Regulacje i polityka gospodarcza · 15.10.2008

State Program Requirements; Application To Administer the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) Program for Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs); Ohio

The State of Ohio has submitted a request for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to approve a revision to the Ohio National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) program to allow the Ohio Department of Agriculture (ODA) to administer the parts of the program pertaining to concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) and storm water associated with construction activity at animal feeding operations (AFOs) in Ohio. The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (Ohio EPA) currently administers the Ohio NPDES program in its entirety. Under the proposed revision, Ohio EPA would continue to implement all other aspects of the State's approved NPDES program. EPA Region 5 received Ohio's request in January 2007. In April and November 2007, EPA identified 31 technical and legal issues that ODA needs to resolve before EPA would be able to approve the ODA program. In a letter dated September 4, 2008, ODA committed to pursue specified statutory and administrative rule changes to address the issues identified by EPA. The ODA letter also included proposed statutory and rule changes beyond the scope of the changes needed to resolve the issues raised by EPA. ODA subsequently provided c