ISO 14000 Value

In August 2000, the Lowell (MA) Regional Wastewater Utility (the "Utility") became the first municipal facility to certify ALL of its divisions to ISO 14001.

The City of San Diego had previously certified only one of its operations, giving Lowell the bragging rights to declare that its wastewater utility is the first in the US to certify to ISO 14001.

The Utility, which employs about 50 people, treats wastewater from Lowell and four other municipalities in the Merrimack valley of Massachusetts.

How the Utility came to pursue ISO certification can be traced to its participation among other municipalities EPA selected to participate in an EPA pilot program. EPA developed that program to allow municipalities to develop a demonstrative environmental management system (EMS) with the intent to gauge the effectiveness of an EMS and whether an EMS would benefit municipalities seeking ISO 14001 third part certification.

The Utility was among the first of the original pilot participants to have achieved the lofty goal of ISO certification for its entire operations. This Utility achieved this goal through a mix of true Yankee grit and ingenuity, with a little help here and there from its ISO facilitator when needed.

An anthology of the Utility's quest to ISO certification was chronicled in a series of five articles that appeared in Safety Management, a publication of the Bureau of Business Practice, between 1999 and 2000.

Since that time the Utility has come a long way in incorporating the tenets of ISO 14001 and its comprehensive EMS into the very fabric of the Utility's day-to-day operations. For example, since putting in place a tracking system to tally the quantities of materials recycled and energy usage reduced, the Utility has tabulated a constant increase in savings of each material tracked from its beginning in 1999 to the end of 2001, the most complete year-end tabulation.

Also unique to the Utility, and a credit to its Implementation Team (the "ITeam"), which is represented by all Utility Divisions, and include: Ron Halligan, Steve Faxon, Mark Meehan, Shannon Cohan, John Flaherty, Cheryl Murphy, Fred Hamel and Michele Turcotte. This gallant group then decided to develop ISO procedures for recycling the solid waste streams, which also includes a paper trail to tally amounts recycled on a monthly and quarterly basis for the Executive Director.

This information, after being compiled and reflecting three years of verifiable data, will become part of a report to the City Manager and City Council that Mark Young, the Utility's Executive Director, will present at City Hall.

Among the key highlights of that report include the following items worth noting:

1.	The Utility’s ITeam identified a number of solid wastes that were incorporated into a Utility-wide recycling program, which include: waste paper and cardboard, co-mingled wastes, batteries, metals, fluorescent lights and used motor oil.
2.	The primary benefit of recycling these materials is the valuable landfill space that is not taken up by the Utility’s waste stream. The secondary benefit (primary to the taxpayer) is the savings that the Utility realizes in implementing these recycling efforts. Specifically, the Utility has realized the following savings through its recycling efforts:

YEAR	TOTAL LBS.	DOLLARS SAVED
1999	10,045
2000	80,580
2001	59,077	Total $11,228

3.	At the end of 2001, the Utility began a project to replace nine large energy inefficient pumps (all are at least 23 years old) with energy efficient pumps that are projected will provide an additional annual energy cost savings of $46,335 per year plus a rebate from Mass Electric of $126,450 that the Utility has projected to use for further energy reducing projects. In addition, the Utility saved a total of $44,720 in energy costs over the past 3 years by implementing a light sensor project throughout the facility that is part of the Utility’s energy use conservation program.
4.	With respect to chemical handling and management, the ITeam identified a need to develop new and revised existing Utility procedures pertaining to the delivery of bulk chemical shipments and the use of bulk chemicals. The environmental benefit of these procedures is the decreased likelihood of chemical spills that could negatively impact the environment, which providing a greater safety margin for Utility workers and surrounding neighbors.
5.	In the area of odor control, which is inevitable in this business, Utility personnel are committed to reducing odors to the greatest extent possible and be a genuine good neighbor to surrounding citizens. As with chemical handling, the ITeam developed extensive procedures to address odor control at the Utility, such as setting appropriate times to drain and clean tanks, keeping all Utility doors and hatchways closed, and even developing a procedure for sludge haulers doing business with the Utility. As a result of its efforts, the Utility has seen a 30% reduction in odor complaints since 1999, from 43 complaints in 1999 to 17 complaints in 2001.
6.	Certification to ISO 14001 helps to promote Lowell as an environmentally proactive and progressive city and one of the preeminent municipal operations in the United States. The Utility has received numerous accolades and acknowledgements from USEPA and MADEP.

In addition, ISO considerations are contagious at the Utility, and once the Iteam got accustomed to performing their regular duties with ISO considerations in mind - I refer here to the ISO concept of continual improvement - fledgling programs, such as the recycling program, were being constantly evaluated to see what additional waste streams could be incorporated into their program.

As the numbers previously provided depict, real savings can be realized if a solid and well-managed program is in place. Not content to rest on their ISO-laurels, the ITeam is evaluating several long-range goals, such as the newly launched bio solids program. That program allows the contractor to haul their treated Class A biosolids off-site to a soil blending facility that treats their biosolids for beneficial reuse.

The Utility's goal: simple - they're looking to achieve 0% biosolids disposal at landfills the Utility currently uses, which is no small feat, since biosolids disposal to a landfill has been their largest disposal issue. This issue is important enough to the Utility - it continues to be at the top of the Utility's list of significant environmental impacts. It's no wonder the Utility has diligently sought to reduce its landfill disposal volume and set reduction to landfill as the Utility's consistently top target and objective to achieve.

What's Next on Lowell's Agenda

What else is the ITeam evaluating? There are a number of considerations the Utility is currently evaluating to constantly strive for even greater environmental achievements, among them, the recently completed contract with one of its outside contractors previously described that contains specific language referencing the Utility’s EMS and their certificate to ISO 14001.

In other words, that contractor is held to abide by those procedures in the Utility’s EMS Manual that directly affect its operations while working at the Utility. The Utility is considering expanding the use of such language as boilerplate in other contract agreements as appropriate, and hence expanding its EMS influence with other contractors.

In addition, the work this particular contractor is providing the Utility will enable the Utility to eliminate the current landfill disposal of biosolids. That process is just beginning and is too soon to report on in any conclusive fashion.

The last item that completes the Utility’s five significant impacts, behind solid waste reduction, chemical handling, energy use and odor control, is industrial notification. This program is in its infant stages of development, and the concept will be for the Utility to set procedures for new industries interested in relocating to Lowell to notify the Utility prior to hook-up so that any industrial pretreatment issues can be effectively resolved. As such, the intent would be to allow the Utility advance notice of the type and quantity of new industrial and domestic waste that would enter Lowell's sewer system.

Being in the Spotlight

Being the first publicly owned treatment works (POTW) to have achieved this goal does not go unnoticed, and the Utility continues to have its moment in the spotlight. Specifically, Mark Young, the Utility’s Executive Director, has worked with both PADEP and MADEP to assist other municipalities seeking to develop an EMS and possibly ISO 14001 certification.

Also In September 2001, EPA invited City officials and I to discuss the Lowell success story in a one-day conference to a group of municipalities interested in what the Utility had achieved and lessons learned, and what they could bring back to their own facilities from the experience.

What's next for the key players of the Lowell ISO 14001 story? Tune in next time for an update. Reporting live from beautiful downtown Lowell, MA.

Gabriele Crognale