 The Virginia Soil and Water Conservation Board (VSWCB) has proposed amendments to its General Permit for Discharges to Stormwater from Construction Activities regulation in order to have a new general permit in place by July 1, 2014. The proposed regulatory action will establish a new permit under which current general permit holders will be able to apply for coverage if they wish to maintain coverage for their construction activity beyond the current permit's June 30, 2014 expiration date.
Comments on the proposed regulatory action will be accepted via email or through the Virginia Regulatory Town Hall until 5:00pm on June 7, 2013.
All information pertaining to the proposed General Permit and the regulatory process, including public hearings, can be found on the Department of Conservation and Recreation's (DCR) website. Additionally, DCR has prepared a Fact Sheet, which describes the proposed action.
This draft permit represents general consensus on most issues after lots of compromise developed during seven relatively contentious meetings by diverse stockholders on a Regulatory Advisory Panel (RAP) between August 29th and January 4th, 2013. WSSI was a member of the VSWCB RAP for the revised General Permit. However, a few issues discussed by the RAP were still left unresolved, as shown in a March 18, 2013 comment letter from WSSI to the VSWCB.
The most significant changes to construction sites will be more frequent inspections because the storm event that triggers an inspection is reduced from a runoff producing event (frequently interpreted as a 0.50 inch) to 0.25 inch event over 24 hours, and the frequency of inspections have been increased for TMDL Areas (all of Northern Virginia), as shown below: |
