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Construction and Development Effluent Guideline Final Action
Release Date: 04/10/2004
Contact Information:
Cathy Milbourn 202-564-7824 / [email protected]
(04/10/04) EPA issued a final action that relies on a broad range of existing programs and regulations at the federal, state and local level to control stormwater runoff from construction sites in lieu of a new national effluent guideline. Almost every state and many local governments already implement requirements that are equivalent to or even more stringent than those contained in a regulation proposed in 2002. For example, all 50 states require sediment and erosion control measures at sites during construction. Additional regulations, as outlined in the 2002 proposal, would have limited states flexibility and resulted in very high costs with only minor reductions in pollution discharges. The 2002 proposal would have also prescribed sediment basins of a particular size to apply nation-wide, where existing requirements allow states to set these technical requirements to meet regional differences in rainfall, seasonal weather patterns, soil types, slopes, and other considerations. In 2003 new National Pollutant Discharge Elimination Systems regulations went into effect for stormwater discharges from construction sites that are one to five acres in size (larger sites were regulated previously). And, over 5000 municipalities are also developing or upgrading their programs to control stormwater runoff from construction sites. These new requirements along with other federal, state and local programs, will yield significant environmental improvements by controlling polluted runoff from construction sites. In addition, about 16 billion pounds of sediment will be prevented from entering the nation’s waters each year due to these new stormwater regulations. Information about today's action is available at: https://www.epa.gov/guide/construction. Information about existing programs, requirements, and EPA support for state and local stormwater programs is available at: https://www.epa.gov/npdes/stormwater.
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