EPA's New Construction General Permit: Contractors Beware

Paul M. James and Dianne Phillips are Partners in our Boston office

On February 16, 2012, one day after the 2008 permit expired, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued the new construction general permit (CGP) required for jurisdictions where there is no delegated state permitting agency governing stormwater and non-stormwater construction-related discharges to waters of the United States from construction sites with disturbance of one acre or more in size.

See http://cfpub.epa.gov/npdes/stormwater/cgp.cfm.

This new CGP implements the requirements from the effluent limitations guidelines and new source performance standards issued by EPA on December 1, 2009, to control the discharge of pollutants from construction sites known as the "Construction and Development Rule" or "C&D Rule." See 74 Fed. Reg. 62996 and 40 C.F.R. 450.21.