Industrial Facilities

Industrial Pretreatment Program

The City of Fredville enforces the local, state and federal rules that govern what area businesses send down the drain and into the city's sanitary sewer. All of the domestic and commercial wastewater collected in Fredville goes to the regional river authority, which treats it before it is returned to the Sorrel River.

Controls on industrial wastewater are part of the federal Clean Water Act framework, which since 1977 has guided efforts to clean up the nation's rivers, lakes and streams. These controls protect treatment plants and the people who operate them, make it possible to reuse biosolids and reclaim treated effluent, and keep the streams that receive treated water healthy. Wastewater from industrial sites can carry heavy metals, cyanide, toxic organic chemicals, oil and grease, along with many other substances that upset the treatment process.

Fredville's pretreatment program operates under the city's industrial wastewater discharge ordinance and under state and federal Clean Water Act requirements. Key parts of the program include:

  • Screening building permits and certificates of occupancy to see whether a business falls under the program
  • Issuing the permits that apply
  • Publishing a quarterly newsletter for regulated businesses
  • Inspecting facilities and collecting samples
  • Reviewing the reports that permit holders submit

Industrial Facilities Ordinance

  • Industrial wastewater discharge ordinance (PDF)

Help with the Industrial Stormwater General Permit

The state's 2026 Multi-Sector General Permit (MSGP) for industrial stormwater took effect on August 14, 2026. Facilities that already hold coverage have until November 12, 2026, to renew. Depending on the site, renewal means filing either a Notice of Intent (NOI) or a No Exposure Certification (NEC) through STEERS, the online permitting system run by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ). Coverage that has not been renewed when the 90-day grace period ends will lapse automatically. The 2026 permit stays in force until August 2031.

Am I regulated?

Your facility needs MSGP coverage when both of these statements are true:

  1. Stormwater from industrial activity at your site flows into gutters, streets, ditches, channels or other parts of a municipal separate storm sewer system (MS4), or into any surface water of the state.
  2. Your operations fall within one of the regulated industrial sectors, meaning they match at least one Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) code listed in the permit.

How do I find my SIC code?

The quickest place to look is your State of Texas sales and use tax permit. Before relying on that code, confirm that it accurately describes your main line of business. SIC codes can also be looked up in the federal OSHA database.

How do I get coverage?

There are two paths:

  • If every industrial material and activity on site is sheltered from rain, snow, snowmelt and runoff, you may qualify for a conditional No Exposure Certification, which exempts you from most permit requirements. TCEQ publishes a guide that explains this exclusion step by step.
  • If not, you must obtain coverage under the general permit by filing an NOI and putting a Stormwater Pollution Prevention Plan (SWPPP) into practice. TCEQ provides the forms and guidance you will need.

All renewals must be filed through STEERS. TCEQ also offers a video walkthrough that shows how to submit an MSGP NOI or renewal in the system.

Where can I get help?

TCEQ's MSGP web page covers the permit in detail. The agency's Small Business and Local Government Assistance (SBLGA) section also gives small businesses and local governments free, confidential assistance with meeting state environmental rules, including tools built for the industrial stormwater permit. Reach SBLGA at (555) 010-8874 or through its online customer help request.

Notifying the City

Any industrial facility whose stormwater drains to an MS4 must give the MS4 operator a copy of its completed NOI or NEC. Because your facility drains to Fredville's system, email your copy to the city at [email protected].

Wastewater Permits

Some industrial facilities need a permit before they can discharge industrial wastewater to the sanitary sewer. Fredville treats every commercial and industrial business as an industrial user and regulates discharges from three classes of facility:

  • General Industrial Users (IU)
  • Monitored Industrial Users (MIU)
  • Significant Industrial Users (SIU), whether categorical or non-categorical

General users are commercial or industrial businesses that send wastewater to the city sewer but are not covered by federal categorical pretreatment standards and do not meet the definition of a significant industrial user. As a rule they do not need a discharge permit. They are inspected when they open and periodically after that. The city keeps the right to permit, inspect or monitor any such facility whenever it chooses, and each one must obey every environmental rule that applies to it.

Monitored users fall outside both the categorical standards and the significant-user definition, but their processes or discharges are of particular interest to the city. Food producers, box makers and printing shops are typical examples. They do not need a discharge permit, yet the city inspects them every year and tests their discharges for the pollutants it is most concerned about.

Significant users are industrial sources that federal rules single out for closer oversight. A facility counts as an SIU if it meets any one of these conditions:

  • It is covered by the categorical pretreatment standards found in 40 CFR Chapter I, Subchapter N, and 40 CFR 403.6.
  • Its average daily flow of process wastewater into the city sewer is 25,000 gallons or more.
  • Its process waste stream equals 5 percent or more of the treatment plant's average dry-weather hydraulic or organic capacity.
  • The city designates it as an SIU because it could reasonably harm the treatment plant or the collection system, or could violate pretreatment standards or requirements.

An SIU must hold a wastewater discharge permit before it releases any industrial wastewater to the city sewer. Submit the permit application at least 60 days before discharge is scheduled to begin.

  • Wastewater discharge permit application (PDF)
  • Instructions for completing the permit application (PDF)

Inspections and Sampling

Pretreatment staff inspect, observe and monitor the industrial sources that discharge into the city's collection system. This fieldwork lets the city confirm compliance with pretreatment standards on its own instead of relying only on facility reports. All sampling and laboratory analysis follow EPA-approved methods under 40 CFR Part 136.

How Often Inspections and Sampling Happen

  • Significant Industrial Users: inspected at least yearly, with or without advance notice
  • Significant Industrial Users, categorical and non-categorical: sampled without notice at least once in every six-month period
  • Monitored Industrial Users: inspected yearly, with or without advance notice
  • Monitored Industrial Users: sampled without notice at least once in every six-month period
  • General Industrial Users: inspected at opening and every three years after that, with or without advance notice

Staff may inspect or sample more often when circumstances call for it or when a facility's compliance record warrants closer attention.

Education

  • MSGP renewal overview presentation from a TCEQ trade fair (PDF)
  • Brochure: An Industry's Guide to Protecting Fredville's Watershed (PDF)
  • Want your business to go greener? Find out how your team can join the Texas Stream Team.

Clear Flow Newsletter

The pretreatment program's quarterly newsletter shares regulatory updates and pollution prevention tips. Recent issues include:

  • Winter 2024 (PDF)
  • Winter 2023 (PDF)
  • Fall 2022 (PDF)
  • Summer 2022 (PDF)
  • Spring 2022 (PDF)
  • Fall 2021 (PDF)

Earlier issues dating back to 2019 are available on request.

Industrial Facilities Documents

  • Guidance on the TMAH prohibition (PDF)
  • Sample letter designating a signatory authority (PDF)
  • Guide to writing a Stormwater Pollution Prevention Plan for industrial facilities (PDF)
  • Policy for mobile wash vendors (PDF)
  • TCEQ registration for aboveground petroleum storage tanks (PDF)
  • Guide to writing a slug discharge and accidental spill plan (PDF)

Tier II Chemical Reporting

Facilities subject to EPCRA (Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know) rules must file a Tier II report if, at any point in the previous year, they stored either of the following:

  • 10,000 pounds or more of a hazardous chemical
  • 500 pounds of an Extremely Hazardous Substance, or its Threshold Planning Quantity (TPQ) if that amount is lower

Tier II reports are filed with TCEQ through the online Tier II reporting system in STEERS. Copies must also go to the Local Emergency Planning Committee (LEPC) and to the local fire department. Fredville facilities should send copies to the eastern county LEPC, to the western county LEPC through the county emergency management office, and to the Fredville Office of Emergency Management.

Each Tier II form asks for basic facility identification, emergency and non-emergency employee contacts, and these details for every chemical stored or used on site:

  • The chemical or common name shown on its safety data sheet
  • The peak quantity on hand during the prior calendar year, plus the typical daily quantity
  • A short description of how it is stored
  • Where it is kept within the facility
  • Whether the owner chooses to keep its storage location confidential from the public

Federal and state law both require this report every year. Reports are due by March 1 and cover the hazardous materials stored at the facility over the prior calendar year.

TCEQ's Tier II program pages offer more guidance on chemical reporting.

Fredville is a demonstration city built by Talk to Fred. Names, numbers and details on this page are sample content.