11    STORMWATER IN THE 1990's:
PLANNING FOR THE EPA'S NEW PERMIT
REQUIREMENTS
John A. Lytle, Section Director, Environmental Services
Terry M. Nishimoto, Chemical Engineer
Daniel R. Johnson, Civil Engineer
Burgess & Niple, Limited
Columbus, Ohio 43220
INTRODUCTION
"The Water Quality Act of 1987" (WQA) was enacted by Congress in 1987 amending the previously
established Clean Water Act (CWA). Among other things, these amendments required municipalities
and industries to begin a permitting process for their stormwater discharges. The WQA of 1987 was
passed on February 4, 1987, and regulations implementing the stormwater portions of the Act were
proposed December 7, 1988. These proposed regulations would add a new Section 122.26 to Title 40
of the Code of Federal Regulations (40 CFR 122.26).
The amendments to the CWA and the implementing regulations will have wide-ranging and dramatic effects on the permitting burden of industries and municipalities. It has been estimated that
these regulations may affect 170 cities, 125,000 businesses, and 10,000 construction sites. This paper
presents the requirements of the Acts and the regulations, and some actions which industries can take
to prepare for these permitting requirements and to comply with the proposed regulations and the
law.
HISTORY OF THE STORMWATER PERMITTING REQUIREMENTS
In 1972, Congress amended the Federal Water Pollution Control Act with what has come to be
known as the CWA. CWA empowers and requires the Environmental Protectional Agency (EPA) to
regulate the discharge of any pollutants to navigable waters from a point source. Some point sources
such as industrial process wastewater and municipal sewage were easily identified as requiring immediate attention. Point sources consisting of stormwater runoff from urban and industrial areas were
also soon identified as significant sources of pollutants. In fact, by 1986, the "National Water Quality
Inventory, 1980 Report to Congress" concluded that pollution in runoff from agricultural and urban
areas is the leading cause of water quality impairment.
The EPA began specifically addressing stormwater runoff in 1973; however, stormwater regulations
have yet to be finalized. Regulations for stormwater runoff have evolved as a result of a considerable
number of court cases involving industry, environmental groups, and the EPA. The rocky road
leading to today's version of stormwater regulations is described below and is extracted from EPA's
December 7, 1988 proposed stormwater regulations (FR 3376-8).
1972-CWA Enacted
Congress enacted the CWA. Under the CWA, EPA was to regulate all point sources of pollutants to
navigable waters.
1973 —Exemption
EPA exempted from permit requirements those conveying carrying stormwater runoff uncontami-
nated by industrial or commercial activity unless the particular stormwater discharge had been identified by the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) Director as a significant
contributor of pollution (38 FR 13530 [May 22, 1973]).
45th Purdue Industrial Waste Conference Proceedings, © 1991 Lewis Publishers, Inc., Chelsea, Michigan 48118.
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