PADEP has concluded 2 of its 3 public information meetings and hearings on the proposed Draft MS4 General Permit with final session to be held on June 23 at the Southcentral Regional Office in Harrisburg.  The June 18 session in Norristown was well attended, though only a handful of folks offered testimony at the hearing portion of the session (which we attended).   A hearing record will be made available; PADEP staff are posting the powerpoint presentations on the PADEP website.

Major points included:

• Most of the municipalities present were worried that they were going to be forced into applying for Individual Permits, rather than their current General Permits.
• PADEP is hard-pressed to outline how much more onerous the Individual Permit process is going to be (time requirements, etc.), not knowing how many municipalities will opt for Individual Permits.
• Municipalities that have proactively adopted expanded comprehensive stormwater ordinances are being forced to adopt the new PADEP Model Ordinance, which in some cases is different from/less rigorous than their ordinances.  Their only alternative seems to be to opt for an Individual Permit, which seems somewhat punitive.
• TMDL requirements seem to lack needed technical linkage to water quality problems and objectives (it gets lot more complicated than that)
• The entire schedule set out for the Draft General Permit for this Fall and next spring seems very likely to get delayed!

The majority of the questions and comments at the Norristown session seemed to be administrative and procedural in nature, rather than technical and substantive.  We made the point that the new Model Ordinance requires volume control for up to the 2-year storm (consistent with the BMP Manual and a major advancement), yet still requires that any Act 167 Plan (if existing) with release rate requirements for peak rates be enforced - such release rate requirements, especially for smaller storms, simply make no sense when volume control is being required as well.

Final written comments on the Draft General Permit are to PADEP due by July 6, 2009.  Pay attention - this is critical if you are an MS4 municipality.

From the Editors, NPDES / MS4 Act 167, MS4, ordinances, PA BMP Manual, stormwater, TMDL