| Overview |
The water pollution control law regulates effluent wastewater from specified factories where specified facilities have been identified.
The effluent water quality standard for preservation of the living environment is applied to factories and businesses that discharge wastewater volumes of more than 50 m³/a. Standards for the protection of human health are applied to all factories and businesses that discharge wastewaters.
Provisional effluent water quality standards for preservation of the living environment were applied to several types of industries that required:
- Large financial investment to install wastewater treatment facilities (e.g., food processing, textile printing, tannery, fur processing, slaughter houses and dead animal rendering works)
- Additional time because treatment technologies did not meet the standard (starch processing, coal mining, nonmetal mining, and nonferrous metal processing)
- Postponement until wastewater facilities and production processes (pulp and distilleries) could be improved.
After a given grace period, national effluent standards were applied to the above mentioned industries. The effluent standard for human health protection was applied to all industries soon after enactment of the standard.
The designation of facilities started in 1972 as a result of the water pollution control law. The live stock industry, hospitals, research and education institutes, waterworks, industrial waste treatment and disposal plants like the specified facilities and businesses were also designated under the law (See the table below).
Table: Designation of Specified Factories
| Specified year |
Specified Factories |
| 1972 |
Livestock facilities except smaller than 50 m² for pig, 200 m² for cow and 500 m² for house |
| 1974 |
1. Spinning facilities, textile and fiber processing facilities for desizing
2. Kitchen, launderingfacilities and bath of Japanese style inn
3. Cleaning facilities and quenching in research institure, experimental stations |
| 1976 |
Vocational training school
Facilities for waterworks and industrial waterworks with sedimentation and filtration.
Capacity of which is largerr than 10000m³/day
Wholesale market dealing aquatic products. |
| 1979 |
Kitchen, launderingfacilities and bath of the hospital with beds more than 300
Incinerationfacilities of municipal wastes treatment plant |
| 1982 |
Frozen food processing factories with washing, cooking and unpacking.
Cigarette factories with washing and deodorization by water washing
Sawmill and wood chipping with glue washing facilities
Plywood processing factories with wet barker and washing facilities
News paper, publishing, printing, plate makers with automatic film developing facility and automatic printing facility.
Tire and tube manufactures, rubber horse manufactures, industrial rubber product manufactures, reforming tire manufactures with vulcanization process
Latex forming facility with washing for medical and sanitary rubber products, rubber gloves, rubber band, etc.
Automatic bottle washing facilities for reuse
Car washing facility in auto shop
Industrial wastes treatment and disposal facilities
Wholesale market in regional cities with floor area larger than 1000 m² |
| 1988 |
Caterer, kitchen of restaurant |
| 1991 |
Factries using trichloroethylene and tetracholoroethylene |
| 1998 |
Treatment plant for industrial wastes such as waste PCBs |
| 2001 |
Coal thermal power plants with exhaust gas washing facility |
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