Section 250-RICR-150-10-8.39 - Technology Assessment Protocol for Innovative and Emerging Technologies - OverviewA. New treatment practices must undergo a third-party evaluation using the Technology Assessment Protocol prior to approval for usage for both primary treatment and pretreatment purposes. Reciprocity is given for practices approved elsewhere under Technology Acceptance Reciprocity Partnership and Technology Assessment Protocol - Ecology provided that any deficiencies are addressed with respect to the eleven Minimum Standards presented in §§ 8.7 through 8.17 of this Part.B. The Technology Assessment Protocol describes testing and reporting procedures to evaluate the effectiveness of innovative and emerging stormwater treatment technologies. The objectives of this protocol are to characterize, with a reasonable level of statistical confidence, an emerging technology's effectiveness in removing pollutants from stormwater runoff for an intended application. The protocol requires an independent third-party verification that will ensure stormwater treatment systems meet the stormwater performance goals and criteria for new development, redevelopment and retrofit situations established in this Part.C. Approval will be contingent on submission of objective, verifiable data that meets the Performance Standards and Criteria outlined in §§ 8.6 through 8.17 of this Part. Stormwater treatment technologies will be designated as either i) primary treatment practices for meeting water quality criteria, or ii) pretreatment, and/or quantity control (CPv and Qp) stormwater management practices. Achieving primary treatment designation is dependent upon meeting the Minimum Standard 3 in § 8.9 of this Part. By obtaining accurate and relevant data, the regulatory community can assess performance claims for a particular BMP.D. The Technology Assessment Protocol strongly recommends parallel testing evaluation under rigorous and uniform conditions. The utility of parallel testing is that site characteristics (land use, contaminant loading, sediment characteristics) are consistent for all tested practices and rainfall event characteristics (depth, intensity, duration, antecedent dry period) will be uniform for given performance periods. Identical site and rainfall characteristics enable rigorous performance evaluations that would otherwise complicate direct performance comparisons. This is especially critical given the well know limitations of stormwater solids sampling and its implications on performance testing.E. The Technology Assessment Protocol requires independent third party work for all reports that contain field data regardless of where this data were collected. Parties that do not have a direct financial interest in the outcome of testing a treatment practice are not required to obtain an independent third party review. At a minimum, an independent professional must:1. Complete the data validation report verifying that monitoring was conducted in accordance with an approved QAP; and2. Prepare a Technical Evaluation Report that includes a testing results, summary, conclusions, and comparison with the standards and performance criteria outlined in § 8.9 of this Part (Minimum Standard 3).F. Treatment Performance Goals 1. Treatment performance goals are the standards and performance criteria outlined in § 8.9 of this Part (Minimum Standard 3). These include performance measures for solids, phosphorous, nitrogen, and bacteria. There are several categories of solids in stormwater. These include total solids, total suspended solids, suspended solids concentration, total dissolved solids, and gross solids. For treatment performance goals, for the purposes of the Technology Assessment Protocol, performance is measured with respect to total suspended solids. Total solids refers to all particles regardless of size.2. Primary Treatment: The stormwater performance goals are outlined in § 8.9 of this Part (Minimum Standard 3). Systems will be approved for primary treatment if they meet the TSS, bacteria, TP, and TN standards.3. Pretreatment Applications: The pretreatment devices do not meet the requirements of § 8.9 of this Part (Minimum Standard 3). They are designed to improve water quality and enhance the effective design life of practices by concentrating the maintenance to a specific, easily serviceable location. The pretreatment applications generally apply to all treatment systems where pretreatment is needed to assure and extend performance of the downstream basic or enhanced treatment facilities.250 R.I. Code R. 250-RICR-150-10-8.39
Amended effective 11/13/2018