Roaring Brook Consultants, Inc.

Engineering a Better Future

National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) - Part I

The Clean Water Act (CWA) was enacted in 1972 to restore and maintain the water quality of the waters of the United States. What are the waters of the United States? Any navigable water or any tributary connected to navigable water and adjacent wetlands. Essentially any water body which if followed downstream connects to the territorial sea or the Great Lakes. The section of the CWA that is the focus of this discussion is Section 402, which, resulted in the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES). The US EPA administers this program. The initial focus was on publicly owned treatment works and industrial process wastewater. The act was amended in 1987 to include stormwater runoff after studies performed by the Nationwide Urban Runoff Program (NURP) showed that stormwater runoff was contaminated.

Phase 1 of the NPDES targeted large pollution sources. These included:

• Medium to large cities (populations over 100,000)
• Certain industrial activities
• Construction activities of five (5) or more acres

Under Phase 1 the entity needed to file for an individual permit. Initially the EPA administered all permits, over time individual states were designated by the EPA as being able to manage the program at the state level. The states report to the EPA, but all the regulations, which are modeled after the federal program, are established and administered by the state.

In 2003, Phase 2 of the NPDES started. This phase includes smaller communities, industries and construction sites. Included in Phase 2 are:

• Cities and towns which have a density of 1000 per sq. mile in the storm sewer watershed
• Broader range of industries
• Construction activities of one (1) or more acres

The requirements imposed on each of the sectors vary. In this discussion we will not be exploring the industrial segment, since each type of industry has it’s own individual concerns. To avoid the need of an individual permit for every one of these small entities, a General permit was created. The General permit is for storm water discharges only, any other type of discharge, such as industrial process water which will need the appropriate permit for that type of discharge. The General permit was first issued in 2003 and is due to expire in 2008. The new permit is currently under development. The basics of the permits will most likely stay the same, except that the reporting and analysis sections maybe expanded under the new 2008 permit. The following page continues with  a discussion of the current permit requirements.

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