Introduction
The Environmental Protection Agency adopted new regulations in 2003 that required that small construction sites or construction sites that are part of a larger development to abide by the Clean Water Act when releasing flows to the waters of the United States. These rules have been put in place to mainly control sediment releases from constructions sites, but also require management of construction sites to reduce or eliminate pollutants (oils, gasoline, debris, trash) as well.
The goal of this web site is to educate and assist contractors with the development of a Storm Water Pollution Prevention Plan (SWPPP) for their scope of work while on the Boise State University campus. The assistance provided here is in accordance with the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) National Pollution Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) Construction General Permit (CGP).
Storm water is simply the runoff from rainwater or snowmelt that runs off the land and into streams, rivers, and lakes. When this runoff crosses through constructions sites it may pick up pollutants and transport them into waterways. This can affect fisheries, swimming areas, drinking water, and navigability of National waters.
To help curb the problem of pollution of waterways by storm water runoff the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has developed a permit program under the Clean Water Act. Specifically, the National Pollution Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) requires the regulation of activities that discharge to National waterways. The NPDES was originally designed to track point source discharges and require controls to be instituted that would minimize the discharge of pollutants from these sources. After achieving the goals of this EPA program, it became evident that a more diffuse source of pollution of our waterways needed to be addressed. These newly identified, more perfuse sources are called non-point sources. Non-point sources have been described as a significant source of waterway impairment, especially from urban areas.
In
1972, Congress passed the Clean Water Act, which seeks to protect and improve
the quality of the Nation’s waters. Toward this end, the Clean Water Act
prohibits the discharge of any pollutants to waters of the United States unless
that discharge is authorized by a NPDES permit. Initial efforts under the NPDES
program focused on reducing pollutants that were being discharged from
industrial processes and municipal sewage operation (point sources).
In 1990, the EPA published regulations governing storm water discharges under the NPDES. Phase I of these new regulations (55 FR 47990) established requirements for permitting storm water discharges associated with certain types of industrial activities, municipal areas with a population over 100,000, and constructions areas that disturbed five acres of more.
In 2003, new regulations came into effect that required that constructions sites that disturbed one to five acres (including smaller sites that are part of a larger development) to comply with the NPDES permit process. These new regulations required contractors to develop and implement storm water pollution prevention plans and to obtain permit coverage. The provisions that contractors must follow for this permitting process has been laid out in the Construction General Permit (CGP) of the NPDES regulations. These new regulations replace and update previous EPA permits (As pertains to EPA Region 10).
The Construction General Permit applies only in areas where EPA is the permitting authority. EPA permitting area information can be found here. In Idaho, the EPA is the permitting authority and permits are distributed under permit number IDR100000. Other regulations specific to Idaho may exist under section 9 of the CGP. Compliance is the responsibility of the permittee.
Compliance with the
requirements of the CGP consists of four major components:
SWPPP Preparation Checklist and Template
Submission of electronic Notice of Intent (eNOI)
Submission of Notice of Termination (NOT)
A flowchart of the SWPPP compliance process can be referenced at the following link: SWPPP DEVELOPMENT FLOWCHART.
Feedback on this project is greatly appreciated. A form has been provided at the following link: Feedback Form