“NEW” Federal Stormwater Rules

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is announcing its plans to initiate national rulemaking to establish a comprehensive program to reduce stormwater discharges from new development and redevelopment and make other regulatory improvements to further strengthen its stormwater programs.  Beginning in 2010, EPA will start placing stricter limits on the amount of pollutants in storm water legally allowed to leave a construction site after a rainfall and require that water be virtually free of soil or sediment.  (Federal Register Notice)(Federal Register Notice)

On December 1, 2009, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published effluent limitations guidelines (ELGs) and new source performance standards (NSPS) to control the discharge of pollutants from construction sites.  They won’t be effective until early 2010 and then they will be phased in over a four year timeframe for projects greater than 10 acres.  The limit is 280 NTUs.

To view the Effluent Guidelines click here.  Also, click here for a link to the NC Construction GP (NCG010000) that was just revised.

Among EPA’s proposals:

• Expand the area subject to federal storm water regulations.
• Establish specific requirements to control storm water discharges from new development and redevelopment, including retaining storm water on-site through infiltration, evapotranspiration, or storm water reuse
• Develop a single set of consistent storm water requirements for all MS4s.
• Require MS4s to address storm water discharges in areas of existing development through retrofitting the sewer system or drainage area with improved storm water control measures.

The Environmental Protection Agency is offering the home building industry an opportunity to weigh in on proposed storm water regulations that we believe will have a significant – and very expensive – impact on our members.

These rules seem pretty abstract when you read them, and it’s only by translating this bureaucratic language into real impacts – that we are able to project what the mitigation efforts mean and what they will cost builders and homeowners.

In light of this the BASE Governmental Affairs staff asks that you take this opportunity to review the proposed regulations, and let us know exactly what these rules, when implemented, would mean to you and why they don’t make sense from either a practical or economical point of view.

Please return your comments no later than Friday, February 19th.  At that time, BASE will compile comments from our members and submit them to the EPA by the February 26, 2010 deadline.

For more information on this issue please click here.