OMA Comments on U.S. EPA Stormwater Permits

This week, the OMA submitted comments on the U.S. EPA’s National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) 2020 Issuance of the Multi-Sector General Permit (MSGP) for stormwater discharges associated with industrial activity. The EPA’s draft was more than 1,000 pages. The OMA has followed the MSGP closely for years as it is a good indication of where Ohio EPA will fall on the issue.

In its comments, the OMA wrote: “This proposed draft MSGP continues a recent trend towards a more top-down, command-and-control approach to stormwater regulation, with a highly prescriptive stormwater sampling/corrective action regime as its cornerstone. … This is a most unfortunate trend that increases the regulatory burden on industry with no tie to a corresponding, quantifiable benefit to receiving waters. The new requirements in the proposed MSGP go well beyond what is required by the 2016 MSGP settlement and beyond what Congress intended in the Clean Water Act.” 6/4/2020