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Whenever your processes or activities have the potential to affect surface waters or adjoining shorelines, you may be required to obtain a permit to conduct business or to begin an activity (such as a construction project).
Major water permitting programs include:
The National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES), which includes permitting for industrial wastewater activities and stormwater; and
Wetlands permitting (Part 404), which covers activities that affect wetlands.
Scope
The National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) is a permitting program designed to limit the amount of pollutants that reach waters of the United States. While NPDES is a federal program, most states run their own Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permitting program.
The NPDES program requires permits for the discharge of “pollutants” from any “point source” into “waters of the United States.” The program covers the following types of pollutants:
Conventional pollutants are contained in the sanitary wastes of households, businesses, and industries. These pollutants include human wastes, ground-up food from sink disposals, and laundry and bath waters. Conventional pollutants include:
Fecal coliform - These bacteria are found in the digestive tracts of humans and animals; their presence in water indicates the potential presence of pathogenic organisms.
Oil and grease - These organic substances may include hydrocarbons, fats, oils, waxes, and high-molecular fatty acids. Oil and grease may produce sludge solids that are difficult to process.
Toxic pollutants are particularly harmful to animal or plant life. They are primarily grouped into organics (including pesticides, solvents, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and dioxins) and metals (including lead, silver, mercury, copper, chromium, zinc, nickel, and cadmium).
Nonconventional pollutants are any additional substances that are not conventional or toxic that may require regulation. These include nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus.
Wetlands Permits (Part 404) must be obtained before beginning any project that could affect a wetland, including roads, bridges, and new facilities. Wetlands permits are issued jointly by EPA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
Regulatory citations
40 CFR 122 — EPA Administered Permit Programs: the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System
40 CFR 125 — Criteria and Standards for the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System
Key definitions
Average monthly discharge limitation: The highest allowable average of daily discharges over a calendar month, calculated as the sum of all “daily discharges” measured during a calendar month divided by the number of daily discharges measured during that month.
Best management practices (BMPs): Schedules of activities, prohibitions of practices, maintenance procedures, and other management practices to prevent or reduce the pollution of “waters of the United States.” BMPs also include treatment requirements, operating procedures, and practices to control plant site runoff, spillage or leaks, sludge or waste disposal, or drainage from raw material storage.
Combined sewer system (CSS): A wastewater collection system owned by a State or municipality which conveys sanitary wastewaters (domestic, commercial and industrial wastewaters) and storm water through a single-pipe system to a Publicly Owned Treatment Works (POTW) Treatment Plant.
Contiguous zone: The entire zone established by the United States under Article 24 of the Convention on the Territorial Sea and the Contiguous Zone.
Continuous discharge: A “discharge” which occurs without interruption throughout the operating hours of the facility, except for infrequent shutdowns for maintenance, process changes, or other similar activities.
Direct discharge: The “discharge of a pollutant.”
Discharge of a pollutant:
Any addition of any “pollutant” or combination of pollutants to “waters of the United States” from any “point source,” or
Any addition of any pollutant or combination of pollutants to the waters of the “contiguous zone” or the ocean from any point source other than a vessel or other floating craft which is being used as a means of transportation.
This definition includes additions of pollutants into waters of the United States from: surface runoff which is collected or channeled by man; discharges through pipes, sewers, or other conveyances owned by a State, municipality, or other person which do not lead to a treatment works; and discharges through pipes, sewers, or other conveyances, leading into privately owned treatment works. This term does not include an addition of pollutants by any “indirect discharger.”
Discharge Monitoring Report (DMR): The EPA uniform national form, including any subsequent additions, revisions, or modifications for the reporting of self-monitoring results by permittees. DMRs must be used by “approved states” as well as by EPA. EPA will supply DMRs to any approved State upon request. The EPA national forms may be modified to substitute the State Agency name, address, logo, and other similar information, as appropriate, in place of EPA’s.
Effluent limitation: Any restriction imposed by the Director on quantities, discharge rates, and concentrations of “pollutants” which are “discharged” from “point sources” into “waters of the United States,” the waters of the “contiguous zone,” or the ocean.
Effluent limitations guidelines: A regulation published by the Administrator under section 304(b) of the Clean Water Act (CWA) to adopt or revise effluent limitations.
General permit: An NPDES “permit” issued under 122.28 authorizing a category of discharges under the CWA within a geographical area.
Maximum daily discharge limitation: The highest allowable “daily discharge.”
National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES): The national program for issuing, modifying, revoking and reissuing, terminating, monitoring and enforcing permits, and imposing and enforcing pretreatment requirements, under sections 307, 402, 318, and 405 of CWA.
Permit: An authorization, license, or equivalent control document issued by EPA or an approved State to implement the requirements of this part and Parts 123 and 124. Permit includes an NPDES general permit (122.28). Permit does not include any permit which has not yet been the subject of final agency action, such as a draft permit or a proposed permit.
Point source: Any discernible, confined, and discrete conveyance, including but not limited to, any pipe, ditch, channel, tunnel, conduit, well, discrete fissure, container, rolling stock, concentrated animal feeding operation, landfill leachate collection system, vessel or other floating craft from which pollutants are or may be discharged. This term does not include return flows from irrigated agriculture or agricultural
storm water runoff.
Pollutant: Dredged spoil, solid waste, incinerator residue, filter backwash, sewage, garbage, sewage sludge, munitions, chemical wastes, biological materials, radioactive materials (except those regulated under the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as amended), heat, wrecked or discarded equipment, rock, sand, cellar dirt and industrial, municipal, and agricultural waste discharged into water.
Process wastewater: Any water which, during manufacturing or processing, comes into direct contact with or results from the production or use of any raw material, intermediate product, finished product, byproduct, or waste product.
Schedule of compliance: A schedule of remedial measures included in a permit, including an enforceable sequence of interim requirements (for example, actions, operations, or milestone events) leading to compliance with the CWA and regulations.
Total maximum daily loads (TMDLs): The amount of a specific pollutant or property of a pollutant, from point, nonpoint, and natural background sources, including a margin of safety, that may be discharged to a water body and still ensure that the water body attains water quality standards.
Toxic pollutant: Any pollutant listed as toxic under section 307(a)(1) or, in the case of “sludge use or disposal practices,” any pollutant identified in regulations implementing section 405(d) of the CWA.
Wetlands: Areas that are inundated or saturated by surface or ground water at a frequency and duration sufficient to support, and that under normal circumstances do support, vegetation typically adapted for life in saturated soil conditions.
Summary of requirements
If your facility discharges (or proposes to discharge) pollutants into waters of the United States, or you own or operate a sewage sludge treatment facility, you must apply for a NPDES permit (unless you already have one).
If your facility has pollutants that are exposed to stormwater (including snowfall), you may need a stormwater permit.
Permit applications must be submitted at least 90 days before beginning construction requiring a stormwater permit.
Permit applications must be submitted at least 180 days before you begin a new activity that requires a wastewater or stormwater permit.
You must comply with the conditions listed in your permit.
