EPA Issues Permit Tightening Construction Stormwater Discharge Limits

摘要

EPA has issued its final permit tightening controls on stormwater discharges at construction sites, but the agency issued the long-awaited general permit without a first-time numeric effluent limit for turbidity - a measure of water clarity - while it gathers additional data to inform pending revisions to the controversial standard. The agency issued the so-called construction general permit (CGP) on Feb. 16, one day after its 2008 permit was slated to expire, despite industry calls that it should delay finalizing the permit until it has adequately addressed a host of concerns over its underlying requirements. Many of those requirements, which are contained in a controversial effluent limitation guideline (ELG) EPA issued in 2009, are already the subject of related litigation in Wisconsin Builders Association v. EPA, which is pending before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit.