On September 13, 2012, the Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet, Department of Environmental Protection, Division of Water (DOW) released a draft Kentucky Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (KPDES) General Permit for Stormwater Discharges Associated with Industrial Activity from “Other Facilities”. The previous KYR000000 permit had expired in 2007 and was administratively continued.  This draft General KPDES Permit does not address specific categories of facilities, but provides permit coverage for facilities that are not required to obtain an individual KPDES Permit.

Currently, industrial stormwater dischargers in Kentucky are required to apply for an individual KPDES permit, which does not change under the new draft permit.

Facilities that are subject to a promulgated national effluent guideline and those facilities that discharge to a receiving water that is subject to a TMDL for suspended solids are not eligible for coverage under the general permit.  Some of the key changes from the previous permit include:

  1. Specific effluent limits for Total Suspended Solids (TSS), Oil and Grease (O&G), and pH are in place of the previous requirement to monitor and report the results of monitoring for these parameters.  Monitoring is no longer required for Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD).
  2. The Stormwater Best Management Practices (SWBMP) Plan will now be refered to as a “Stormwater Pollution Prevention Plan (SWPPP).”
  3. Inspections with subsequent written reports to document the findings of the inspections would be required on a minimum weekly basis and in response to 2-year, 24-hour storm events that occur.
  4. The SWPPP Site Map must include additional features to be shown including directions of stormwater flow, locations of impaired waters and any TMD’s associated with them, and locations of stormwater monitoring points.
  5. The SWPPP must include procedures for preventing and responding to spills, and schedules for inspections, preventive maintenance, and employee training required.
  6. The SWPPP must contain a daily precipitation log, incident reports in response to spills, employee training records, and control measure maintenance and repair logs.

Caltha LLP maintains a library of SWPPP templates to meet general permit requirements for individual States, including Kentucky. Once the revised permit is issued, Caltha will revise the Kentucky SWPPP template to meet any new requirements and will use this to support our clients located in Kentucky.

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