On Friday, the State Water Resources Control Board released the final draft of the Statewide General National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (“NPDES”) Permit for the Discharge of Storm Water Associated with Industrial Activities (“Industrial General Permit” or “Permit”).  The long-awaited third revised draft of the Industrial General Permit comes after two previous iterations of the draft permit were released by the State Board for public comment in January 2011 and July 2012, respectively.  Many of the comments received on the prior drafts addressed increased costs and the imposition of numeric effluent limitations. 

Among other changes, the July 19, 2013 draft Industrial General Permit provides a reduced cost of compliance and excludes numeric effluent limitations.  Comments on the final draft must be submitted to the State Board on or before 12:00 pm on August 29, 2013.  Along with publication of the final draft Industrial General Permit, the State Board published a Notice of Public Hearing  regarding the final draft Permit, scheduled for 9:00 am on August 21, 2013.   

Additional information about the Final Draft of the Industrial General Permit can be obtained in the Permit Fact Sheet.