Opinion ID: 2798554
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Stormwater Pollutant Discharges

Text: Congress amended the CWA in 1987 to provide for regulation of municipal and industrial stormwater discharges under the NPDES program (see 33 USC § 1342 [p]). Stormwater, from rain and snow, is a highly significant source of water pollution, because it flows across all types of surfaces and washes various contaminants into municipal storm sewer systems which then drain into local water bodies. According to the EPA, - 13 - - 14 - No. 48 [s]torm water runoff continues to harm the nation's waters. Runoff from lands modified by human activities can harm surface water resources in several ways[,] including by changing natural hydrologic patterns and by elevating pollutant concentrations and loadings. Storm water runoff may contain or mobilize high levels of contaminants, such as sediment, suspended solids, nutrients, heavy metals, pathogens, toxins, oxygen-demanding substances, and floatables (40 CFR 122.30 [c]). Regulation of stormwater discharges are particularly challenging because of the ever present rain and snow that lead to stormwater runoff, and the fact that third-parties may be the source of illicit discharges to storm sewer systems (see 64 Fed Reg 68, 789 [EPA acknowledges the need to devise a regulatory program that is both flexible enough to accommodate the episodic nature, variability and volume of wet weather discharges and prescriptive enough to ensure protection of the water resource]). As provided under the CWA, the NPDES permit for municipal storm sewer discharges shall require controls to reduce the discharge of pollutants to the maximum extent practicable, including management practices, control techniques and system, design and engineering methods, and such other provisions the [EPA] Administrator or the State determines appropriate for the control of such pollutants (see 33 USC § 1342 [p] [3] [B] [iii]). The CWA does not define the maximum extent practicable standard. However, it appears to provide broad authority to agencies to control stormwater pollution. - 14 - - 15 - No. 48 In 1990 and 1999, the EPA adopted rules regulating Municipal Separate Storm Sewer Systems (MS4s), which are systems designed to carry stormwater (see 40 CFR 122.26 [b] [8]). The problems associated with regulating small MS4s are complex because of these municipalities' limited resources, the sheer numbers and diversity of the localities impacted by the general permit system, and the opportunity for an MS4 drainage system to cross geographic boundary lines, thus implicating multiple government entities. The federal regulations authorize state agencies to issue general permits for such discharges (see 40 CFR 122.26 [a] [5], 122.28 [a] [2] [i]). According to the EPA regulations, the state general permit must require that the MS4 develop, implement and enforce a storm water management program designed to reduce the discharge of pollutants from [the] MS4 to the maximum extent practicable (MEP), to protect water quality, and to satisfy the appropriate water quality requirements of the [CWA] (see 40 CFR 122.34 [a]). Further, the MS4's stormwater management program (SWMP) must include the minimum control measures set forth in the EPA regulations (id.). The EPA has also concluded that with respect to MS4s narrative effluent limitations requiring implementation of best management practices (BMPs) are generally the most appropriate form of effluent limitations when designed to satisfy technology requirements (including reductions of pollutants to the maximum extent practicable) and to protect water quality. Implementation of best management - 15 - - 16 - No. 48 practices consistent with the provisions of the storm water management program required pursuant to this section and the provisions of the permit required pursuant to § 122.33 constitutes compliance with the standard of reducing pollutants to the 'maximum extent practicable' (40 CFR 122.34 [a]). B. New York State's MS4 SPDES Stormwater Discharges General Permit In 2003, DEC issued a General Permit For Stormwater Discharges for MS4s (General Permit), which applies to small municipalities as defined in the federal regulations (see 40 CFR 122.26 [16]). The General Permit was renewed for two years in 2008, and renewed again for five years in 2010.3 This single General Permit currently covers 559 municipal separate storm sewer systems, statewide. The General Permit authorizes stormwater discharges by small MS4 operators covered by the permit. Coverage is effective once the MS4 submits, and the State accepts as complete, an NOI (see NYS DEC SPDES General Permit, Permit No. GP-0-10-002, at 2, [hereinafter General Permit] [Authorization under this SPDES General Permit is effective upon written notification from the [DEC] of the receipt of a complete NOI]). The New York NOI is a form document filled out by an MS4. It contains the MS4's 3 In anticipation of the General Permit's expiration on April 30, 2010, DEC sent a public notice of an interim draft renewal, effective for two years. - 16 - - 17 - No. 48 affirmances that it will comply with the general permit requirements, and that it has developed an initial SWMP to be implemented in accordance with the terms of the General Permit. Under the General Permit scheme, an MS4 must develop (for newly authorized MS4s, implement), and enforce a SWMP designed to reduce the discharge of pollutants from small MS4s to the maximum extent practicable (MEP) in order to protect water quality and to satisfy the appropriate water quality requirements of the ECL and the CWA. The objective of the permit is for the MS4s to assure achievement of the applicable water quality standards (General Permit, Part IV. Stormwater Management Program (SWMP), Subsection A, SWMP Background, at 14). The General Permit requires the SWMP contain the six mandatory minimum control measures set forth in the General Permit, and which mirror those contained in the EPA regulations. These control measures are titled: (1) public education and outreach on stormwater; (2) public participation in the development, implementation and review of the MS4's SWMP; (3) development of a program for detecting and eliminating illicit discharges; (4) development of a program to control construction site stormwater runoff; (5) post-construction stormwater management; and (6) pollution prevention for municipal operations (General Permit, Part VIII. Minimum Control Measures - Traditional Non-land Use and Nontraditional MS4s, at 49-67; see also CFR §§ 122.34 [b] [1]-[6]). Also, DEC has identified for each minimum control, - 17 - - 18 - No. 48 certain mandatory best management practices, to be utilized by the MS4 to prevent or reduce the pollution of waters of the state (General Permit, Part X. Acronyms and Definitions, at 88). The MS4's SWMP must specifically set forth measurable goals for each management practice (see id. at 95). An MS4 documents the developed, planned, and implemented SWMP elements in a SWMP Plan (Plan),4 which describe[s] how pollutants in stormwater runoff will be controlled (id. at 96). In addition to the minimum controls and management practices identified by the DEC, an MS4 must comply with all applicable technology-based effluent standards or limitations promulgated by EPA pursuant to the CWA (General Permit, Part VI. Standard Permits and Conditions, Subsection E. Technology Standards, at 22). Further, [i]f an effluent standard or limitation more stringent than any effluent limitation in the SPDES general permit or controlling a pollutant not limited in the permit is promulgated or approved after the permit is issued, the SWMP plan shall be promptly modified to include that effluent standard or limitation (id.) The ECL further requires that SPDES permits insure compliance with water quality standards adopted pursuant to state 4 The Plan may be created individually or with a group of covered municipalities, and is a separate document, not to be submitted with the NOI (see General Permit, Part X. Acronyms and Definitions, at 96). - 18 - - 19 - No. 48 law (ECL § 17-0811 [5]). The EPA regulations also prohibit issuance of SPDES permits that do not ensure compliance with applicable water quality requirements of all affected States (see 40 CFR §§ 122.4 [d], 123.25 [a] [1], 122.44 [1], 123.25 [a] [15]). The CWA requires a state to establish, as effluent limitations, water quality standards for the state's water bodies by designating uses for every waterway and the amount of permissible pollutants that may be present without impairing those designated uses (see 33 USC § 1313 [c] [2] [A]). Where current technology-based pollution controls are ineffective to attain or retain water quality standards for a water body, then that body is considered impaired (see 33 USC § 1311 [d]). The CWA requires that the states priority rank these impaired waters, taking into account the severity of the pollution and the uses to be made of such waters (see 33 USC § 1311 [d] [1] [A]), and calculate for each the total maximum daily load (TMDL) for the relevant pollutants that the water body may receive from all sources while still maintaining its water quality standards for any particular pollutant (id.). The states must set reductions for sources responsible for discharging pollutants in order for the dischargers to meet the TMDL (see 33 USC § 1311 [d] [1] [C]). As petitioners and the state recognize, it can take years to determine a TMDL. For those impaired waters in New York that do not have - 19 - - 20 - No. 48 a TMDL, the state's General Permit has established interim measures to address stormwater discharges pending designation of the applicable TMDL. In particular, effective the date the MS4 attains permit coverage, the MS4 must ensure no net increase in its discharge for certain pollutants, referred to as pollutants of concern and which are identified in the General Permit (see General Permit, Part III. Special Conditions, Subsection B., Impaired Waters, at 11, 101-108). The General Permit includes pollutant load reductions for various water bodies in the state (General Permit, Part IX. Watershed Improvement Strategy Requirements, Subsection C., Pathogen Impaired Watershed MS4s, at 78). Further, the MS4 must take all necessary actions to ensure future discharges do not cause or contribute to any existing violation of water quality standards. In other words, the General Permit requires the MS4 maintain the pollutant level at status quo. With respect to those water bodies for which New York has established a TMDL, the General Permit requires that the MS4 comply with the discharge reduction as defined by the TMDL program (General Permit, Part III. Special Conditions, Subsection B Impaired Waters, Subpart 2, Watershed Improvement Strategies, at 12). The MS4's affirmative agreement to comply with the General Permit requirements is represented in the NOI form, which consists mainly of a simplified checklist of the minimum control measures and management practices. In other words, the MS4 - 20 - - 21 - No. 48 selects from a menu of required and optional management practices, and thus indicates which items the MS4 will employ to meet a given minimum control measure.5 In order to select from 5 For example, with respect to the minimum control measure Illicit Discharge Detection and Elimination, the NOI form requires the MS4 include in its SWMP the following management practices: • Develop, implement and enforce a program to detect and eliminate illicit discharges to the MS4 • Outfall and storm sewershed boundary mapping • field verify outfalls • outfall reconnaissance inventory • prohibit illicit discharges • Public, employees, business informed of hazards of illicit discharge • Adopt and enforce local law to prohibit illicit discharges • Adopt available mechanisms for to prohibit illicit discharges (see NYS DEC Phase II SPDES General Permit for Storm Water Discharge from MS4s Notice of Intent, at 8 [hereinafter NOI]). In addition to the required practices, the NOI lists, by short phrases, several optional management practices for the applicant to consider adopting: • System mapping • address exempt non-stormwater discharges as necessary • Dye testing • shoreline surveys • system surveys - 21 - - 22 - No. 48 the list, the MS4 need only fill in the circle corresponding to each management practice. The NOI form also provides for a narrative description of measurable goals, with start and end dates that will be used for each best management practice for each of the minimum control measures (NOI at 12-13).