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NPDES Permitting Program NPDES Permitting Program

Facilities which discharge pollutants from point sources (such as discharge pipes) into waters of the United States are required to obtain National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permits.  The NPDES program falls under Section 402 of the Clean Water Act.  Wastewater discharges regulated under the NPDES program include:

Most regulations implementing the NPDES Program are found at 40 CFR Part 122 Exit EPA disclaimer , which are available online. 

The U.S. EPA has developed several resources to assist facilities in locating information on the NPDES program:  

New York State, the State of New Jersey, and the U.S. Virgin Islands are authorized to administer the NPDES program.  EPA Region 2 administers the NPDES program in Puerto Rico. 

Industrial Wastewater Discharges

Discharges of process or non-process wastewater from industrial facilities must be permitted either by coverage under a General Permit or an Individual Permit. Permit requirements depend on the nature and amount of products produced at a facility, and the resulting pollutants in the wastewater.  Many industrial categories have corresponding Effluent Limitations Guidelines, published in the Federal Register and subsequently added to the CFR (40 CFR Parts 405 - 471) Exit EPA disclaimer .  These guidelines outline technology based effluent requirements for pollutants related to industrial activities by industrial category and achievable technology. 

Direct discharges of effluent  to waters of the United States from facilities such as industrial or commercial facilities, sewage treatment plants or POTWs, transportation terminals, concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs), and combined sewer overflows (CSOs) are regulated as point sources of pollution.  Facilities which discharge indirectly through the municipal sewer system to the POTW are called indirect discharges, and are regulated under the Pretreatment Program, which insures that industrial facilities pretreat wastewater to remove pollutants which would affect the pollutant removal ability of the POTW, and therefore affect the quality of the discharge from the POTW to its receiving water. 

Storm Water Discharges

Storm water is surface flow resulting from precipitation that accumulates in and flows through natural and/or man-made storage and conveyance systems during and immediately following a storm event.  As storm water travels through a conveyance system, it carries pollutants to lakes, reservoirs, rivers, streams, wetlands, and coastal waters.  Pollutants carried in storm water to surface waters include oil and grease, heavy metals, industrial chemicals, cleaning agents, pesticides, herbicides, litter and other floatables, salt and sand, soil and silt, bacteria, toxins, and nutrients. 

Phase I of the NPDES Storm Water Program, published on November 16, 1990 (55 FR 47990) regulated storm water from certain categories of industrial facilities (as per 40 CFR 122.26[b][14]), (pdf file) medium and large (serving >100,000 people) municipal separate storm sewer systems (MS4s),  and construction sites with disturbed areas of over 5 acres. 

Storm water discharges from most industrial facilities and construction sites are covered under General Permits issued by the Designated NPDES Authority.  To become covered under a General Permit for Storm Water, a facility must submit a Notice of Intent (NOI) form for the appropriate permit to the Designated Authority. 

Phase II of the NPDES Storm Water Program is expected to regulate smaller MS4s which are located in urbanized areas, as well as construction sites with disturbed areas smaller than 5 acres.  The Proposed Phase II Rule was published in the Federal Register on January 9, 1998 (63 FR 1535).  The Rule will be finalized in October 1999. 

There are several resources available on the Phase II Rule: 

Combined Sewer Overflows (CSOs)

Combined sewer systems are designed to collect both sanitary wastewater and storm water runoff.  During dry weather, combined sewers carry sanitary waste to a POTW.  During wet weather, the combined sanitary waste and storm water can overflow and discharge untreated wastewater directly to a surface water through a combined sewer overflow (CSO). 

In 1994, EPA published a CSO Control Policy (59 FR 18688).  CSOs are regulated as point sources, and require NPDES permits.  The CSO Control Policy includes Nine Minimum Controls (NMC) for CSO management, which are requirements for any CSO NPDES Permit: 

  1. Proper operation and regular maintenance programs for the sewer system and the CSOs;
  2. Maximum use of the collection system for storage;
  3. Review and modification of pretreatment requirements to ensure that CSO impacts are minimized;
  4. Maximization of flow to the POTW for treatment;
  5. Prohibition of CSOs during dry weather;
  6. Control of solid and floatable materials in CSOs;
  7. Establishment of pollution prevention programs;
  8. Public notification to ensure that the public receives adequate notification of CSO occurrences and CSO impacts;
  9. Monitoring to effectively characterize CSO impacts and the efficacy of CSO controls.

Development of a Long Term Control Plan (LTCP) is also required for management of CSOs. 

Animal Feeding Operations (AFOs) and Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs)

Any facility which stables, confines, feeds, or maintains animals for at least 45 days in a 12 month period, and does not sustain crops or vegetation forage growth over any portion of the facility is an animal feeding operation (AFO).  AFOs which meet certain size and location criteria are defined as concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs).  By criteria listed at 40 CFR 122 Appendix B, a CAFO is a facility which has: 

An animal unit (AU) is a unit of measure based on manure production of various types of livestock.  One animal unit is equal to one slaughter cow, and numbers for other types of livestock are converted to AU using coefficients set forth at 40 CFR 122 Appendix B (e.g., 1 horse = 2.0 AU, 1 dairy cow = 1.4 AU, 1 swine = 0.4 AU, 1 sheep = 0.1 AU). 

Facilities which are CAFOs are regulated under the point source program, and require NPDES permits.  Effluent limitations guidelines for CAFOs are found at 40 CFR 412.  For regulatory resources, visit the resources on CAFOs, which includes a downloadable Factsheet Describing the CAFO Proposed Rule.

EPA and the United States Department of Agriculture have recently partnered to address water quality impacts from all animal feeding operations.  On March 9, 1999 EPA and USDA issued the Draft Unified National Strategy for Animal Feeding Operations. 

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