Water Quality and Supply Issues Monthly Update-SEP 2022
A TREMENDOUS THANK YOU to all the companies and individuals who signed the CICWQ Construction Industry Petition to support the industry-led alternative to the California Construction General Permit for Stormwater.
In the end, YOUR VOICE MATTERED. The State Water Board accepted last-minute comments from the Construction Industry and kept numeric effluent limits OUT of the permit for the most part.
And most importantly, the State Water Board recognized it does not have the data necessary to set stormwater runoff water quality standards reliably. They have agreed to re-open the permit and work with the construction industry to collect reliable and meaningful data.
The newly adopted permit goes into full effect on September 1, 2023. Projects already permitted at that time will have two years to complete work under the existing permit, in effect since 2012.
WATER ISSUES WORTH YOUR TIME IN SEPTEMBER
1) Adoption of the NEW Construction General Permit for Stormwater
On September 8, 2022, the California State Water Resources Control Board approved the Construction General Permit, a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit regulating stormwater discharges from construction sites.
The final approved permit underwent numerous changes – even as recently as the day of the hearing. A majority of those changes occurred due to concerns raised by the building and construction industry and its technical and legal team.
Regarding the primary issue of concern with the permit – the inclusion of numeric effluent limits (NELs) – the construction industry successfully removed almost all NELs from the permit. For the remaining NELs, the State Water Board incorporated a re-opener provision allowing stakeholders to generate data that will assist the building and construction industry in pushing back on the remaining NELs before they go into effect.
Keep in mind that the newly adopted permit does include new provisions that will add costs to the compliance of the permit.
However, major victories are minimizing the threat of third-party citizen lawsuits and being subjected to fines and penalties from the State and Regional Boards.
