The Fresno Truck Wash (FTW) facility pretreats wastewater generated from washing trucks on site prior to discharging to the Malaga County Water District (the District) sewerage infrastructure. The FTW was originally designed to treat 2,500 gallons per day (gals/day) of wastewater was modified over time to accept a higher wastewater stream.
At the time of this project, the FTW experienced total weekly flows of 96,177 gals/week or approximately 17,861 gals/day. The number of trucks washed in a typical week ranged from 197 to 387. The owner desired to provide the truck wash service 7 days week, along with adding a second truck wash bay anticipated to increase the wastewater stream from 96,177 to approximately 125,000 gals/week. The types of organics trucks brought into the wash facility come from a variety of industries: agriculture, poultry and dairy farms, oil, and construction area. Thus, the waste stream generated by washing these vehicles consists of physical, biological, and chemical wastes.
Based on the increasing wastewater flows due to increased demand and closure of other truck wash facilities, the FTW pretreatment had decreased in effectiveness in meeting discharge requirements. The FTW is required to meet the district’s wastewater discharge requirements per 40 CFR 403.8 (f)(2)(viii). Due to inability to meet the discharge limits, the district issued a Cease-and-Desist Order in May 2020.
The purpose of this project was to evaluate and recommend a pretreatment process that would effectively treat the FTW wastewater stream in compliance with the regulatory limits for each pollutant. This project involved evaluating two treatment alternatives to meet the regulatory requirements for the pollutants, preparing a report, working with District staff, preparing a final presentation to District board and other stakeholders, treatment calculations, sizing of equipment, alternative cost estimates, preparing an implementation schedule for construction, and analyzing monitoring data.
The primary goal of this project was to obtain an interim discharge permit that would comply with District approved interim discharge limits for a specified period of time. This time period was stipulated to allow for implementation of the new treatment process that would comply with the 40 CFR 403.8 (f)(2)(viii). Myriad Engineering was able to produce the treatment evaluation report for submittal to the District by the deadline. We also prepared and presented our evaluation results to the District and were able to negotiate an interim permit with that allowed the FTW to remain open.
This project required all deliverables to be completed within 30 days, all deadlines were met, and the interim discharge permit was obtained.
Scope of Services
- Project management
- Treatment alternatives evaluation
- Conceptual design preparation
- Report preparation
- Presentation of treatment results to District Board members
- Water quality review
- Coordination with attorney for truck wash, Fresno Truck Wash staff, and District Board staff