The Stormwater Phase II Rule and No-Exposure

Introduction

When it rains or snows, the water that runs off of city streets, parking lots, and construction sites can wash sediment, oil, grease, toxics, pathogens, and other pollutants into nearby storm drains. Once this pollution has entered the sewer system, it is discharged–untreated–into local streams and waterways. Known as stormwater runoff, this pollution is considered by EPA to be a leading threat to public health and the environment.

Phase I of the storm water program, which was published in November 1990, covered municipal storm sewer systems serving populations over 100,000, construction sites above five acres, and industrial activities (including trucking facilities with fueling, maintenance, painting and outdoor storage of materials).

Phase II

Building upon the existing stormwater program, stormwater Phase II requires municipal storm sewer systems serving populations under 100,000 that are located in urbanized areas to obtain a National Pollution Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit under the Clean Water Act. This will result in stormwater controls for approximately 5,040 additional municipalities across the country. Types of controls could include public education programs, storm sewer inspections for illegal connections, and ordinances to control construction site runoff as well as municipal stormwater permits for their upstream industrial users like trucking facilities.

The Phase II rule takes a "best management practice" approach, providing municipalities with the flexibility to decide what these practices should be. Municipal Phase II storm water programs are to be composed of six minimum control measures, including:

• public education and outreach;
• public involvement and participation;
• illicit discharge detection and elimination;
• construction site storm water runoff control;
• post-construction storm water management; and
• pollution prevention, or "good housekeeping," for municipal operations.

Municipalities may be able to use existing programs to satisfy these control measures, thereby avoiding program duplication. The use of general, rather than individual, permits is encouraged. There is permitting flexibility for municipal storm sewer systems serving fewer than 10,000 people, including waivers and permit phase-in options. In addition unregulated facilities and activities that are causing water quality impairments may be brought into the program and required to obtain a storm water permit on a case-by-case basis.

Construction (Phase II)

Under Phase I, construction sites that disturbed five acres or more of ground had to obtain a permit. Phase II will capture the construction sites that range from one to five acres in size, with case-by-case authority to permit sites of less than an acre in size. Basically this means that any size construction area on a trucking facility will require a separate stormwater permit. The reason for this is that sediment, which runs off of construction sites at a rate of anywhere between 20 and 150 tons/acre/year, has been identified as the single largest cause of impaired water quality in rivers and the third largest cause of impaired water quality in lakes. Types of controls required by the permit could include filter fences, storm drain inlet protections, and temporary mulching and seeding of exposed land areas.

Timing

Municipalities and construction sites will have up to three years and 90 days from the effective date (February 7, 2000) of the new rule to obtain a storm water permit.

No-Exposure Certification

For those industrial facilities currently covered under Phase I of the storm water program, the new rule provides incentives to protect operations from storm water exposure. Some trucking facilities may be able to take advantage of this new provision by adopting practices to protect their operations from exposure to storm water impacts, such as covering operations under a storm resistant shelter.

The Certification is a checklist of 12 questions concerning what materials or activities are outside and exposed to precipitation at a facility. If a facility owner/operator is able to appropriately answer all the questions, then the facility may be allowed to drop out of the stormwater permit program for a space of 5 years. The certification considers well-maintained trucks and forklifts to not be sources of pollution, thus opening the door for trucking facilities to apply.

The Certification will be available for the next round of federal stormwater permits in states that EPA still controls (Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Florida, New Mexico, Texas Arizona, Idaho and Alaska) which should occur with the next draft of the Multi-Sector General Permit in September 2000. All other states control their own stormwater permit programs and can accept or decline the Certification as they renew or reissue their permits. These other states (aka: delegated states) must accept it into their programs within one year if no statutory change is required or within two years if a statutory change is required. Virginia has already issued the Certification to its industrial permittees including trucking facilities.

Contacts

To view and print the No-Exposure Certification go to the EPA’s Website and click on Appendix 4. Click on the "Preamble" and go to page 162, Section J, for a discussion of definitions and interpretations concerning the Certification. All documents are in Adobe Acrobat format.

For more information on storm water Phase II, please call EPA at (202) 260-5816, e-mail them your questions, or visit EPA’s Phase II Website.