EPA Extends Expiration Date of Stormwater General Permit

On January 28, 2010, EPA announced that Regions 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10 were modifying the 2008 National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) general permits for stormwater discharges associated with construction activity.  75 Fed. Reg. 4554 (Jan. 28, 2010).  A copy of the Federal Register notice may be accessed here.  The permits will be extended by one year, so that the new expiration date will be June 30, 2011.  The 2008 CGP permit provides coverage for discharges from construction sites that occur in areas not covered by an approved State NPDES program.  Construction activities (which include soil disturbing activities such as clearing, grading, excavating, stockpiling, etc.) that disturb one or more acres, or smaller sites that are part of a larger common plan of development or sale, are regulated under the NPDES stormwater program. Operators of regulated construction sites are required to develop stormwater pollution prevention plans; to implement sediment, erosion, and pollution prevention control measures; and to obtain coverage under a state or EPA NPDES permit.  Most states are authorized to implement the NPDES permit program, including the stormwater program.  West Virginia’s stormwater discharge program requires operators disturbing more than one acre of land to be covered under its general permit, WV0115824, which expires December 4, 2012.  The extension of the 2008 CGP is intended to enable EPA to assist state agencies in incorporating the new guidelines into permits set to be reissued in the next few years, recognizing that the new guidelines enact numeric effluent limitations and monitoring requirements that may be new to construction site operations.  

This article was authored by Chris M. Hunter, Jackson Kelly PLLC. For more information on the author see here.