A. Permits and conditions of permits for discharges to non-WOTUS protected surface waters shall not implement any sections of the clean water act, including sections 301, 302, 306, 307, 308, 312, 318 and 405, and shall not be subject to review, approval or enforcement by the United States environmental protection agency.

Terms Used In Arizona Laws 49-255.04

  • Appeal: A request made after a trial, asking another court (usually the court of appeals) to decide whether the trial was conducted properly. To make such a request is "to appeal" or "to take an appeal." One who appeals is called the appellant.
  • Best management practices: means those methods, measures or practices to prevent or reduce discharges and includes structural and nonstructural controls and operation and maintenance procedures. See Arizona Laws 49-201
  • Clean water act: means the federal water pollution control act amendments of 1972 (P. See Arizona Laws 49-201
  • Director: means the director of environmental quality or the director's designee. See Arizona Laws 49-201
  • Discharge: means the direct or indirect addition of any pollutant to the waters of the state from a facility. See Arizona Laws 49-201
  • including: means not limited to and is not a term of exclusion. See Arizona Laws 1-215
  • Oversight: Committee review of the activities of a Federal agency or program.
  • Permit: means a written authorization issued by the director or prescribed by this chapter or in a rule adopted under this chapter stating the conditions and restrictions governing a discharge or governing the construction, operation or modification of a facility. See Arizona Laws 49-201
  • Point source: means any discernible, confined and discrete conveyance, including any pipe, ditch, channel, tunnel, conduit, well, discrete fissure, container, rolling stock, concentrated animal feeding operation or vessel or other floating craft from which pollutants are or may be discharged to WOTUS or protected surface water. See Arizona Laws 49-201
  • Protected surface waters: means waters of the state listed on the protected surface waters list under section 49-221, subsection G and all WOTUS. See Arizona Laws 49-201
  • Publicly owned treatment works: means a treatment works owned by this state or a municipality of this state as defined in section 502(4) of the clean water act or that discharges to a protected surface water. See Arizona Laws 49-255
  • Standards: means water quality standards, pretreatment standards and toxicity standards established pursuant to this chapter. See Arizona Laws 49-201
  • Treatment works: means any devices and systems that are used in the storage, treatment, recycling and reclamation of municipal sewage or industrial wastes of a liquid nature, the elements essential to providing a reliable recycled supply such as standby treatment units and clear well facilities, and any works that will be an integral part of the treatment process or that are used for residues resulting from that treatment. See Arizona Laws 49-255
  • United States: includes the District of Columbia and the territories. See Arizona Laws 1-215
  • WOTUS: means waters of the state that are also navigable waters as defined by section 502(7) of the clean water act. See Arizona Laws 49-201
  • Writing: includes printing. See Arizona Laws 1-215

B. The director shall apply the rules established pursuant to sections 49-255.01, 49-255.02 and 49-255.03 to non-WOTUS protected surface waters until the director adopts rules for discharges to non-WOTUS protected surface waters, except the director is not required to follow any provisions related to United States environmental protection agency review, approval or involvement in permit review or approval. The director shall not adopt or apply rules regarding the following discharges to non-WOTUS protected surface waters:

1. Except as applied to discharges from publicly owned treatment works, requirements specific to new sources or new dischargers under the clean water act.

2. Except as applied to discharges from publicly owned treatment works, technology-based effluent limitations, standards or controls, including new source performance standards, under sections 301(b), 304(b), and 306 of the clean water act.

3. Requirements to express all permit limitations, standards or prohibitions for a metal solely in terms of total recoverable metal.

4. Requirements for review and approval of permits by the United States environmental protection agency before issuance.

C. The director shall issue general permits or authorize coverage under existing general permits, subject to the limitations prescribed in subsection B of this section and section 49-221, subsection A, paragraph 1 for point source discharges of storm water from industrial or construction activity to non-WOTUS protected surface waters. The director shall use a best management practices approach when issuing and implementing general permits for storm water discharges from industrial or construction activity to non-WOTUS protected surface waters and may include analytical monitoring and discharge limits if best management practices cannot achieve applicable surface water quality standards. The director may issue an individual permit for those discharges only if the director determines, using reasonably current credible and scientifically defensible data, that a particular discharge is a significant contributor of pollutants to a non-WOTUS protected surface water that causes the water to exceed one or more applicable water quality standards. When making this determination, the director shall consider the location of the discharge with respect to the non-WOTUS protected surface water, the size of the discharge and the quantity and nature of the pollutants discharged. If the director determines that an individual permit is required for a discharge of storm water from industrial or construction activity to a non-WOTUS protected surface water, the discharger must be notified in writing and informed of the reasons for the determination and the right to appeal the individual permit determination.

D. The director shall issue general permits or authorize coverage under existing general permits, subject to the limitations in subsection B of this section and section 49-221, subsection A, paragraph 1 for other categories of potential point source discharges, including de minimis discharges, to non-WOTUS protected surface waters that involve the same or substantially similar types of operations, contain the same or substantially similar types of pollutants and are more appropriately controlled under a general permit than under an individual permit.

E. The director may adopt rules for point source discharges to non-WOTUS protected surface waters. The rules adopted by the director under this subsection shall not include any requirement that is more stringent than requirements of the clean water act, shall provide for issuing, authorizing, denying, modifying, suspending or revoking individual or general permits and shall establish permit conditions to carry out the permit program established by this section.

F. The director shall not construe any rule to require oversight by the United States environmental protection agency of permits or portions of permits for discharges to non-WOTUS protected surface waters, and a rule shall not apply if it would require review, approval or enforcement by the United States environmental protection agency of discharges to non-WOTUS protected surface waters.

G. In permits for discharges to WOTUS and non-WOTUS protected surface waters, the director shall not impose duplicative permit requirements.

H. The director shall not delegate to any city, town or county the authority to require permits for point source discharges from construction activity to non-WOTUS protected surface waters.

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