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Water Quality

NPDES Guidance 

Many of the Division's policies and guidance reference specific facilities or situations.  Below are some permitting guidance documents to aid the NPDES permit writers in policy and guidance interpretation. These relate to NPDES permit parameters and permitting guidance for discharger groups. 

PERMIT GUIDANCE - GENERAL

Engineering Alternatives Analysis
NC Model Mercury Minimization Plan
Reduction of Monitoring Frequencies for Exceptional Performance
Mixing Zones
Swamp Waters
Zero-Flow Streams
Trout Waters
Planning For An Expansion: A Guidance Document for Municipalities

POLLUTANT SPECIFIC PERMITTING GUIDANCE

Ammonia Nitrogen
Toxicity Testing
Copper & Zinc Action Levels Policy
Fecal Coliform
Total Residual Chlorine
Total Residual Chlorine Compliance Level
Total Metals
Mercury:
List of facilities required to perform EPA method 1631
EPA method 1631 notification letter

BASIN SPECIFIC PERMITTING GUIDANCE

Goose Creek
South Fork Catawba River Basin Color

FACILITY SPECIFIC PERMITTING GUIDANCE

Water Treatment Plant (WTP) Strategy
Assessment & Recommendations for WTP Permitting: Findings of the WTP Workgroup
Bulk Oil Terminals
Vehicle Pressure Washing  

NPDES COMPLIANCE GUIDANCE

Significant Figures and Their Use on Discharge Monitoring Reports (DMRs)
NPDES Reporting Requirments
Wastewater Treatment Plant Annual Report Guidelines
Special Order by Consent (SOC) Guidance Document

The following lists are provided for informational purposes only. They are updated on a monthly to quarterly basis and should only be considered accurate as of their day of posting.
  • e-DMR: What is e-DMR?
  • Guidance: Precision in Discharge Monitoring Reports: Summarizes common conventions (and exceptions) for significant figures and rounding and describes their proper use in completing DMRs. Please direct questions to Mike Templeton at 919-807-6402 or by email.
  • General Permit NCG590000 became effective on August 1, 2014: This is a five year general NPDES permit that applies to Greensand and Conventional type Water Treatment Plants. Please proceed to the following NPDES Wastewater - General Permits link to review and/or apply.
  • NC Model Mercury Minimization Plan: As a part of the Post TMDL Permitting strategy passed by the Environmental Management Commission in November 2012 some Major municipal facilities with detectable mercury in their effluent will be required to develop Mercury Minimization Plans within 180 days of their NPDES permit renewal.  The plans do not need to be submitted to the state but are subject to review during inspection.  To view a model plan, click here.
  • NC DWR is not currently flowing DMR data to EPA: In late 2014, the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) made updates to its computer system that required batch states like North Carolina (states that send data by computer to EPA at one time) to install the latest version of an interface in order to continue sending NPDES data from the state’s data system to EPA’s, ICIS-NPDES.  NC DWR is awaiting the new interface from EPA’s contractor and has not been able to send any NPDES data, including Discharge Monitoring Report (DMR) data, to EPA since late-September 2014.  The absence of the DMR data in ICIS-NPDES has resulted in EPA-generated DMR non-receipt violations for North Carolina’s NPDES wastewater permits.  For major NPDES permits, these violations are also reflected in EPA’s Enforcement and Compliance History Online (ECHO) database as Significant Non-Compliance (SNC) violations.  Once NC DWR obtains the needed plugin from the EPA contractor, Division staff will work diligently to resume data flow to EPA and will upload all DMR data received from NPDES permittees since September 2014 to ICIS-NPDES.  After all data is in ICIS-NPDES, Division staff will work with EPA to remove all invalid DMR non-receipt violations from EPA’s databases, ICIS-NPDES and ECHO.  If you have any questions, please contact Vanessa Manuel at 919-807-6392. 
  • NPDES Standard Conditions (Current) 
  • Dissolved Metal to Total Metal Limit Calculators: ***REVISED***  Includes median HUC hardness values, User Guide and Calculators to assist permittees in understanding how the proposed Surface Water Standards (dissolved metals) will impact NPDES Permit Limits.
  • Stormwater Dissolved Metals Implementation & Estimated Benchmark Revisions

The following lists are provided for informational purposes only and accurate as of the date of posting.

 
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