Municipal and Industrial Waste Water

Municipal and industrial wastewater is contaminated water discharged according to a permit and is often discharged directly from a pipe. Municipal facilities include schools, municipal operations buildings, and public sewers. Industrial wastewater also comes from power plants and coal-fired generators. There are about twenty coal-fired power plants in the Chesapeake Bay watershed that are directly and indirectly discharge nitrogen and phosphorous, as well as heavy metals, including arsenic and cadmium, into the streams and rivers of the Bay. These discharges can lead to fish kills, dead zones, and swimming advisories.