Last week, the Regulatory Advisory Panel (RAP) appointed to review the state’s current requirements for its General VSMP Permit for Discharges of Stormwater from Construction Activities met for the first time. As a member of this advisory panel, I, for one, am interested in seeing how these regulations will be revised to account for the far-reaching changes that have occurred recently related to stormwater regulation in Virginia.

The RAP will be working to streamline the current General Permit requirements to account for recent changes to other sections of the Stormwater Regulations and the new Integration Bill recently adopted by the 2012 General Assembly. Other issues that will be addressed include implementation of federal Effluent Limitations Guidelines (ELGs), defining a Common Plan of Development, ensuring compliance with Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLs) where they exist, and clarifying the roles and authorities for construction activities that occur in more than one VSMP authority’s jurisdictional boundary.