Austin Water Utility currently accepts waste sludge from area wastewater treatment plants satisfactorily meeting the City's acceptance criteria. These criteria are designed to prevent incompatible waste from interfering with the City's wastewater treatment operations.

Wastewater treatment plants wishing to discharge waste at the City’s approved receiving station must fill out an Application for Disposing of Wastewater Treatment Plant Waste (Adobe PDF), which also describes the standards and monitoring requirements on which the acceptance criteria are based. The self-monitoring reporting form included as an attachment must be completed as well. An acceptance or denial letter will be issued based on the report’s completeness, the type of wastes received by the generator and the analytical results of the waste proposed for continued or future discharge to the City's wastewater system.

AWU’s Pretreatment Program periodically requires wastewater treatment plant owners to provide additional information to support any authorization (or reauthorization) for discharge. New wastewater treatment plants wishing to discharge at the City's approved receiving station are subject to the same requirements.

Please contact AWU's Pretreatment Program for more information.