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2) Alternative waste treatment systems: <br />The term "alternative" is one used by the US Environmental <br />Protection Agency to describe waste treatment technology that <br />can be used in lieu of conventional systems. Alternative <br />. technology, by definition, is one which has a sound <br />theoretical basis, has been. proven.effective in field tests, <br />but does not have a long history of widespread use. An <br />example of alternative technology is the ].ow pressure pippe <br />(LPP) nitrification field which has been used for less t�ian <br />twenty years and is used generally in situations where <br />conventional technology cannot be used. <br />3) Municipal waste treatment systems. <br />The classification of waste treatment systems as municipal <br />systems refers primarily to the owner and operator of a waste <br />treatment system and not to the technology used within a <br />system. With the exception of sludge application sites, <br />municipal treatment systems will not be covered extensively <br />in this report. The discharging elements of municipal <br />systems are much more closely regulated by state and federal <br />agencies and require much less local oversight. It is <br />important to note, however, that many of the individual units <br />of waste treatment equipment and treatment technologies used <br />in municipal systems are classified as either conventional or <br />alternative technologies. There are many municipal systems <br />that are nearly identical to some alternative systems and <br />differ primarily in terms of size or scale. <br />A second set of terms often used in delineating sanitary <br />waste treatment technology breaks the systems into two basic <br />categories of effluent disposal. <br />i) Discharging: <br />Those systems which discharge effluent directly to surface <br />waters are classified as discharging. Surface waters, by <br />regulatory definition, include lakes, rivers, streams, <br />swamps, soun4w,.estuaries, oceans, bays, ditches or <br />intermittently flooring streams, wetlands, etc. <br />ii) Non- discharging: <br />All waste treatment systems which discharge effluent to land <br />surface, land subsurface, air or to any place that is not <br />specifically defined as surface water are defined as non - <br />discharging systems. <br />The discharge classification helps determine which regulatory <br />agency has jurisdiction over the permitting and regulation of <br />a particular type of system. These regulatory intricacies <br />will be explained in more detail in the section dealing with <br />existing regulatory authority. <br />