Individual Industrial Activity Storm Water Permit Requirements

An individual storm water permit is not required, unless IDEM determines that the general permit is not sufficient to protect water quality or other factors cause more specific storm water control requirements at an industrial facility. According to 327 IAC 15-2-9(c), IDEM will notify a facility representative in writing if an individual storm water permit is needed. This written notification will include:

1. a brief statement of the reasons for the decision;
2. an application form;
3. a statement setting a time for the facility representatives to file the application; and
4. a statement that on the effective date of the individual storm water permit, the general permit rule, as it applies to the facility, shall no longer apply.

If an industrial facility representative is requested to obtain an individual storm water permit, several differences, in contrast to the Rule 6 requirements, are involved. An individual storm water permit will be a written document (not a rule), developed over several weeks or months. Before this permit is issued and becomes effective, it must have a 30-day public comment period, typically advertised through a notice placed in a local newspaper where the project site will be developed. In the public notice, the public can request, and be granted, a public hearing on the project site. In most situations, specific effluent concentration or loading limitations will also be written into individual storm water permits. Analytical results of facility storm water discharge sampling must indicate that the sampled parameters are within the permit's effluent limitations. Otherwise, the facility would be in violation of its permit, and subject to an enforcement action.

Currently, IDEM will be using the same application form as the one required in Rule 6. However, individual storm water permits also require the submittal of completed U.S. EPA Form 2F (available on the IDEM Forms page under Non-IDEM Forms) and the Indiana State form "Identification of Potentially Affected Persons" (available on the IDEM Forms page under Wastewater) with the application.

Because EPA established storm water effluent limitations, some industrial category facilities are subject to obtaining individual storm water permits for their industrial activities. In 327 IAC 15-6-2(c) and (d), these general categories are listed. They include:

1. cement manufacturing;
2. feedlots;
3. fertilizer manufacturing;
4. petroleum refining;
5. phosphate manufacturing;
6. team electric power generation;
7. coal mining;
8. mineral mining and processing;
9. ore mining and dressing; and
10. asphalt manufacturing.

Only the subcategories with effluent limitations are subject to obtaining an individual storm water permit under these general categories. These subcategories and the associated effluent limitations are listed in 40 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR), Parts 411 through 443.