Regulations

Federal Regulations -  Clean Water Act

The roots of all modern water quality regulations date back to 1972, when the Federal Water Pollution Control Act was reorganized and expanded to form the Clean Water Act. While the FWPCA authorized the Surgeon General of the Public Health Service to prepare programs to regulate the discharge of pollutants into interstate waters and their tributaries and to improve the sanitary condition of surface and ground waters, the amendments of 1972 formed the basic structure for the regulation of pollutant discharges into US waters. These amendments gave the Environmental Protection Agency the authority to implement programs regulating the discharge of wastewater by industrial plants, made it unlawful to discharge any pollutant from a point source into navigable waters without a permit, funded the construction of wastewater treatment plants, and began to address the issue of nonpoint source pollution. The unlawful discharge of point source pollutants into the nation’s waters without permit was written into Section 402 National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System. Each state in the union was then given the opportunity to administer its own permit program. North Carolina is one of twenty seven states authorized to administer its own NPDES program.

For more detailed information regarding the Clean Water Act please follow this link:  http://www.epw.senate.gov/water.pdf

State Regulations – NPDES

North Carolina was authorized to administer its own NPDES Permit Program on October 19, 1975. Most counties and municipalities in NC fall under the direct jurisdiction of the North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources, Division of Water Quality, but a few (Charlotte, Raleigh, etc.) have been delegated the authority to administer their own NPDES Permit Program, just as this authority has been delegated to the state by the EPA. North Carolina’s Phase 1 Stormwater Permit Program regulated three types of activities: 1. Industrial, 2. Municipal Separate Sewer Systems(MS4’s), and 3. Construction.

Phase 1 of the North Carolina NPDES Permitting Program was initiated in 1990. Phase 1 held jurisdiction over industry, construction (where over five acres were to be disturbed), and any municipality with MS4’s and a population greater than 100,000. When the permit program came online, there were a total of six municipalities that fell into the latter category, one of which was Mecklenburg County. Some municipalities also chose to seek authorization to administer local regulations regarding the enforcement of Erosion and Sedimentation Control prior to the implementation of the Phase 1 regulations requiring them to do so. The City of Charlotte and Mecklenburg were two such municipalities. In 1985, The City of Charlotte Soil Erosion and Sedimentation Control Ordinance, and its twin sister with Mecklenburg County were ratified.

When Phase 2 came online, as a temporary mandate, in 2002, it lowered the disturbed acreage threshold required to need a grading permit from five acres to one acre. It also expanded to number of municipalities that fell under the MS4 regulations, by including smaller communities with populations of less than 100,000. Phase 2 requirements introduced the next stage of water quality protection; Post-Construction Runoff Control. What the soil erosion and sedimentation control regulations did for water quality during construction, the Post-Construction Runoff Controls did for water quality after construction was finished, and in perpetuity. PCRC mandates that all municipalities that fall under MS4 develop, implement, and enforce a program to reduce the pollutants from their MS4. Civil penalties for violating NPDES regulations can be $27,500/day for violations of the Soil Erosion and Sedimentation Control section, and $25,000/day for violations of the Post-Construction Runoff Controls section. Local regulations may differ slightly in this respect.

For more detailed information regarding state regulations please follow one of these links:

NCDENR-NPDES

http://portal.ncdenr.org/web/wq/ws/su/npdessw

http://portal.ncdenr.org/web/wq/swp/ps/npdes/regs

Post-Construction Runoff Controls Regulations

http://www.epa.gov/npdes/pubs/fact2-7.pdf

Local Regulations

From 1985 until 2002, jurisdictions who had ratified local Soil Erosion and Sedimentation Control ordinances were, in many cases, considered more stringent, and while the Phase 2 state regulations did change the disturbed acreage threshold for permitting, local programs still had a greater ability to enforce, due to proximity and resources.

The City of Charlotte, Mecklenburg County, and many of the local governments in the region have both Soil Erosion and Sedimentation Control and Post-Construction Ordinances. Penalties for violating these ordinances can range from $5,000 - $25,000/day, depending on the jurisdiction and ordinance being violated, as well as the violation itself. Charlotte and Mecklenburg County also have two other regulatory devices to consider, both of which are sections of the Zoning Ordinance. The first, Storm Water Detention, was an amendment made to the Zoning Ordinance in 1978, and was originally away to reduce flooding caused by development. The devices required by this ordinance mostly rely on impounding storm water to reduce the quantity of water discharged. The second, Water Supply Watershed Overlays, were amendments of the Zoning Ordinance made between 1993 and 2001. They are more restrictive and stringent than the Storm Water Detention requirements.

The following links will direct you to Stormwater regulations relevant to your location:


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