The U.S. Office of Management and Budget approved the Environmental Protection Agency's 2017 Construction Stormwater Permit, effective Feb. 16, 2017, according to The National Law Review.
The prior version of the permit was issued in 2012 and expired on Feb. 15, allowing the EPA to add new requirements including a ban on non-stormwater discharges containing hazardous elements, changes to technology-based effluent erosion-control constraints and new requirements for permitting. The permit also requires joint and shared liability for compliance.
The five-year permit authorizes stormwater discharges related to construction projects disrupting one or more acres as well as discharges on smaller sites within a larger development plan. Applicable in the District of Columbia, Idaho, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and New Mexico, the permit could be a model for other states' stormwater discharge requirements under the federal CWA. read the full article