Phase II of the Clean Water Act
The Clean Water Act (CWA) is the primary federal legislation that protects the nation's surface waters. Developed in 1972 to strengthen and expand the Water Pollution Control act of 1948,the CWA initially focused on establishing effluent limitations for point sources (i.e. any discernible, confined and discrete conveyance) that transmit pollutants into a surface water body.
Dischargers (i.e. communities of 100,000+) had increased accountability for reporting and correcting theses discharges. Section 402 of the CWA introduced the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination
System(NPDES).This required a permit to discharge a pollutant from a point source into the nation's waters, with an initial focus on industrial and municipal wastewater. The CWA has proven to be one of the nation's most successful environmental regulations and is widely recognized as helping to significantly improve water quality.
In 1987,the CWA was amended to require EPA to develop a comprehensive, phased program to regulate storm water discharges (including non-point source pollutants) under the NPDES program. In 1990,the
Phase I was issued to address storm water discharges from medium and large municipal separate storm sewer systems (communities of 100,000+) and discharges associated with industrial activities. On October 29,1999,EPA Administrator Carol Browner signed the
Phase II . They were subsequently published in the Congressional Record on December 8,1999.The new rules cover “small” Municipal Separate Storm Sewer Systems.
