Current through all regulations passed and filed through March 18, 2024
(A) For any
permittee participating in trading activities, a special condition will be
included in the NPDES permit, either at renewal or by
modification, that does the following:
(1) Authorizes water quality trading.
(2) Requires implementation of actions from
the approved water quality trading management plan that are included in the
NPDES permit and specifies that failure to implement these actions is a
violation of the permit.
(3)
Requires the permittee to notify the director upon
discovering that water quality credits are insufficient to achieve compliance
with an NPDES permit limit and outlines the actions required by paragraph (B)
of rule
3745-5-12
of the Administrative Code.
(4) Requires submittal
of an annual report that identifies the actions implemented by the permittee in
the previous twelve-month period.
(5) Provides that the
director may revoke the approved plan and require compliance with water quality
based effluent limits based on the following:
(a) Failure by participants in the trading
program to implement actions in the approved plan.
(b) A determination by the director that
sufficient pollutant reductions have not been achieved by the participants in
the trading program to meet the applicable water quality based effluent
limits.
(c) New
information becomes available that changes the director's determination on the
approvability of the water quality trading management plan or on the
suitability of using water quality trading as a mechanism to achieve water
quality improvements in the defined trading area.
(B) The director may incorporate
special conditions in an NPDES permit to limit water quality trading activities
so that adverse local impacts do not occur, including the following:
(1)
Limiting water quality trading to upstream trades.
(2) Requiring a higher trading ratio.
(3) Including a cap on the portion of its
effluent limit that a permittee can replace with water quality
credits.
(4)
Establishing a minimum treatment level a plant shall
meet before engaging in water quality trading activities.
(C) When deciding whether or not
to limit water quality trading activity in an NPDES permit, the director may
consider such information as follows:
(1) The results of Ohio EPA water quality
surveys that indicate existing local impacts.
(2) The results of modeling and data
assessment, and the availability of assimilative
capacity for the pollutant.
(3) The presence of environmental factors
such as low flow areas or impoundments that would cause the pollutant to
persist longer in the water column.
(4) The
potential for any pollutant to cause acute effects.
(D) When water quality trading occurs between
two permittees, the effluent limit in an NPDES permit will be based on the
quantity of water quality credit being traded and will do the following:
(1) For the permittee using the water quality
credit, be increased.
(2) For
the permittee generating the water quality credit, be decreased.
(E) When point source-nonpoint
source water quality trading occurs, the permittee's NPDES permit will
do the following:
(1) Include the effluent limit that would
apply without water quality trading.
(2)
Include effluent monitoring and reporting requirements.
(3) Include any water quality credit being
applied to the discharge.
(4)
Include special conditions necessary to determine compliance with any NPDES
effluent limit.
(F) In
accordance with Chapter 3745-38 of the Administrative Code, the director may
issue a watershed general permit to establish pollutant-specific limitations
for a group of similar permittees to achieve the pollutant reductions specified
by a TMDL or multiple TMDLs for the same watershed.