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COLORADO DEPARTMENT OF 11EAL?TI -Water Quality Control Division Rationale -Page 2 Permit No. COR-040000 • or siphoned from aatue mining areas. This v water thaw generdly classified ar process water' and is rovered under the pre-ecisting Colorado Discharge Permit System (mPS). Storntwater it surface nawff andv mvemd under the new stormwater portion of the CDPS. A. General Permits The regulations Blow states whiah haHe been delegated authority for the NPDES program to issue general permits or individual permits ro regulate industrid stormwater duchargts. The State of Colorado is a delegated state, and has the authority to issue generd permits under the Colorado Water Quality Control Atx. (Note: The Colorado program is referred to ar tlu Colorado Duaharge Permit System, or CDPS, instead of NPDES.) The Water QuaUry Control Division (Yhe Division J has determined that the use of general permits is the appropriate procrdurc for handling the espeaed thousands of industrial stormwatn applications within the State. 1. T.~'PPS of Genera! Pmnits: This is the generd permit to roust stormwater disdwrge from metal mining operations. Other stormwater gennal permits are available for light indrstry, heavy industry, sand and grout! mining (and other nanmetd/ic mirurals), ronstrudion activities, and roal mines with surface discharge only. 2. Temaorarv Geural Permit Coverage: Regulation of stornnvatcr is a new field, and full implementation of the Division's program will take some time. Coverage of most jarilities under general permits is the fastest, mast efficient means of implememing the program in the short term. However, as described elsewhere is this Rationale, general permit rovrrage is not appropriate in the long term for some mining operations with a higher stormwater pollution potemial Therefore, the Division reserves the right to tempomrily rover stormwater discharge from mining activities order a generd perntit, even though individual permit Overage may be more appropriate. • Cert fication of these activities under a general pmnit doer not in any way infringe on the Division's right to revoke that rovierage and issue an individual pnrnit or amend an esisring individual permit, when specialized facility attemion is rcquirtd. B. Permit Requirements This permit will not reguirc submission of egluent monitoring data in the permit application or in the permit itself. /t is believed that for many mining sites a fully implemented Storntwater Mawgemem Plan (SWMP) will be suffsciem to ronrrol water qudity impacts. Howevw, for sites where a water grtaliry impact from stormwater is known or suspected, an individual permit with additional requiranents will bt required. Discharges ojstormwater associated with mining operations must meet dl app[irobk provvions of Scaions 301 and 402 of the Clean Water Aa. There provisions require rorurol of po!lutam drschagges to a level eguivalem to Best Available Technology Erommirolly Achievable (BAT! and Best Convemional Pollution Control Technology (BCT), and any more stringem controls necessary to meet water quality standards. The permit requiter dischargers to rontrol and eliminate the soumrs of polhuants in stormwarer through the desrlopmem and implementation oja SWMP. The plan mast include Best Management Prarsicrs (BMPs), which will include measures that reduce souses and prevrm pollution. This will ronstitute BAT and BCT and should achieve rompliance with water quality standards. This approach is ronsistem with the initid stage of the fortrtitr ptrmiaing strategy described by EPA regulations, i.e., Tier 1, Baseline Permitting. This enables the Division to begin reducing polhuams in industrial stormwater in the most effteiem and rosttffective manner now available. Thus, as soon as possible, all dischargers will be • required by the permit to begin implementing practices ro prevem pollution. The narrative permit rcquiremems alto include prohibitions against disdaarges of non-stormwater.