Stormwater Permits

Due to the recent chemical leak that affected the potable water supply for a large number of West Virginia residents, renewals under the Multi-Sector General Permit for Stormwater Associated with Industrial Activity (MSGP) for existing facilities will not be as easily accomplished, and will cost more to complete than the permit renewals that were last completed in 2009.

The main factor driving the cost of renewals up is shown in bold font in the second paragraph, last sentence of the renewal notifications the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) is sending out "...along with submission of your ground water and stormwater pollution prevention plans.

Many years ago, when these two plans were first required, Potesta and Associates, Inc. (POTESTA) put together a generic Pollution Prevention Plan (PPP), a combination of the required Groundwater Protection Plans and Stormwater Pollution Prevention Plans. This document, although approved by the agency, required the permittee to fill in the blanks in order to complete and implement the PPP. If this was never accomplished, such a plan will not be acceptable as part of the renewal application. Even if all the blanks were filled in and the plan has been kept up to date and current, recent changes at the DEP will more than likely make the generic plans unacceptable as well.

Another cost impacting renewals is whether the facility in question has been granted the Low Concentration Monitoring Waiver for any or all parameters, at any or all outlets. The renewal requires a summary of the Discharge Monitoring Report data that has been submitted under the current permit. If a facility has multiple outlets and is sampling for several parameters, summarizing the data will, of course, take longer than a facility that has been waived for all sampling requirements.

Finally, the agency, with a few rare exceptions, requires that the renewal applications be electronically submitted. Sites that are not yet registered in the agency ePermitting/eDMRsystem will have to first accomplish that before work on a renewal application can even begin.

 

Estimating costs for completing and submitting renewal applications is somewhat difficult for POTESTA, given all the variables in the expenses associated with same. The most practical way to accomplish this is to provide costs related to the amount of work that must be accomplished in order to submit a renewal application acceptable to the agency. Our proposed costs reflect the amount of effort we estimate will be required to produce such a renewal as follows:

Facility with no Low Concentration Waivers in place, no acceptable Pollution Prevention Plan and not already registered in the DEP electronic system - $2,500

Facility with Low Concentration Waivers in place, and no acceptable Pollution Prevention Plan - $2,000

Facility no Low Concentration Waivers in place, and with a Pollution Prevention Plan acceptable to the agency - $1,000 to $1,200

Facility with Low Concentration Waivers in place for all parameters at all outlets, and with a Pollution Prevention Plan acceptable to the agency - $800 or $1,000

For sites that have no Low Concentration Waivers in place and that have failed to sample as stipulated under the current permit, the DEP is requiring them to collect two (2) complete sets of samples in order to renew under the MSGP.

For sites that have Low Concentration Waivers in place, a single set of samples must be collected as part of the renewal application. The results of the single set of samples will determine whether the agency will continue the waivers or require the facility to begin sampling again for previously waived parameters.

None of the costs shown to complete the applications includes the application fee, which must be paid to the DEP, or any laboratory costs associated with collecting/analyzing required stormwater samples.