Rewards and recognition program

The Silver Award is given to individual facilities that meet the following criteria during the calendar year:

• Possess an active industrial wastewater discharge permit each month
• Discharged industrial wastewater for at least three months
• Collected all samples required by its permit
• No King County-issued violations (code, permit, discharge) or other actions (final notices, fines, enforcement) issued to the permitted facility
• Has not been in significant noncompliance status
• Has not been under a compliance order
• No more than one late report
• Has not exceeded the number of self-monitoring violations allowed, as follows:

Special notes:

1. Mid-tier facilities are eligible for the award.
2. A monthly average violation or a self-reported permit or code violation that only requires a response letter is the same as a self-monitoring violation.
3. Reports are considered late if they are received by King County past the due date (some exceptions are made when the due date falls on a weekend or holiday).
4. If one or more self-monitoring reports for a permit with multiple locators is late (in a single reporting period), it’s considered as one late report for award evaluation.
5. When a single self-monitoring sample is taken in a month, and it violates both the daily average limit and monthly average limit, it is counted as a single violation.
6. A single screening level exceedance is not a violation. However multiple exceedances requiring King County or facility action (in accordance with permit conditions) is considered a King County violation for the purposes of this award evaluation. Three out of four screening level exceedances that require facility action are equivalent to a single self-monitoring violation.
7. For violations and significant noncompliance, award evaluation is based on the issuance date of the official notification and not the date of the violation or determination of significant noncompliance.
8. For compliance orders, award evaluation is based on the facility being under any compliance order during the evaluation period.
9. If a discharge volume violation is less than 20 percent the permitted discharge volume, it is considered a “warning” for purposes of award evaluation. If the discharge volume violation is greater than 20 percent over the permitted discharge volume, it is considered a King County violation for purposes of award evaluation.