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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMontana DEQ~na Department of P.O. Box 200901 · I-'leiena, MT 59620=0901 · (41 May 6, 2003 RE: New Department of Environmental Quality Storm Water Permitting Requirements Dear Municipal Official: This letter is intended to notify municipalities (cities, towns, and counties) about new regulations for permitting storm water discharges which may affect them. Through the Department's Montana Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (MPDES), the Department has been delegated authority by the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to permit storm water discharges from certain types of facilities or activities. For the past eleven years the Department has been permitting storm water discharges based on EPA's Phase I storm water requirements. On February 14, 2003, new Administrative Rules of Montana (ARM) became effective which expand the State's permitting authority to include EPA's December 1999 Phase II storm water requirements. Consequently, on March 10, 2003 new Phase II requirements became effective which could affect municipalities in the following areas. Smaller ConStrUction Activities: The criteria for determining what construction activity storm water discharges would require Department permit coverage is based on the acres of construction-related disturbance (clearing, excavating, grading, etc.) associated with the project. EPA Phase II requirements have resulted in this criteria being lowered from five acres to one acre of construction-related disturbance that is part of a common plan for development or sale. Consequently, construction projects disturbing between one and five acres which initiate construction on March 10, 2003 or later will require storm water discharges to be covered under the Department's MPDES "General Permit for Storm Water Discharges Associated with Construction Activity". With this letter, I have sent your municipality a number of brochures which better explain the Department's storm water discharge permitting requirements. This brochure is available fi'om the Department in hard copy or electronically from our storm water construction webpage: http://www.deq.state.mt.us/wqinfo/MPDES/StormwaterConstruction.asp. The Department realizes some municipalities have local construction project requirements or related correspondence associated with construction projects. If possible, would you please make these brochures available to the construction project community (project owners and contractors) in conjunction with these interactions or in a pertinent public office. Even if it is just placing a pile of these in the Town Clerk's office, your municipality's help in this outreach would be much appreciated. This is not a requirement, but only a request for Municipal Official May 6, 2003 Page 2 of 3 assistance to the Department in making these brochures readily available to the public. Thank you. 2. Municipal Industrial Activities- During the implementation of EPA's Phase I storm water requirements over the past eleven years, there has been a municipal exemption for permitting storm water discharges from certain industrial-related facilities. EPA's Phase II requirements have now removed this exemption. As necessary, please refer to the following webpage for links to storm water permitting rules (including EPA Phase II requirements), documents, and information: http://www.deq.state.mt.us/wqinfo/MPDES/PermitTypes.asp. In the new rules available on these storm water website links, ARM 17.30.1105(8) and (9) require storm water discharge permit coverage for municipal facilities or activities meeting the definition of "storm water discharge associated with industrial activity" (see ARM 17.30.1102(29)), "storm water discharge associated with mining and oil and gas activity" (see ARM 17.30.1102(30)), and "storm water discharge associated with construction activity" (see ARM 17.30.1102(28)) with construction-related disturbance of five acres or more of total land.area. Examples of municipal facilities with a Storm water discharge that could be affected by this requirement include municipal wastewater treatment plants (POTWs) with a design flow of 1.0 mgd or more, local passenger transportation fleet maintenance facilities (bus, taxi, etc.), and sand & gravel pits. These facilities would typically require this permit coverage only if they are discharging storm water to surface waters as a result of a storm or snowmelt event. Surface waters are defined in ARM 17.30.1102(32). It is important to note that surface waters include not only natural or manmade waterbodies with water in them year-round, but also seasonal waterbodies, or sporadic waterbodies due to rainfall/snowmelt events (such as ditches, swales, gulches, coulees, etc.). For your information, if school bus facilities are operated by educational institutions, they do not require this permit coverage. Also, if existing sand and gravel pits are internally drained due to topographically being below the surrounding grade and/or due to highly permeable soils, they may not have a discharge to surface waters. Effective March 10, 2003, any municipal facility requiring permit coverage as stated above is required to submit a complete permit applicat/on form, Storm Water Pollution Prevention Plan, and fees to the Storm Water Program at the above address. The aforementioned website address will provide links to the pertinent storm water MPDES General Permit webpage. Use the provided MPDES General Permit, storm water rules, forms, and other information to complete the application package. 3. Solid Waste Disposal Facilities (Landfill~): Under Phase I requirements, landfills discharging storm water to surface waters required permit coverage under the Department's MPDES "General Permit for Storm Water Discharges Associated with Industrial Activity". The municipal exemption in item//2 did not apply to "uncontrolled sanitary landfills" as defined in ARM 17.30.1102(34). Due to the new storm water rules (smaller construction activity and removing the municipal exemption), virtually all landfills and/or their on-site Municipal Official May 6, 2003 Page 3 of 3 cover material borrow areas will now need to have any potential storm water discharge to surface waters covered by an MPDES permit. Storm water discharges may be associated with the actual landfill development and waste disposal area (with phased cutting, filling, and earthen material placement) or other separate regulated areas such as on-site sources of borrow material (or related management of earthen material). The following options are available for permitting these activities: a. If there is no potential discharge of storm water to surface waters from any regulated activity on the site, then MPDES permit coverage may not be necessary; If only a sand & gravel pit or cover material borrow area has a potential storm water discharge to surface waters, and the landfill area or other regulated areas do not, then coverage under the Department's MPDES "General Permit for Storm Water Discharges Associated with Mining and with Oil and Gas Activity" is the appropriate regulatory mechanism; and, If the landfill itself has a potential storm water discharge to surface waters, or if the landfill along with other regulated activities (such as the sand & gravel pit or cover material borrow area) have a discharge(s) to surface waters, then coverage under the Department's MPDES "General Permit for Storm Water Discharges Associated with Industrial Activity" is the appropriate regulatory mechanism. Class Ill landfills would have the analytical monitoring requirements under this General Permit waived. Also, it is important to consider that unless storm water runoff is managed on-site through nmoff control measures for significant storm events, it is likely landfill-related or other on- site regulated activities will have a potential discharge. The past, present, and future development of the landfill site throughout its lifetime needs to be considered in this permitting determination. Both of these General Permits require the permittee to develop and implement ~t Storm Water Pollution Prevention Plan (SWPPP). If there is a Department Solid Waste License pertaining to the storm water discharge permitted activity, then the SWPPP must also be included in an updated Operation and Maintenance Plan under the Department's Solid Waste License. Please refer to the aforementioned websites stated above for permitting documents and information related to these two General Permits. Should you have any questions, feel free to Contact myself or others in the Water Protection Bureau at (406) 444-3080. Brian Heckenberger DEQ Storm Water Program Coordinator Water Protection Bureau bheckenberger~state.mt.us