International Erosion Control Association

SPECIAL NOTICE!

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has released some recent news important to IECA members.
EPA Issues Rule to Reduce Water Pollution from Construction Sites

The EPA has issued a final rule to help reduce water pollution from construction sites. The agency believes this rule, which takes effect in February 2010 and will be phased in over four years, will significantly improve the quality of water nationwide.

The final rule requires construction site owners and operators that disturb one or more acres to useEPA Logo best management practices to ensure that soil disturbed during construction activity does not pollute nearby water bodies. In addition, owners and operators of sites that impact 10 or more acres of land at one time will be required to monitor discharges and ensure they comply with specific limits on discharges to minimize the impact on nearby water bodies. This is the first time that EPA has imposed national monitoring requirements and enforceable numeric limitations on construction site stormwater discharges.

EPA Web Page With Full Details
Two-Page Fact Sheet
Federal Register Notice

Highlights of the Final Rule
 
1. Numeric Effluent Limitation (NEL) for turbidity of 280 NTU (as a daily average) applies to:
  • Sites that disturb 20 or more acres at one time* (18 months from publication of final rule)
  • Sites that disturb 10 or more acres at one time* (4 years from publication of final rule)
2. The NEL is not applicable on days when total precipitation on that day is greater than the local two-year, 24-hour storm event;

3. Non-numeric effluent limits (aka: minimum BMPs) to prevent the mobilization of sediment and sediment bound pollutants - Apply to all permitted sites and becomes effective 60 days after the publication of the final rule;

4. Post construction standards are not addressed by this rulemaking, but the discussion indicates there will be a future rulemaking to address new development and re-development.
 
* Contiguous or non-contiguous areas that are part of the same project or common plan of development. NEL requirement is removed when total disturbed area drops below the threshold.

NOTE: This rule does not become effective until the construction stormwater permits issued by the individual States or USEPA incorporate the ELGs into the issuance of the next construction stormwater permit. States are under no obligation to reissue their permits immediately, and most will include the ELGs during the next renewal cycle. EPA plans to reissue its general construction stormwater permits in about 18 months. EPA anticipates full implementation will take 5 years. For instance, California just reissued its permit and is unlikely to open it up until the end of the 5-year permit cycle in 2014.
 
Attend the Session at EC10! Effluent Guidelines - Insights into Compliance with EPA's New Turbidity Standards - Feb. 18 from 8:30am to 12:00pm 
This session will present details of the new requirements and information on complianceJesse Pritts strategies. Taught by Jesse Pritts (pictured), a civil/environmental engineer with EPA's Office of Water, who has been working on various stormwater regulatory and non-regulatory issues at EPA for 13 years including the effluent guidelines and the International Stormwater BMP Database. He is currently the project manager for EPA's construction and development effluent guidelines rulemaking. Session Details >.
Comments Requested On Proposed Rulemaking

EPA is proposing to disseminate a survey to owners, operators, developers and contractors of developed sites, owners and operators of municipal separate storm sewer systems (MS4s), and states and U.S. territories, which is designed to inform a rulemaking to strengthen stormwater regulations and to establish a comprehensive program to reduce stormwater from newly developed and redeveloped sites.

Stormwater discharges from developed sites can harm water quality through increases in stormwater volume and pollutant loadings into nearby waterways. Generally, as sites are developed there is an increase in areas where water cannot infiltrate, so stormwater volume increases. The resulting stormwater flows across roads, rooftops, and other surfaces, transporting pollutants that are then discharged into waterways.

EPA intends to propose a rule to control stormwater from, at a minimum, newly developed and redeveloped sites, and to take final action no later than November 2012. In order to support the rulemaking, EPA is proposing to require three separate questionnaires focusing on gathering data about current stormwater management practices, including those used at newly developed and redeveloped sites. EPA's proposed survey would gather data from three groups: 1) the owners, operators, developers and contractors of newly and redeveloped sites; 2) the owners and operators of municipal separate storm sewer systems; and 3) states and territories. The draft survey would require detailed information about stormwater management and control practices, local regulations and baseline financial information.

On October 26, 2009, EPA signed a Federal Register notice announcing its intent to submit a Information Collection Request (ICR) for the three questionnaires to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). EPA is requesting comments on the proposed Information Collection Request, including the associated burden estimate, but is NOT requesting completion of questionnaires at this time. The proposed ICR will be open for public comment for 60 days following publication in the Federal Register.

Complete Details
Two-Page Fact Sheet

Any questions about the Notice, the proposed ICR and/or the rulemaking, please contact:

Holly S. Galavotti
Storm Water Team
U.S. EPA, Water Permits Division
Mail Code: 4203M
1200 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, D.C. 20460-0001
(202) 564-1489
galavotti.holly@epa.gov