Final North Carolina Industrial General Permit Effective December 1, 2012

North Carolina NPDES General Permit NCG060000 expired on October 31, 2012, which regulates stormwater discharges from a number of industrial sectors including:

• Food and Kindred Products [standard industrial classification (SIC) 20],
• Tobacco Products (SIC 21),
• Soaps, Detergents and Cleaning Preparations; Perfumes, Cosmetics and Other Toilet Preparations (SIC 284),
• Drugs (SIC 283), and
• Public Warehousing and Storage (SIC 4221-4225), 

The North Carolina Division of Water Quality (DWQ) released a draft of the proposed renewal General Permit in September 2012 and the public comment period closed on October 8th.

DWQ received several public comments and EPA Region IV responded that the agency concurred with no comments. Based on the comments received, DWQ revised the draft permit before finalizing. The revisions included:

1. Part II, Section A (Stormwater Pollution Prevention Plan), Added language to include petroleum products and reference how federal oil Spill Prevention, Control, and Countermeasure Plan (SPCC) can fulfill some requirements of the Stormwater Pollution Prevention Plan (SPPP) where it demonstrates compliance.
2. Part II, Table 1 (Analytical Monitoring for Stormwater), Footnote 3: Added clarification that DWQ’s representative outfall status (ROS) approval remains in effect through subsequent renewals as long as relevant site conditions and operations have not changed.
3. Part II, paragraph following Table 1: Language added to specify that “Sampling is not required outside of the facility’s normal operating hours.”
4. Part II, paragraph following Table 2: Language modified to include option for Division to require monthly monitoring because of a failure to monitor semi-annually (rather than automatically requiring monthly monitoring upon failure to monitor). Also, clarification that adverse weather conditions preventing sample collection does not constitute a failure to monitor.
5. Part II, second paragraph following Table 2: Added clarification that DWQ’s release of a permittee from Tier 2 monthly monitoring remains in effect through subsequent renewals unless other conditions are specified.
6. Part II, Table 3: Modified Footnote 1 to allow precipitation pH (if lower than 6 s.u.) as lower benchmark value.

In final permit was issued in late November with the effective date December 1, 2012.

Caltha LLP maintains a library of SWPPP templates to meet general permit requirements for individual States, including North Carolina. Caltha is currently revising the North Carolina SWPPP template for NPDES General Permit NCG060000 to meet any new requirements and will use this to support our clients located in North Carolina that are subject to this general permit.

For further information contact Caltha LLP at info@calthacompany.com or Caltha LLP Website