NAS Report issued on Industrial Stormwater Discharges

Washington, D.C. — As part of a Settlement Agreement between the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), environmental petitioners, and intervenors on the challenge to the EPA’s 2015 Multi-Sector General Permit (MSGP), the EPA funded a study conducted by the National Academies of Sciences (NAS) on potential permit improvements, focused primarily on monitoring requirements, for consideration in the next issuance of the MSGP.

The study — Improving the EPA Multi-Sector General Permit for Industrial Stormwater Discharges — represents an independent consensus report of the study committee members. The study looked at three main topics:

• Suggesting improvements to the current MSGP benchmark monitoring requirements, including identifying the highest priority industrial facilities/subsectors for consideration of additional discharge monitoring;
• Identifying opportunities for improving industrial stormwater monitoring, including evaluations of sampling methods, laboratory analysis, and data management; and
• Evaluating the feasibility of numeric retention standards for industrial stormwater.

The EPA is currently reviewing and evaluating the study recommendations as the Agency prepares for the next iteration of the MSGP.

Download the full report at https://www.nap.edu/catalog/25355.

Download a 4-page summary of the report at https://dels.nas.edu/resources/static-assets/materials-based-on-reports/reports-in-brief/IndustrialStormwater4-Pager.pdf.

The NAS will present the findings and recommendations of this report on a webinar Wednesday, February 27 at 3:30 pm EST. The webinar is free and open to the public. Register for the webinar at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/webinar-improving-the-epa-msgp-for-industrial-stormwater-discharges-tickets-56216830052.

For those unable to attend, the webinar will also be recorded and posted on the study website (https://dels.nas.edu/Study-In-Progress/Improving-Next-Generation-Multi/DELS-WSTB-16-03.