Saturday, October 29, 2011

NPDES General Permits Now Available for Point Source Discharges to Waters of the Commonwealth from Application of Pesticides

In today's Pennsylvania Bulletin, the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) published notice of the availability, as of 12:00am Oct. 29, 2011, of National Pollution Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) General Permits for Point Source Discharges to Waters of the Commonwealth from Application of Pesticides (PAG-15).  The permit is intended for operators who discharge into the Waters of the Commonwealth and are applying biological pesticides or residue-leaving chemical pesticides for:

(1) Mosquito and other flying insect pest control;
(2) Weed and algae pest control;
(3) Animal pest control; or
(4) Forest Canopy pest control

A draft of PAG-15 was published in the PA Bulletin on Dec. 25, 2010 and provided a 30-day public comment period (Prepared Comment and Response Document available here). Modifications made to the final PAG-15 included a clarification that operators seeking to use algaecide, herbicide, or fish control chemicals in the Waters of the Commonwealth must continue to obtain joint approval from Fish and Boat Commission and DEP's Safe Drinking Water Program. This joint approval is required even if the discharge will not reach threshold levels requiring submission of a Notice of Intent.

Read the complete PA Bulletin Notice here.

Read the DEP's PAG-15 Fact Sheet here.

Access the PAG-15 Folder of Documents on DEP's Web site here.

Written/Posted by Tanya J. Cramoy, Research Assistant

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