Terraphase Stormwater Engineering & Compliance Services — New California Construction and Industrial General Permits

California stormwater regulations have been undergoing a number of changes over the past few years. The new Construction General Permit (CGP) for the control of stormwater at construction sites, which governs stormwater permitting, sampling, and Stormwater Pollution Prevention Plans (SWPPPs) for construction activities that disturb more than 1 acre of soil, was adopted by the Water Board in September 2009 and became effective July 2010. This new CGP mandates that SWPPPs be prepared by certified Qualified SWPPP Developers (QSDs) and be implemented by Qualified SWPPP Practitioners (QSPs), respectively.

The Industrial General Permit (IGP) was released in draft format in January 2011. The draft IGP significantly increases the number of inspections and required stormwater samples to be collected at many industrial facilities, and introduced numeric effluent limits (NELs) in place of the previous benchmarks. As expected, the IGP generated a number of comments from the community. In addition, a California Senate hearing was held on October 6, 2011, to address the potential economic impacts of these new regulations on industry. A revised draft IGP (version II) is expected in late 2011/early 2012. The revised draft IGP will likely require a Qualified Industrial SWPPP Practitioner (QISP) to prepare and/or implement the SWPPP. The QISP will likely have three levels of certification, which will be determined by some combination of training, examination, and/or demonstrated experience.

Terraphase assists it’s clients with a complete range of stormwater-related services including engineering design, site evaluation, Best Management Practice (BMP) implementation, and application of advanced stormwater control technologies. Our QSDs and QSPs have engineered and designed innovative BMPs, prepared and implemented comprehensive SWPPPs, and provided detailed mapping of stormwater infrastructure in geographic information systems (GIS). We have applied our expertise for both construction projects and at active industrial facilities. We take into account site-specific conditions and the goals and objectives of the client. We prepare engineering plans and specifications, obtain necessary permits, provide construction management services, perform stormwater sampling (including first event sampling) and operate and maintain treatment systems. Our engineers have the ability to carefully evaluate our clients’ problems and provide long-term solutions. We also specialize in working with stormwater treatment device manufacturers to develop thorough, cost-effective testing and evaluation programs that allow our clients to obtain regulatory approval of these new technologies.

For more information on Terraphase’s Stormwater Engineering & Compliance Services, please contact Jeff Raines or Ryan Janoch at (510) 645-1850.