State of Michigan Guidance
Overview
Prior to the Clean Water Act (CWA)
in 1972 there was no national system to evaluate adequacy of performance
on the part of dischargers. The CWA established the NPDES permit
program, set performance standards, and required periodic review.
This system was a top/down approach and was very effective in controlling
pollution from industries and municipal sewerage systems. Storm
water dischargers were not required to be part of this system until
recently. Now cities over 100,000, certain industries, and construction
sites over 5 acres need permits. This is Phase I of the storm water
program. Phase II is being drafted now and we expect it to cover
all municipalities in urbanized areas and require them to have permits
by 2001. There is considerable concern that EPA will use the same
NPDES approach, while more and more people are convinced that a
more bottom/up approach (such as Watershed Management) will be far
more effective. During this period (prior to 2001) the Michigan
Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) is pursuing an innovative
approach on a voluntary basis.
On July 30, 1997, the MDEQ issued
a General Permit for Municipal Separate Storm Sewer Systems (MS4)
that is "voluntary". It is voluntary since there is no
legal requirement for most storm sewers to have a permit yet. However,
those granted coverage under this voluntary general permit are just
as bound by its conditions as any other NPDES discharger. This permit
is an opportunity to demonstrate that a flexible, locally-driven
program will be effective in dealing with wet weather issues. If
this approach is proven effective, it is expected that the jurisdictions
with coverage under this permit will continue the locally-driven
program in lieu of the coming Phase II program.
The permit is based on the concept
of Watershed Management and requires cooperation among dischargers
within the watershed. The three Tenets of Watershed Management are:
Partnerships with jurisdictions
and other stakeholders
Iterative process of consensus-based
decision-making
Sound management techniques
based on b science and data
Application requirements include
a proposed Illicit Discharge Elimination Plan and a Public Education
Plan which must be implemented upon receiving coverage.
The permit requirements include:
A Public Participation Process:
One for all jurisdictions in the watershed. It identifies a person,
group, or agency responsible for coordinating development of the
Watershed Management Plan. It is subject to DEQ approval.
Watershed Management Plan:
Complete agreement is not necessary. Planing is iterative in nature.
The completed plan is not subject to DEQ approval. The plan must
contain:
Assessment of nature &
status of watershed ecosystem
Definition of short-term goals
Definition of long-term goals
(including WQS)
Determine actions for short-term
goals
Determine actions for long-term
goals
Assess costs and benefits
Commitments to implement
Method for evaluating progress
Storm Water Pollution Prevention
Initiative: Identifies the specific responsibilities of the
permittee to implement the Watershed Management Plan with compliance
dates. The program is subject to DEQ approval and is enforceable
thereafter. It includes pollution prevention, good housekeeping,
BMPs, assessment of progress, & reporting.
The first revision of the Watershed
Management Plan is due prior to permit expiration. This is intended
to support the concept of Planning being an iterative process. We
expect frequent revisions to the Plan. And we hope that, due to
the frequency of revisions, stakeholders will be willing to support
Plans that are less than fully satisfactory to them, i.e. their
concerns can be fully addressed in the next iteration.
General Permit
General permits which authorize
multiple discharges of similar wastewater are issued in accordance
with Act 451 of 1994, as amended, Part 31 (the "Michigan
Act") and Rule 323.2191 of the Michigan Administrative Code.
This general permit sets forth the conditions necessary to receive
permit coverage for discharges of storm water and certain types
of non-storm water (as specified in Part I.A.1. of the permit)
from separate storm water drainage systems which are owned or controlled
by governmental entities. These storm water discharges are not currently
required to have permits. The applicability of this "voluntary"
general permit shall be limited to wastewater discharges which are
of this type and which meet the criteria established in this general
permit.
In order to constitute a valid
authorization to discharge, this permit must be complemented by
a certificate of coverage issued by the Surface Water Quality Division
District Office of the Department of Environmental Quality (the
Department).
This general permit is for storm
water discharges from separate storm water drainage systems. Certain
non-storm water discharges are also authorized by the permit (see
page 2 of the permit, Part I.A.1). Coverage under this general permit
is voluntary because permit coverage is not mandated by state or
federal law. Federal Phase II storm water regulations are being
drafted and are proposed to take effect in a few years. This general
permit is consistent with many aspects of the draft regulations.
Communities may wish to seek coverage
under this permit at this time so that they can work cooperatively
with other communities in their watershed to address storm water
quality and quantity issues in an cost efficient manner. This general
permit provides the opportunity to demonstrate that a flexible,
locally-driven program will be effective in addressing these concerns.
The approach presented in this permit is unique in the National
Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit program and
may become a national model.
In order to obtain coverage under
the permit, the applicant must be a governmental entity which owns
or controls a separate storm water drainage system. The applicant
must submit adequate illicit discharge elimination and public education
plans with its application.
Applicants are required to propose
a watershed (or watersheds) for which a watershed management plan
will be required. In some cases, the Department may determine that
a different watershed is appropriate. Applicants may request agreement
on this issue prior to being covered by the permit.
Although not required, applicants
within the same watershed are encouraged to coordinate application
preparation and submittal (which may result in significant cost
savings by reducing duplicative plan development efforts). An applicant
may request that coverage not be granted until other applications
for the same watershed are received by the Department.
A certificate of coverage (COC)
will be issued to each permittee for which coverage under the general
permit is granted. Coverage will be granted for any portion of the
permittee's jurisdiction or the entire jurisdiction. The application
should be clear about what coverage is sought. Permittees are encouraged
to implement the programs required by the permit throughout its
entire jurisdiction even if coverage is only sought for a portion.
The COC will specify the permittee, the receiving waters, each watershed
for which a watershed management plan is to be developed, and the
time frames for completing certain actions required by the permit.
The following permit-required submittals
are generally due within the following indicated time frames, although
other time frames may be appropriate: Public Participation Process
- Part I.B.1. (6 months), Watershed Management Plan - Part I.B.1.
(2 years), and Storm Water Pollution Prevention Initiative - Part
I.B.2. (2 1/2 years). If a COC is issued after development of a
watershed management plan is underway for other permittees in the
same watershed, the new permittee may be given less time to submit
the above permit-required submittals in order to coincide with work
in progress.
The COC/permit includes the flexibility
which allows the Department to defer development of the watershed
management plan until a later date, if appropriate. The Department
may defer development of the watershed management plan if broad
participation in development of the plan cannot be expected. For
example, a permittee may be situated on 2 watersheds. One watershed
may have a large number of permittees under this permit and may
have watershed work underway. The other watershed may have no watershed
management activity currently underway or likely in the near future.
The permittee's participation in a watershed management plan for
the second watershed may be deferred until support for watershed
activity is apparant.
Coverage under this permit is voluntary.
Coverage may be terminated at any time at the request of the permittee
(state rules also provide reasons why the Department may terminate
coverage under the permit). The permittee would be liable for any
noncompliance with the permit during the time the permittee was
covered by the permit. The permit is written so that one permittee
is not liable for the action or inaction of another permittee.
Who May Obtain Coverage?
Cities, Villages, Townships, County
Agencies, Public Schools, and State/Federal Agencies are eligible
for coverage under the permit, if they have ownership or control
of separate storm water drainage systems.
Industrial, commercial and governmental
entities required to have storm water coverage under federal or
state regulations are not eligible for coverage under this general
permit. Such entities must be covered under other general permits
or individual permits written specifically for them.
What Discharges Are Covered?
The permit authorizes the discharge
of storm water from the permittee's separate storm water drainage
system, storm water commingled with discharges authorized under
other NPDES permits, and specific non-storm water discharges provided
these discharges do not contribute to a violation of Michigan's
Water Quality Standards (WQS).
Non-storm water discharges which
contribute to violations of WQS are not authorized by the general
permit. The permittee should notify the Department of these discharges
when they are identified in their storm water drainage systems.
What is Needed to Apply?
An application specifically for
this general permit has been developed and is available from the
Surface Water Quality Division of the Michigan Department of Environmental
Quality. The application requires the following information:
General Information:
Identification of the applicant,
identification of the proposed watershed(s) for which a watershed
management plan will be developed, and information about the applicant's
separate storm water drainage system. This information is required
to effectively carry out the permit requirements (illicit discharge
elimination, public education, and storm water pollution prevention).
Illicit Discharge Elimination Plan:
An adequate plan to eliminate
illicit discharges is required with the application. The plan
must include an implementation schedule. The Department will review
the plan, and if it is unacceptable, identify the areas that need
to be addressed before permit coverage can be granted.
The plan shall include: 1) a
description of a program to find, prioritize, and eliminate illicit
discharges and illicit connections identified during dry weather
screening activities and 2) a description of a program to minimize
infiltration of seepage from sanitary sewers and septic systems
into the applicant's separate storm water drainage system.
Items to consider in development
of the plan and/or to provide with the illicit discharge elimination
plan include:
copies of local ordinances
that prohibit illicit connections and discharges (or a schedule
for the development of them if they do not exist),
a description of screening
methodology used to find illicit connections and discharges,
a description of follow-up
programs to ensure illicit connections and discharges are eliminated,
and
coordination of activities
with other watershed jurisdictions, if appropriate.
Public Education Plan:
An adequate plan for public education
is required with the application. The plan must include an implementation
schedule. The Department will review the plan, and if it is unacceptable,
identify the areas that need to be addressed before permit coverage
can be granted.
Some specific items to consider
in development of the plan are listed in the permit. The applicant
should select and prioritize these and other actions to be accomplished
considering site-specific concerns and the potential impact in
its jurisdiction. Consideration should be given to coordinating
aspects of the plan with other watershed jurisdictions.
Examples of the various media
that may be used for public education include public information
meetings, recycling and watershed newsletters, radio spots, talk
shows, news items, public tours, demonstrations, storm drain inlet
stenciling and watershed identification signs.
After coverage is granted under
the general permit (issuance of the certificate of coverage), the
illicit discharge elimination plan and public education plan must
be implemented in accordance with the schedules included in the
plans.
A $200.00 annual storm water fee
will be assessed each permittee covered under this general permit,
in accordance with Act 451, Public Acts of 1994, as amended, Section
324.3118.
Public Participation Process
As part of the Public Participation
Process submittal, the permittee(s) must identify a person, group,
or agency responsible for coordinating the development of the plan.
The process of must facilitate involvement by a wide range of stakeholders,
not just permittees. The process must result in the development
of one and only one Watershed Management Plan for the identified
watershed(s). It is not necessary for all stakeholders to approve
the plan, but they need to have an opportunity to have meaningful
input. The coordinator may be an employee of one of the permittees,
a consultant hired for that purpose, a non-governmental organization,
a governmental employee not associated with any specific permittee,
or any arrangement mutually agreed upon by the permittees.
The Public Participation Process
shall be submitted to the Department for approval. While the department's
review will be limited to assuring that there will be adequate public
participation, there are several other issues that need to be resolved
by the various permittees during the same time-frame as resolving
the Public Participation Process.
The ground rules for drafting and
revising the Watershed Management Plan document need to be worked
out. In other words, who does the writing, who has authority to
make changes in the draft, how will all appropriate entities be
given opportunity to review drafts, how will disagreements be resolved,
will majority rule, does everyone have an equal vote, how will dissension
be handled, what is the approval process, how will the next iteration
of the plan be handled, and other questions need to be answered.
These may be a part to the Public Participation Process submittal,
but are not required to be.
Financing the preparation of the
Watershed Management Plan is another issue that should be resolved
during this time-frame. The department does not necessarily have
any involvement in this decision, but failure to work out the details
of financing at an early stage will likely lead to noncompliance
later. Therefore adequate care should be taken in making the financial
arrangements.
Watershed Management Plan
The purpose of the Watershed Management
Plan is to identify and implement actions needed to resolve water
quality and water quantity concerns by fostering cooperation among
the various public and private entities in the watershed. An emphasis
of the Watershed Management Plan shall be to mitigate the undesirable
impacts caused by wet weather discharges.
Watershed Management is a process
of decision-making regarding uses and modifications of lands and
waters within a watershed. This process provides an opportunity
for communities to balance diverse goals and uses for local resources,
and to consider how their cumulative actions may affect long-term
sustainability of these resources. Watershed management provides
a framework for integrated decision-making, in order to: (1) assess
the nature and status of the watershed ecosystem; (2) define short-term
and long-term goals for the system; (3) determine objectives and
actions needed to achieve selected goals; (4) assess both benefits
and costs of each action; (5) implement desired actions; (6)
evaluate the effects of the implemented actions and progress toward
goals; and (7) re-evaluate goals and objectives as part of an iterative
process.
As part of the application process,
the applicant proposes the watershed for which a watershed management
plan will be developed. It is anticipated that, if the Department
does not agree with the watershed proposed by the applicant, discussions
will take place between the applicant and the Department prior to
issuance of the Certificate of Coverage (COC). The COC will identify
the watershed and establish dates for submittal of certain permit
requirements. After issuance of the COC, the permittee may choose
to demonstrate that a watershed(s) other than that specified on
the certificate of coverage is appropriate. This demonstration shall
be submitted to the Department for approval.
The Department will provide some
coordination of actions of multiple permittees within one watershed
by establishing consistent dates for submittal of the Public Participation
Process, Watershed Management Plan, and Storm Water Pollution Prevention
Initiative, and through approval of the Public Participation Process
and review of the Watershed Management Plan. The objective of this
general permit is to have one Public Participation Process for developing
a Watershed Management Plan and one Watershed Management Plan for
a specified watershed.
The permittee is required to participate
in the development of a Watershed Management Plan. The Public Participation
Process required by the permit is to insure that other stakeholders
in the watershed have the ability to participate in development
of the watershed management plan. The Watershed Management Plan
is not just for the permitted entities, as it should influence the
actions of many entities whether or not they have an NPDES permit.
The Watershed Management Plan shall
be submitted to the Department for review and comments, but not
for approval. Significant components of the plan which do not have
complete agreement of the participants shall be detailed in an appendix
to the plan (including a description of the plan component, identification
of participants who disagreed with the component, reasons for disagreement
(if provided), and suggested alternatives (if provided)). Procedures
for revising the plan shall be identified. Where multiple permittees
are responsible for submittal of a plan for the same watershed,
one plan shall be submitted by all of the permittees. Comments provided
by the Department within 90 days of submittal of the Watershed Management
Plan should be addressed by the participants. A revised Watershed
Management Plan should be submitted if appropriate.
The permit describes the guiding
principles that should be followed in development of the Watershed
Management Plan (from EPA's "Watershed Approach Framework",
EPA 840-S096-001, June 1996).
Other publications worthy of consideration
are:
"Watershed Protection: A
Project Focus", EPA 841-R-95-003, August 1995,
Rouge River Remedial Action Plan
Update", Michigan DNR & SEMCOG, 1995,
"Controlling Storm Water
Runoff from New Developments: A Guidebook for Michigan Communities",
Clinton River Watershed Council, 1995,
"A Strategy for Public Involvement",
Public Sector Consultants for Rouge River National Wet Weather
Demonstration Project, 1994,
"Rouge River Watershed Assessment",
Fisheries Division, Michigan DNR, Draft 1996,
"Supplemental Report: A
Municipal Storm Water Discharge Regulation Strategy",RPO-NPS-SR07.00,
Rouge River National Wet Weather Demonstration Project, 1996,
"Ecological Restoration:
A Tool to Manage Stream Quality", EPA 841-F-95-007, November, 1995.
The permit lists the following
minimum requirements to be included in the Watershed Management
Plans:
an assessment of the nature and
status of the watershed ecosystem,
definition of the short-term
goals for the watershed,
definition of the long-term goals
for the watershed, which shall include protection of designated
uses of the receiving waters as defined in Michigan's Water Quality
Standards,
determination of the actions
needed to achieve the short-term goals for the watershed,
determination of the actions
needed to achieve the long-term goals for the watershed,
assessment of both the benefits
and costs of each action (a "cost/benefit analysis"
is not required),
commitments, identified by specific
permittee or others as appropriate, to implement actions by specified
dates necessary to achieve the short-term goals,
commitments, identified by specific
permittee or others as appropriate, to implement actions by specified
dates necessary to initiate achievement of the long-term goals,
and
methods for evaluation of progress,
which may include chemical or biological indicators.
The permittee-specific commitments
from the Watershed Management Plan shall be included in the permittee's
Storm Water Pollution Prevention Initiative (Part I.B.2.) and may
include modifications to the permittee's Illicit Discharge Elimination
Plan and Public Education Plan which were submitted with the application.
Storm Water Pollution Prevention
Initiative
The Storm Water Pollution Prevention
Initiative (SWPPI) shall be submitted to the Department for approval.
The SWPPI includes:
the permittee's specific actions
identified in the Watershed Management Plan (if a plan was required),
evaluation and implementation
of pollution prevention and good house keeping activities, as
appropriate,
evaluation and implementation
of site appropriate, cost-effective structural and nonstructural
best management practices (BMPs) to minimize the water quality
impacts from areas of new development and significant redevelopment,
other actions the permittee will
undertake to reduce the discharge of pollutants in storm water
to the maximum extent practicable,
a description of methods of assessing
progress in storm water pollution prevention,
a schedule for submittal of annual
reports and minimum requirements for the annual reports,
identification of a designated
contact person, and
retention of records.
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