Is your company abiding by state stormwater permits? If your construction project disturbs one or more acres of land through clearing, grading, excavating, or stockpiling of fill material, you need coverage under a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) stormwater permit for construction activities. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has updated its online inventory of all of these specific state stormwater general permits – and access to your state’s permit is now just a click away.
Construction activity less than one acre also need to be covered under a construction stormwater permit if the site is part of a large common plan of development. (For example, if you are performing construction activities on a half-acre lot within a 10-acre planned development, then you may need to obtain permit coverage.) States and EPA regions have issued Construction General Permits (CGPs) that describe the practices construction “operators” must follow to obtain permit coverage and protect water quality.
Download a copy of the CGP for your state at this link: http://cfpub.epa.gov/npdes/permitissuance/genpermits.cfm. Under “Permit Category,” you can search for “Stormwater - Construction.”
The “operator” is the entity (generally a company, corporation, etc.) that has operational control over the construction plans or day-to-day activities that are necessary to implement the Stormwater Pollution Prevention Plan (SWPPP), according to EPA. Consult your state’s general permit for more information. If you determine that you need permit coverage, read your state’s permit carefully and remember that you are legally responsible for complying with all provisions.
More About EPA’s Web Inventory
The web inventory includes 768 non-stormwater and stormwater general permits and is designed with a search tool to provide easily accessible information on master general permits, including permit category, permit number, state, permit title, EPA region, issuance and expiration dates, estimated number of facilities covered by each master general permit, and permitting authority. Where a general permit is available on a state website, the web inventory provides a link so that the specific terms of the general permit can be easily viewed.
Other Construction Stormwater Resources
- Developing Your Stormwater Pollution Prevention Plan: A Guide for Construction Sites - Provides helpful guidance, including SWPPP templates and a sample inspection form, for operators who must prepare a SWPPP to obtain NPDES permit coverage for their stormwater discharges.
- Example SWPPPs - Provides two example SWPPPs for educational or training purposes.
- Construction Industry Compliance Assistance (CICA) Center - Provides plain language explanations of environmental rules for the construction industry and links to stormwater permits and technical manuals for all 50 states.
- National Menu of BMPs - Contains a variety of fact sheets on construction site BMPs.
- Construction Webcasts - EPA webcasts for local stormwater professionals on the six minimum measures.
- Low Erosivity Waiver (LEW) Calculator - Provides assistance to operators with estimating the rainfall erosivity factor (R factor) for their construction project.
- CGP Corrective Action Report Form – Provides a template in which operators can prepare corrective action reports that meet the minimum reporting requirements in Part 5.4 of EPA’s Construction General Permit.
- CGP Inspection Report Form – Provides a template in which operators can prepare inspection reports that meet the minimum reporting requirements in Part 4.1.7 of EPA’s Construction General Permit.
- National Stormwater Calculator – A new tool that estimates the annual amount of rainwater and frequency of runoff from a specific site. The tool also evaluates how green infrastructure technologies may help to manage or prevent runoff.