Answer:
Step-by-step explanation:
vPoint Source - a source of water discharged to surface water through a discrete point - generally through a pipe, ditch, or channel.
Nonpoint Source - Nonpoint sources, such as parking lots or athletic fields, discharge runoff water to groundwater or surface water; runoff does not come from a pipe, ditch, or channel. These sources may contain pollutants such as pesticides, motor oil, and soaps.
Navigable Waters of the United States For the purposes of the Clean Water Act, the term "navigable waters" includes:
all waters used in commerce, including groundwater;
all interstate waters including wetlands, mudflats, and sand-flats; and
all other waters such as lakes, rivers, streams, wetlands and sloughs.
EPA policy states, "The majority of facilities in the U.S. have the potential to discharge to navigable waters." The Supreme Court decision in (2006) requires the Army Corps of Engineers and the EPA to determine whether there is a "significant nexus" between a navigable waterway and an area a spill might affect. In June of 2007, EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers released provisional interpretive guidance regarding the "significant nexus” question. According to this guidance, the agencies will assert jurisdiction over traditional navigable waters, wetlands adjacent thereto, and relatively permanent tributaries thereof. The agencies will generally not assert jurisdiction over swales and ditches that lack routine water flow. Finally, the agencies will apply the "significant nexus" requirement and make a case-by-case, fact-specific analysis on impermanent tributaries and other wetlands.
Additional executive orders were issued 2015 in 2019. Under the 2019 proposal, traditional navigable waters, tributaries to those waters, certain ditches, certain lakes and ponds, impoundments of jurisdictional waters, and wetlands adjacent to jurisdictional waters would be federally regulated. It also details what are not "waters of the United States," such as features that only contain water during or in response to rainfall (e.g., ephemeral features); groundwater; many ditches, including most roadside or farm ditches; prior converted cropland; stormwater control features; and waste treatment systems.
Could the requirement for one or more NPDES Discharge Permit apply to my campus?
If your campus discharges pollutants directly to navigable waters of the United States through a point source, you must obtain an NPDES permit or redirect the flow of the waste.
Stormwater releases from certain activities require an NPDES permit. The most common activities on college campuses requiring NPDES permits for stormwater are construction activities disturbing more than 1 acre, hazardous waste storage areas operating under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act permit system, steam-generating power plants, and airports. See Stormwater section below.
Regulations issued by local water authorities, or Publicly Owned Treatment Works (POTWs), not NPDES permits, govern discharges into sanitary sewer systems. See Sewer Use (POTW) section below for more information about requirements for using POTWs for commercial or industrial waste disposal.
What do I have to do related to NPDES Discharge Permits?
Determine where wastewater flows from buildings and processes on your campus. Any industrial or commercial operation (e.g., ice rink melt pits, floor drains, and vehicle wash stations) that discharge into a water of the United States may require an NPDES permit. If required, you must obtain such a permit from the appropriate regulatory agency, probably your state environmental agency.
French drains, dry wells, and septic system leach fields are different from point source discharges because they do not immediately affect surface water. Some state and federal environmental agencies manage these systems under the Underground Injection Control program, part of the Safe Drinking Water Act. See Safe Drinking Water Act for more information.
Details of NPDES