Renewal Update Summary for Multi-Sector General Permit TXR050000
The current Texas Multi-Sector General Permit (MSGP) was issued on August 14, 2006 and will expire on August 14, 2011. The TCEQ is proposing to issue the new permit in July with the effective date of August 14, 2011.
Permittees who want to renew permit coverage have until November 21, 2011 to submit the required application form and those who do not desire to renew coverage must submit a Notice of Termination before September 1, 2011 to avoid the $200 annual water quality fee. Renewal application forms will not be accepted before the permit effective date of August 14, 2011. EPA approved the draft permit on December 13, 2010. The draft permit includes requirements for determining when a discharge is to a water body that is impaired, when the discharge contains a pollutant at a level of concern and additional requirements to insure that the discharger will not contribute to the impairment.
The draft permit would designate operators of regulated facilities that occur within a residential home, shopping mall, or office building that have no exposure of any regulated activity to storm water and operators of publishing and designing companies that do not perform printing activities and that do not have exposure of any regulated activity to storm water as covered under the general permit without submitting an NOI, nor having to implement a SWP3, as long as there is no exposure of industrial activity. Storm water runoff from material handling and storage areas from transportation facilities is proposed to be included in the MSGP. Active landfill cells with contaminated storm water discharges described by industrial activity codes HZ and LF that are subject to effluent limitation guidelines under 40 CFR Part 445, Subparts A and B have also been added.
The draft permit extends the period of time required to await provisional coverage after submitting a paper NOI or NEC form from two days to seven days. Several changes have been made to benchmark levels and benchmark sampling requirements were added to Sector AD. A waiver option was added for years 3 and 4 if sampling results during years 1 and 2 are below the benchmark levels. Benchmark pollutant levels have been revised across the board and Total Suspended Solids (TSS) levels are now 50 mg/l for all industrial sectors that reported a median concentration consistently below 50 mg/l and 100 mg/l for all other SIC codes.
The draft permit includes revised conditions and requirements within several specific industries in Part V of the draft MSGP to provide additional clarity and to be consistent with provisions in the 2008 EPA MSGP. The proposed permit retains the $200 annual fee and the $100 fee for electronic NOIs or NECs but raises the application fee for paper NOIs and NECs to $200.