California Revision To Current IGP Proposed To Address TMDL and Monitoring

The California State Water Board has proposed amends to the Industrial General Permit (IGP) current in effect. Comments on the proposed amendments are due by January 31, 2018. The State Water Board is proposing the Amendment to the Statewide Storm Water Industrial General Permit (General Permit) to address the following items:

• Implement TMDLs included in General Permit,
• Update the monitoring requirements and
• Add statewide compliance options to incentivize storm water capture and regional collaboration.

The current IGP includes a reopener to incorporate Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) requirements through a future permit amendment (Section XX.A). The proposed General Permit Amendment incorporates requirements for implementing existing TMDLs adopted by the San Francisco Bay, Santa Ana, Los Angeles, and San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Boards identifying industrial storm water as a source of the receiving water Impairment.


The proposed General Permit Amendment includes statewide compliance options to allow compliance with water quality objectives through onsite and regional storm water capture best management practices in place of typical compliance with numeric action levels and numeric effluent limitations.


In 2014, US EPA finalized the new Use of Sufficiently Sensitive Test Methods for Permit Applications and Reporting Rule for discharges regulated by NPDES permits. The new Rule became effective on September 18, 2014. The EPA Rule requires NPDES permitees to use “sufficiently sensitive” analytical test methods for the analyses of regulated pollutants or pollutants parameters. The proposed General Permit Amendment includes revised monitoring and reporting requirements for industrial storm water sampling consistent with the new Rule.


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