Waste Water Minimum Quality Standards for Industrial Areas

As mandated by Article 20 (5) of Law No. 32 of 2009 on Protection and Management of Environment (Environment Law), recently-issued State Minister of Environment Regulation No. 3 of 2010 on Water Waste Quality Standards for Industrial Areas not only sets out waste water quality standards for Industrial Areas (as the title suggests), but also regulates compliance with any stricter standards set out by other regulations or assessments of state agencies.

Essentially, waste water standards for a given Industrial Area are determined on the basis of the interaction between the degree of contamination with the total quantity of waste water produced.

Industrial Areas that do have Centralized Water Waste Management Installations, or ‘IPAL Terpusat’, must meet the minimum waste water quality standards detailed further in this regulation’s Attachments. Industrial Areas that do not maintain IPAL Terpusat - as afforded by regulations around the relevant industrial activity - must comply with waste water standards set out by the relevant Ministerial regulation to their industry (Article 2 (2)).

Although this regulation sets out minimum waste water standards, or refers to other relevant regulations that act similarly, if it is ever the case that tighter standards are imposed by other regulation or assessments from a state agency, the stricter waste water quality standard will prevail. For example, although they must first secure approval from the Minister of Environment to do so, if Provincial governments determine tighter standards and additional parameters around Industrial Area waste water control, the Industrial Area(s) must comply accordingly. Industrial Areas will have one year to comply with the tighter minimum standards. 

Further obligations assigned to the Industrial Area waste water manager are provided in Article 9 of this regulation, including obligations to: make ‘Daily Waste water Debit Reports’; make ‘Daily Waste water Content Reports’, and; conduct periodic laboratory analyses on waste water quality. All must be submitted to the relevant Mayor or Regent.

Although this regulation makes no mention of sanctions, it implicitly refers to those set out by its ‘umbrella’ regulation, the Environment Law.

This regulation repeals and replaces State Minister of Environment Decision No. KEP-03/MENLH/1/1998 on Liquid Waste Quality Standards for Industrial Areas, and it will take force on 18 January 2011.