['Water Programs']
['Antidegradation', 'Conventional Water Pollutants', 'Watershed Management', 'Secondary Treatment', 'Water Permitting', 'Water Programs']
08/28/2024
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EPA regulates the discharge of pollutants from point and nonpoint sources under the Clean Water Act (CWA). Sources that discharge wastewater to Waters of the United States may need to obtain a federal, state, or municipal permit to do so.
Major water permitting programs include:
- The National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES), which regulates discharges of pollution from point sources, 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 programs.
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.
Regulatory citations
- 40 CFR 122 – 127; 129 - 136
- 40 CFR 257 — Criteria for Classification of Solid Waste Disposal Facilities and Practices
- 40 CFR Chapter I, Subchapter N — Effluent Guidelines and Standards
- 40 CFR Chapter I, Subchapter O — Sewage Sludge
Key definitions
- 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.
- 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 shoreline 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. The EPA national forms may be modified to meet the needs of the state.
- Effluent limitation: Any restriction on quantities, discharge rates, and concentrations of “pollutants” which are “discharged” from “point sources” into “waters of the United States,” shorelines, or the ocean.
- Effluent limitations guidelines: A regulation published by EPA 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 the CWA.
- Permit: An authorization, license, or equivalent control document issued by EPA or an approved state to meet effluent guidelines. The term includes a NPDES general permit, but does not include any permit which has not yet been the subject of final agency action, such as a draft permit or a propose 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.
- 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.
- 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
NPDES permits
- 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.
- If you plan to construct a new facility, you may need a construction 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.
If you plan construction or an industrial activity that will affect a area defined as a wetland, you must check with EPA, your state, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to see if you need a permit.
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['Water Programs']
['Antidegradation', 'Conventional Water Pollutants', 'Watershed Management', 'Secondary Treatment', 'Water Permitting', 'Water Programs']
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