The Washington Department of Ecology has issued a draft Industrial Stormwater General NPDES Permit (ISWGP) that is complex, costly and out of control. The potential economic burden on your business and 1,200 other large and small businesses over the next 5 years is substantial and out of proportion to the benefits to water quality. For example:
 
·Within 2 -3 years of January 2010, many permittees will be required to install active treatment systems at an estimated cost of $255,000+per acre for metals like zinc, and $10-20,000 for turbidity.
 
· Permittees will have few "Ecology approved" alternatives to active treatment. Many of these may require expensive studies and engineering reports, estimated to cost between $10-40,000.
 
· New "benchmark levels" replace triggers for more reasonable action levels in the current permit. Reported discharge data shows some industrial categories samples exceeded benchmarks 50-70% of the time.  And across all industry sectors, a conservative estimate of samples that would exceed the proposed benchmarks:

o   ~37% exceed turbidity benchmark (25 NTU)
o   ~30% exceed the zinc benchmark ( 200 ug/l)
o   ~62% exceed copper benchmark (14 ug/l)
 
· Recent government studies concluded that surface water runoff and municipal wastewater treatment plants (not industry) were by far the most significant contributors to toxics loading. Yet industrial stormwater permittees will be required to comply with the most restrictive stormwater permits in Washington and the country, while municipalities and the Washington Department of Transportation do not have to take actions required of industry based on monitoring data.
 
Business Efforts to Improve the ISWGP

·During the last year, members of the Association of Washington Business have offered innovative alternatives to the strict benchmark approach in the draft permit during an advisory committee process.

We suggested that Ecology:
     o   Use innovative methods to focus on worst dischargers (not adopted).
     o   Consider alternatives to minimize impact on very small business via tiered permits (not adopted)
     o   Identify a list of basic mandatory best practices as initial requirement in permit (Ecology incorporated).
     o   Use a format for the permit that is easier to read (Ecology      attempted).
     o   Adopt a permit that is less complex (instead, the draft permit has more stringent conditions; contains more mandatory conditions and creates more challenges to fully comply with the permit). 
     o   Use innovative "tickets" with modest mandatory fines to level the playing field among businesses and remove argument from environmental community that Ecology is not enforcing permit (pilot underway).
     o   Allow for the use of new scientific techniques to establish benchmarks which reflect the real effect of pollutant discharges on receiving waters (not adopted).
 
· The business community also asked Ecology to honor the principles incorporated into the 2004 stormwater legislation for general stormwater permits, to achieve an effective, efficient and legally enforceable general permit (largely abandoned by Ecology).
 
Legislative Efforts

· In addition to legislation passed into law in 2004, small and large businesses supported stormwater legislation in 2009 that:
      o   Attempted to provide simple and cost effective means for Ecology to provide alternative permit requirements (off-ramps) that considered individual permittees discharge situation.
      o   Provided non-punitive technical assistance and a resource institute to help business comply with permits. 
      o   Created a rational compliance schedule for those who discharge to water quality limited receiving waters. 
 
·  However, due to fierce opposition from environmental advocates and budgetary concerns, only the compliance schedule and stormwater resource institute survived in the final bill. Meaningful reform to Ecology's permitting process was thwarted.
 
Action Requested

1) Permittees need to tell Ecology how this permit will impact their business.  Please submit your concerns in writing to the department, including the answers to the questions in the three bullets below. Comments should be emailed to Ecology no later than 5 pm TODAY. 
 
Alternatively, comments can be mailed to the following address: 
Jeff Killelea
Department of Ecology
PO Box 47600 Olympia, WA
98504-7600
 
Please consider copying your comment letters to your legislator and the Governor's office.  To find your legislator's address, go to:  http://apps.leg.wa.gov/DistrictFinder/Default.aspx
 
The address for the Governor's office is:
Governor Chris Gregoire
Office of the Governor
PO Box 40002
Olympia, WA 98504-0002
 
Only by Ecology hearing from you can we hope to avoid a permit that will adversely affect your business and kill jobs.
 
2)     You should participate in AWB stormwater permitting related activities and meetings to continue the dialog with Ecology and encourage the department to develop a reasonable ISWGP.  If you are not already on AWB's Water Quality Committee distribution list, please email Grant Nelson (GrantN@awb.org) to be added to the list.
 
 
Sample Comment Letter:
 
Subject:  Draft Washington State Industrial Storm Water Permit
 
Dear Mr. Killelea
The (business name) located in (City) appreciates the opportunity to comment on the Draft Industrial Stormwater General Permit.  As a business in the (business type) industry that will be covered by this permit we have the following concerns:
 
(Please read the following concerns and respond in your own words to personalize your comment letter as to how the permit will impact your business and jeopardize jobs):
 
· This permit is 71 pages long (with a119 page Fact Sheet) and has 58 requirements in it for me to comply with.  (Please describe how this will affect your day to day business.  Will you need to get a consultant?  Can you meet all these requirements and stay in business.  Will it affect you ability to retain or grow jobs?  Will you need to hire a consultant?  Do I need a lawyer to understand these provisions to avoid citizen's suits or agency enforcement?)
 
· This permit has extensive requirements to identify and install best management practices from the Stormwater technical manual to achieve All Known and Reasonable Treatment Technology (AKART).  (Please describe if you understand how to use the manual, what AKART means to your site.  What kind of assistance do you need from Ecology? Will you need to hire consultants to evaluate your site? Can you afford to install all the best practices required?)
 
· This permit changes the action levels at which I must increase my storm water management response.  The new levels are so strict that based on industry norms it is probable that I will need to install extensive new treatment systems. (How many people do you think it will take to manage the new systems? What impact will this have on your facilities budget? Have you asked Ecology for help in determining what you need to do? Can you determine what you need to do from reading the permit?) 
 
Thank you for considering our comments. If you have any questions, please contact the undersigned.
 
Name
Business title
Phone
email