West Virginia DEP Announces Mandatory Electronic Permitting and Reporting for Water Permits

The West Virginia DEP Division of Water and waste Management has sent out the following notice regarding mandatory epermitting that will go into effect next year.

In an effort to more efficiently handle permit applications, the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection’s Division of Water and Waste Management will soon shift to all electronic permitting for water resources permits and NPDES discharge monitoring reporting.

The DWWM plans to mandate electronic permitting

(ePermitting) by July 1, 2011. More detailed information, including training dates for the new system, will be released at a later time. The WVDEP’s Division of Mining and Reclamation mandated ePermitting on Jan. 1, 2009.

Currently, most DWWM permit applications are prepared by a private entity and submitted to the WVDEP as a hard-copy bundle of forms and documents. Using ePermitting, permit applicants can submit all of the same information to the WVDEP via the Web in a secure environment. Permit applications can be prepared, delivered, reviewed, corrected and approved using Web-based technologies that tie together industry, regulators and the public in a common interface. The only technical requirements are an Internet connection, an email account, and Internet browser software such as Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, version 7.0 or higher.

Beginning in July 2011, all discharge monitoring reporting and the following permits will require ePermitting: NPDES (National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System) Industrial Individual; NPDES Municipal Individual (sewage collection and treatment systems); Vehicle Washing Establishments (car washes); Hydrostatic Testing Water; Sewage-General less than 50,000 gallons per day (GPD); Multi-Sector Industrial Storm Water; Wastewater Discharges from Highway or Municipal Maintenance Facilities; Groundwater Remediation; Water Treatment Plants; Underground Injection Control (sewage, industrial and storm water); Disposal of Sewage Sludge to POTW (publicly owned treatment works); Land Application of Sewage Sludge; Sewage- General 600 GPD or less Individual Residence or Small Business; and Storm Water Associated with Construction Activity.

For more information, contact Mavis Layton, of the DWWM’s permitting branch, at 304-926-0499, ext. 1025 or Mavis.L.Layton@wv.gov.