MPCA Industrial Stormwater Program and NPDES/SDS Draft General Permit
Industrial Stormwater Program and NPDES/SDS General Permit Goals
- Better protect surface water and ground water quality
- Adaptive management of stormwater control measures by Permittees
- Reduce pollutants in industrial stormwater discharges
- Have an effective, workable permit
- Reflects key water resource (id,type,content_type,pagetitle,longtitle,description,alias,link_attributes,published,pub_date,unpub_date,parent,isfolder,introtext,content,richtext,template,menuindex,searchable,cacheable,createdby,createdon,editedby,editedon,deleted,deletedon,deletedby,publishedon,publishedby,menutitle,donthit,haskeywords,hasmetatags,privateweb,privatemgr,content_dispo,hidemenu) VALUES
- Provides a balance of environmental protection and site-based controls
Industrial Sources of Stormwater: Pollutants and Problems
- Stormwater is runoff and drainage from any form of precipitation
- Contributes water pollutants
- Added pollutants lower water quality (sediment, metals, organics)
- Increased sediment affects aquatic habitats and fish spawning
- Industrial pollutants attach to sediment
- Minnesota's valuable water resources become degraded
Industrial Stormwater Program
- 1990 - EPA announced Phase I
- 10 categories of industrial activity require a permit
- 1992 - EPA delegated NPDES permitting authority to MPCA
- 1992 - Phase I industrial stormwater general permit issued
- Reissued in 1997
- Expired in 2002 at the end of a 5 year term
Industrial Stormwater Program: Phase II
- 1999 - EPA announced Phase II changes to the industrial stormwater program
- No Exposure exclusion was broadened to all ten categories of industrial activity
- Municipally owned industrial facilities having transportation maintenance for certain activities were required to have permit coverage
| Phase I | Phase II | |
| Municipal | Minneapolis & St. Paul Municipal Individual Permits | 233 General Permits |
| Construction |
Disturbing > 5 acres: ~ 900 General Permits per year |
Disturbing > 1 acre: ~ 2,500 General Permits per year |
| Industrial |
10 Categories of Industrial Activity: ~ 1,300 General Permits covered No Exposure exclusion limited to light industry |
~ 1600 current Permittees plus ~2000 anticipated applicants |
Industrial Stormwater Program: Today
2002 - MPCA draft industrial stormwater general permit was not reissued
- MPCA industrial stormwater permit h as remained expired for last seven years
- Program emphasis has been on construction permit issuance and new MS4 permit issuance
- Refocusing on Industrial Stormwater Permit
Industrial Stormwater Activity Categories
- Heavy manufacturing
- Light industry
- Mining/oil & gas
- Steam electric power generation
- Transportation Industries
- Hazardous Waste Treatment, Storage & Disposal Facilities
- Landfills, including industrial landfills
- Wastewater Treatment Facilities
- Recycling facilities
- Facilities subject to federal effluent limit guidelines
29 Industrial Sectors
| Sector A: Timber products | Sector B: Paper and Allied Products | Sector C: Chemical and Allied Products |
| Sector D: Asphalt Paving & Roofing Materials & Lubricant Manufacturers | Sector E: Glass, Clay, Cement, Concrete, and Gypsum Product Manufacturing | Sector F: Primary Metals |
| Sector G: Metal Mining | Sector H: Coal Mines/Coal Mining Related Facilities | Sector I: Oil & Gas Extraction and Refining |
| Sector J: Mineral Mining and Dressing | Sector K: Hazardous Waste Treatment Storage or Disposal | Sector L: Landfills & Land Application Sites |
| Sector M: Automobile Salvage Yards | Sector N: Scrap Recycling Facilities | Sector O: Steam Electric Generating Facilities |
| Sector P: Land Transportation | Sector Q: Water Transportation | Sector R: Ship and Boat Building and Repair Yards |
| Sector S: Air Transportation | Sector T: Treatment Works | Sector U: Food and Kindred Products |
| Sector V: Textile Mills, Apparel, and Other Fabric Products | Sector W: Furniture and Fixtures | Sector X: Sector X: Printing and Publishing |
| Sector Y: Rubber, Misc. Plastic Products, and Misc. Manufacturing Industires | Sector Z: Leather Tanning and Finishing | Sector AA: Sector AA: Fabricated Metal Products |
| Sector AB: Transportation Equipment, Industrial and Commercial Machinery | Sector AC: Electroinic/Electrical Equipment and Components, Photographic and Optical Goods |
Industrial Stormwater Program: Potential Permittees
- ~1600 facilities currently permitted plus ~ 2000 anticipated applicants
- ~2000 facilities currently have No Exposure Certification plus ~ 2000 anticipated new
- ~200 applicants w/o coverage (due to expired permit)
Permittees' Regulated Industrial Materials and Activities
Materials
- Material-handeling equipment
- Machinery
- Raw materials
- Intermediate & final products
- By-products & waste
Activities
- Handling
- Storing
- Loading, unloading
- Transporting
Some Industiral Materials and Activities Not Required to be Addressed
- Containers and tanks sealed and free from deterioration
- Adequately maintained vehicles & their storage
- Completely covered/plugged dumpsters
- Materials that are stored outside that do not contaminate stormwater
- Office buildings and parking lots
Draft Industrial Stormwater General Permit Requires:
- Contaminant prevention & discharge controls including permanent stormwater controls
- Control measures structural and non-structural Best Management Practices, facility self-inspections, maintenance, training, etc.
- Site-specific Stormwater Pollution Prevention Plan
- Monitoring stormwater discharges
Stakeholder Outreach
Since late 2006
Internal and external stakeholder work group meetings
Outreach and education events
- Presentations
- Webcasts, training (MPCA, USEPA)
- Newsletter articles
- Email program u pdates (listserv)
- Website will include monitoring video, monitoring manual and a BMP Guidebook
Results to date
- Reached 20,000 individuals
- Permit revisions based on stakeholder feedback
Draft Permit Changes
- Multi-Sector permit which has sector-specific content
- Stormwater discharge monitoring requirements
- Permit conditions to protect discharges to impaired waters
- Permit conditions that prevent degradation and protect discharges to high value waters
Monitoring: Why the Expired Permit Language Needs to Change
Monitoring provies assurance that stormwater control measures are managed so that impacts are reduced and water quality standards are met.
- Minnesota: one of 4 states currently not requiring monitoring
- Minnesota: the only region 5 state not requiring monitoring
- Sept 2008 - EPA issued a Multi-Sector General permit that requires monitoring and applies in Minnesota on Tribal Land
Monitoring Waivers
Some sectors may reduce benchmark monitoring through:
- Designed infiltration treatment on site that reduces stormwater discharge to surface water
- Installation of an appropriately sized treatment pond on site
Impaired Waters: Why and How the Permit Language Needs to Change
Pre-TMDL
- MPCA must ensure that industiral stormwater discharges are not causing or contributing to an impairment
- Through the draft permit, implementation of control measures (including BMPs) is the mechanism to reduce pollutant concentrations such that water quality standards are met
Post-TMDL
- The expired permit does not have any reference to requirements for discharges to impaired waters with an approved TMDL
- Through the draft permit, in addition to permit required monitoring and management of control measures, a facility is required to comply with the approved TMDL
Existing expired permit does not address nondegradationg
For facilities subject to nondegradation requirements, through this draft permit, Permittees must achieve
- No Exposure or
- Install control measures designed to protect water quality to prevent degradation
How the Permit Will Address Nondegradation
- Will have screening questions to determine if a facility has exposure areas likely to exceed a nondegradation threshold for new and expanding facilities
- Added requirements for situations where a higher level of water quality protection is appropriate: Outstanding Resource Value Waters, wetlands, trout streams, etc.
C&E Efforts and Implementation
- Overarching program compliance goals: Compliance isthe goal. Efforts should progress in an inverted pyramid (effort) relationship for newer programs, like ISW.
- Web based assistance and guidance
- No exposure and P2 outreach
- Permit applications on line
- Permit outreach efforts
- Developing compliance checklists
- Developing partner programs
- Matrix other C/E programs
- Evaluate program and permit data
- Geographic evaluation of sites and priorities
- Automated responses
- Review compliance status
- Site inspections
- Enforcement evaluation
- Active enforcement
C&E Steps
- Pre application on line tools for permit holders; Phone tree for FAQ, web casts, program basics including steps to comply.
- No exposure informational events and P2 outreach tools; P2 factsheets, compliance calendar, guidance on BMP's links to other resources.
- Application on line. includes smart form technology to limit errors, line by line assistance and instructions.
- Compliance monitoring of sites to determine if they applied for/received permit coverage.
- Check other program data systems to see whether other program interests have or need permits.
Focus on Compliance Assistance and then Enforcement
- Review structural and non structural BMP effectiveness based on geo-regions, watersheds, or by industiral activities.
- Automated notices on compliance data and comparisons to sites (similar to the CDT project for point source program, what we call "the big report").
Enforcement
- Sites without permits
- Send a request for information letter (RFI) to the owner/operator requesting a response
- For sites that have received an RFI and have not applied for permit coverage but can obtain no exposure, issue a Letter of Warning
- No permit, enforcement response would be brought to the enforcement forum for individual consideration and follow up.
Strategy
- Review annual reports completeness, areas or practices of concern review content.
- Reports that are submitted incomplete will be investigated further.
- Compliance monitoring of Stormwater Monitoring Report submittals. This activity will be delayed since SWMR submittals are not required until beginning of year two coverage.
- Checking for abnormalities, lacking responses and areas of concern.
- Compliance monitoring of Discharge Monitoring Report submittals.
- Documentation from DMRs that discharge of treated stormwater is not meeting effluent limits established for the treatment system installed on the site.
Inspection Activities (i.e. Targeting)
- Information has not been completed on application for coverage
- Complaing on site or discharge
- Information that discharges not protective of waters
- Not submitting DMRs
- Not submitting SWMRs
- Coordination with other PCA or partner programs
- Review no exposure accuracy
- Periodic sampling conducted for verification efforts of SWMR and DMR or treament effectiveness.
Industiral Stormwater Program
- Jeff Connell, Don Jakes - Managers
- Kenn Moon - Supervisor
- Cindi Kahrmann - Coordinator
- Duane Duncanson - Permit Writer
- Lou Flynn - Engineer
- Mike Trojan - Impaired Waters
- Zach Chamberlain
- Mary Jean Fenske
- Melissa Wenzel
- Kris Hulsebus
This content is not meant to constitute advice of any kind, including without limitation, legal advice of any kind. If you require advice in relation to any legal matter you should consult an appropriately qualified lawyer.
