Do you currently hold a New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC or Department) stormwater pollution discharge elimination system (SPDES) Multi-Sector General Permits (MSGP) or need to obtain compliance under the General Permit GP-0-17-004?

Annual Certification Report (ACR) and the sampling reporting on Discharge Monitoring Reports (DMRs) for this quarterly or semi-annual period must be submitted to the Department by January 28, 2020.

Semi-annual sampling (July– December) is due and needs to be reported. All semi-annual sampling requires Benchmark and Numeric Effluent Limit monitoring and sampling. The sample results need to be submitted through the NetDMR electronic system. The results cannot be submitted by paper. Instructions on how to register for NetDMR can be found at: https://www.dec.ny.gov/chemical/8461.html. Your ACR may be filed either by paper (until 2020) or electronically through the NYSDEC eBusiness Forms page if you have established an account with NY.gov.

Stormwater semi-annual samples must be collected at the facility between July 1, 2019 and December 31, 2019. You should avoid waiting to collect samples till the last minute as you cannot predict the weather and it needs to be at least 0.1 inches of precipitation for sample collection, providing the interval from the preceding measurable storm is at least 72 hours. The sample needs to be taken during the qualifying rain event from the discharge at the designated outfall(s).

Quarterly sampling is required for the facilities where the pollutant of concern at the waterbody (where the stormwater is discharged) matches the pollutants at the facility.

Do not forget to perform your quarterly observation and visual evaluation of the collected sample and complete a Quarterly Visual Monitoring Form as part of your quarterly routine inspection or annual comprehensive inspection. For those who have to sample for pH, please remember to test the pH as soon as possible, preferably, within 15 minutes of the sample collection, before it is shipped to the lab for full analysis.

If you have a SPDES Permit and are confused about all these sampling/reporting issues or think you need to be covered under the Multi-Sector General Permit (MSGP), please give Walden a call to see how we can help you with your needs.