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York County is a federally designated NPDES Phase II community and received its Individual Stormwater Permit August 1, 2008 from the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (SCDHEC) - Certificate #SCR039104.
What is NPDES?
National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System
What does that mean?
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is requiring York County and other small municipal separate storm sewer systems (MS4s) to implement a storm water management program that will address issues of storm water pollution.
Why is it needed?
Polluted storm water enters York County’s local waterways without treatment and contributes to water quality degradation.
How will this help?
It will protect water quality by reducing the discharge of storm water pollutants into local streams to the "maximum extent practicable" (MEP), and it will fulfill the water quality requirements of the Clean Water Act (CWA).
NPDES History
In 1972, the Clean Water Act was put into law to address water quality issues that had been plaguing our nation’s natural waters. Section 402 of the act, called The National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES), was written to help control and regulate point sources or discharges of pollutants into those waters. Initially, NPDES set guidelines on all wastewater facilities and industries discharging wastewater into natural waters. In the late 80’s though, it was determined that stormwater was also a source of pollution. From this point forward, local governments were required to take measures to regulate stormwater within their own jurisdictional area. In 1990, Phase I of the NPDES stormwater program was established. It required NPDES permit coverage (implementation of a stormwater program) for large municipalities with populations over 250,000 and medium municipalities that had populations between 100,000 and 249,999. Today, these municipalities are called Large and Medium MS4s, which stands for Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System. Nine years later (1999), Phase II of the NPDES Stormwater program was signed into law. Phase II builds on the existing Phase I program by requiring smaller communities ("urbanized" populations under 100,000) to be permitted, which requires the develop of a comprehensive stormwater management program focused around six minimum measures. Phase I communities must also use these measures, but are required to implement an additional seventh measure that involves industrial inspections. The 6 minimum measures required of Phase II communities are as follows:
6 Minimum Measures
Public Education/Outreach
Public Involvement/Participation
Illicit Discharge Detection and Elimination
Construction Site Storm Water Runoff Control
Post Construction Storm Water Management
Pollution Prevention/Good Housekeeping
*York County, Rock Hill, Fort Mill, and Tega Cay are all considered "Small MS4s", with each having their own comprehensive stormwater management program.
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