Re: Working Draft EPA's NPDES Pesticides General Permit

Jeff DeBessonet to: Jack Faulk 01/25/2010 01:45 PM

Cc: "Crystal Rippy"

Jack,

from SC's NPDES program, here are a few comments:

1. page 1: Section 1.1.2.1, if the water is impaired, is the implication "no 

application" or an individual permit?

2. page 4: Section 1.2.2, can a contract operator file an NOI? In one of 

EPA's power point presentations earlier, it says: "The NOI filer, in most 

cases, would be the organization responsible for deciding to conduct the 

pesticide applications, as opposed to the person performing the applications." 

We would prefer to have the NOI from the organization "responsible" and not a 

contractor.

3. page 15: Section 3.0, It says "EPA may impose additional water 

quality-based limitations or ...", in what way would that be done (e.g., NOI 

coverage letter?). 

4. page 21: Section 6.2, after a description of "as soon as practicable" the 

text states: "The schedule is included in this permit". Did I miss a 

schedule in the permit?

5. After this permit would expire, can a new NOI be filed (before the time 

when the new permit were to be reissued)? (i.e., can new coverage be granted 

while the permit is expired?)

6. page 1: Typo? Under section 1.1.1, first paragraph, should the word 

"residue" be added to the text reads: "chemical pesticides which leave a 

RESIDUE for the following pesticide use patterns"?

7. page 1: Awkward? Under section 1.1.2.1, seems like you could end the 

sentence after the word "degradates" (assuming degradates is a word.

8. If EPA wanted to write a permit to cover SC, that would be OK (just like 

vessels). :-)

Thanks.

Jeff deBessonet, Director

Water Facilities Permitting Division

SC Dept. of Health and Env. Control

>>> <Faulk.Jack@epamail.epa.gov> 1/13/2010 6:48 PM >>>

All,

Attached is a copy of EPA's current working draft NPDES Pesticides

General Permit (PGP) for your review and comment. First, we ask that

you not share this draft, either electronically or in paper form, with

others. This permit, by nature of the discharge, is not a typical NPDES

permit and, as you know, we are working through some challenging issues.

Until we feel comfortable with our approach, we'd prefer not to have to

discuss the details of our working drafts with entities outside of our

co-regulator family. We hope to receive that input from you directly!
We will be public noticing the draft permit around the end of April 2010

at which point anybody and everybody, including states, will have an

opportunity to review and comment on that version of the permit. We do

not have a copy of the permit fact sheet to share with you. The permit

writing has been quite a dynamic process and trying to keep up with a

fact sheet has not been so successful. We hope, although cannot

guarantee, to be able to share a copy of a draft fact sheet with you at

some point before issuance of the permit. Thanks for your

understanding.

Tomorrow, January 14, from 1-3 pm eastern time, we will be discussing

this permit on a free webcast, to prepare folks for reviewing the permit

and for participating in our two-day face-to-face meeting in Dallas On

January 20-21. If you have not yet done so, you can register to

participate in the webcast (must be done in advance) at

http://event.on24.com/r.htm?e=183080&s=1&k=17604CA8BF94523AA10DE0009E2B2EFF 

. You can register for the meeting in Dallas at

http://www.tetratech-ffx.com/npdes_pesticides/.

We would like your comments on this working draft but ask that you

submit those comments electronically no later than close of business

Monday, January 25, 2010. Please send those comments to me at

faulk.jack@epa.gov. We plan to read and consider all comments we

receive from you by that time. We will also be documenting the

discussion in Dallas and considering those comments as well.

One additional item to consider. This permit includes several comments

asking for your specific input on certain permit language. If you have

limited time for which to review the permit, we would ask that you at

least take a look at those few comments and provide your thoughts on

those.

Thanks for your patience and understanding and enjoy your reading.

(See attached file: PGP working draft 011310 pm.doc)

Jack

Water Permits Division

US Environmental Protection Agency

EPA East (4203M)

1200 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW

Washington, DC 20460

Telephone (202) 564-0768

Fax (202) 564-6431