, and how often.
Our site assessment reviews these same items.
How media and format get matched to your water
Media and format are separate decisions. The media is chosen for the pollutant and its fraction, dissolved or particulate. The format is chosen for what your site can physically hold and what your crew can maintain. Our guide to matching filter media to your site in a passive retrofit covers the format side in detail.
| Contaminant | Fraction the media addresses | Smart Sponge® media | Example formats |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sediment, TSS | Particulate | Smart Sponge®, through its high-porosity structure | Catch basin inserts, vaults |
| Oil, grease, hydrocarbons | Free oil and sheen | Standard Smart Sponge®, which binds them into a stable solid | Inserts, end-of-pipe units, skimmers and booms |
| Organic compounds raising TOC, dissolved hydrocarbons | Dissolved | Smart Sponge® AC | Bulk media in vessels, skids, vaults |
| Lead, zinc, copper, arsenic, selenium; phosphorus | Dissolved | Smart Sponge® HM | Ultra Urban® Filter inserts, Smart Pak®, vaults |
| E. coli, coliform | Bacteria | Smart Sponge® Plus | Inserts, vaults, outfall units |
| PFAS | Dissolved | Smart Sponge® Quanta™ | Bulk media in vessels, tanks, skids |
The dissolved fraction explains why a site with good sediment controls can still exceed a metals or phosphorus benchmark. Settling and screening remove particles, while dissolved zinc or orthophosphate passes through with the water. When a site carries more than one pollutant class, for example fuel handling plus metal exposure, the media can be specified together in a single system. Smart Sponge® Plus is designed for E. coli and coliform.
Ultra Urban® Filter inserts are built to fit the shape of the basin they go into, and they install in an existing catch basin with no digging and no pumps or power. Our inserts have gone into municipal storm drains as part of MS4 permit programs. Bulk media loads into pressure vessels, skids, tanks and vaults you already own. Smart Skid systems are packaged, skid-mounted units that run on pumps, so a site without power needs one of the passive formats.
Why testing comes before full scale
The same media can perform differently in two waters. PFAS chemistry, hardness and the mix of co-contaminants all change how a media behaves. For dissolved-pollutant and larger projects, we can run laboratory column testing, which passes a sample of your own water through the media. A pilot on site can follow before you commit to full scale.
Testing is worth the time when the target pollutant is dissolved, when several contaminants compete for the same media, or when the full-scale system is a large capital commitment. Skip it, and the system gets sized on assumptions drawn from someone else's water. Our page on PFAS removal media for water treatment walks through how column and pilot results shape a Quanta™ specification.
Where your permit sets the target
The permit supplies the number the system is designed to meet, and that number differs by permit type. In Arizona, the Arizona Pollutant Discharge Elimination System general permit AZG2021-002 covers small municipal separate storm sewer systems. Arizona State University is permitted under it as a non-traditional small MS4. Construction that disturbs one acre or more, or less if it is part of a larger common plan of development, falls under ADEQ's Construction General Permit (AZG2020-001 in the cited source; check with ADEQ for the current version). That permit aims to reduce the transport of sediment and other pollutants, and the operator must prepare a SWPPP before submitting the Notice of Intent to ADEQ.
Industrial sites design to their permit's benchmarks and any corrective action they have triggered. Wastewater operators design to discharge or reuse limits. Compliance can't be guaranteed in advance, which is why testing shows how your water responds before you spend on full scale.
What happens after installation?
Validation continues after commissioning. Effluent sampling and operating data confirm whether the media is doing what the column and pilot tests predicted. Maintenance intervals come from site conditions such as sediment load, storm frequency and how fast the media takes up its target pollutant, none of which a fixed calendar date accounts for. The first season's data may change that interval, and a basin under a fueling area or a scrap pile can need attention sooner than one draining a parking lot. Our guide to what sets catch basin insert cleaning schedules shows how permit holders set an interval that holds up. When you're ready, we can schedule a site assessment to match media and format to your water.