Tag: Permit

Stormwater Master General Permit in Final Stages

Posted on by Dan Osborn

The Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM) is in the late stages of a process transitioning from a permit by rule to a Master General Permit (MGP) for the three stormwater programs currently administered through Indiana Administrative Code (Rules). The three programs effected are Construction Stormwater (“Rule 5”) (327 IAC 15-5), Municipal Separate Storm Sewer Systems (“MS4s”) (327 IAC 15-13), and Industrial Stormwater (327 IAC 15-6). The change was spurred in 2016 via urging of the United States Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA).

IDEM developed draft language and engaged an advisory group in 2017. The advisory group, including representation from ICI, ACEC, INDOT and several other local and statewide stakeholder groups, met with IDEM leadership in multiple sessions throughout 2017 and 2018 to review and discuss draft language, current practices, and improvements. Brian Wolff, IDEM surface water and operations branch chief recently sent a notice to advisory group members thanking them for their participation.

“The draft language presented to the advisory group was vastly different from the output representing compromises for stakeholders and significant collaboration,” said Wolff, when asked about successes of this effort.

As an advisory member, ICI’s Director of Government Relations Dan Osborn appreciated IDEMs openness and active listening to considering stakeholder input throughout the process.

After finalizing the language in 2018, IDEM submitted the document to US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for review. After two years of review, public comment sessions, and revisions, IDEM received a notice of “non-objection” from the EPA. Wolff explained that the permits have been submitted to the Indiana Governor’s office for signature consideration. After 15 days, the permit will be submitted to the Indiana Secretary of State’s office for further processing. The permits become effective after a 30-day wait period post publishing of the final language. Wolff noted that owners or permittees of current permits will need to file for an “amendment-continue of coverage” under the new MGP within 90 days of the MGP effective date. IDEM cannot continue coverage under 327 IAC 15-5 for projects that will continue to operate once 327 IAC 15-5 is repealed.

IDEM has posted a copy of the MGPs and associated public comments/questions and has scheduled two public information sessions. Please see information and links below.

The information session on the Construction Stormwater General Permit will take place on November 16th at 10:00 AM
Zoom Link : https://zoom.us/j/94985414355?pwd=ak9kRXlHakZBOGtRdldkVHRPU1Q0Zz09&from=addon
Telephone: 301-715-8592 or 312-626-6799 or 646-876-9923 or 346-248-7799 or 408-638-0968 or 669-900-6833 or 253-215-8782
Meeting ID: 949 8541 4355
Passcode: 841374
Question Form: https://forms.office.com/g/1rXLXQyX8v

The information session for the MS4 General permit will take place on November 30th at 10:00 AM
Zoom link: https://zoom.us/j/92346799028?pwd=bWR1YksveGgvckZJVmFlNm1SdExTZz09&from=addon
Telephone: 312-626-6799 or 646-876-9923 or 301-715-8592 or 253-215-8782 or 346-248-7799 or 408-638-0968 or 669-900-6833
Meeting ID: 923 4679 9028
Passcode: 710924
Question form: https://forms.office.com/g/GAS7dWxbBB

INDOT/DOR Working to Improve OSW Permitting

Posted on by Dan Osborn

Several ICI members recently communicated concerns to me about oversize/overweight (OSW) load permitting. Members stated that, as the newly instituted OSW permitting system works well for the majority of loads and routes, concerns remain including difficulty delivering equipment to project sites and unusual long and broken up routing. While members have worked diligently to communicate issues directly to the Indiana Department of Revenue (DOR) and INDOT, ICI’s Director of Government Affairs Dan Osborn followed up with agency contacts to emphasize industry concerns and determine what industry, the DOR and INDOT could do to avoid the issues.

INDOT Multimodal Director Kristen Brier responded to ICI. She explained that the new permitting system includes a more comprehensive evaluation process including “vehicle configuration, origin, and destination to automatically generate a safe route safe route, taking into account road restrictions and closures, vertical clearances for bridges, and bridge load rating.”

“We are working with our vendor to make the location of the failed bridges visible externally, to help applicants determine if a different origin or destination on the state system will avoid those bridges. Information about the road restrictions and closures can be displayed within the permitting system, and it remains available on the Indiana Truckers’ Info page. Bridge vertical clearance information remains available as well, through the online Bridge Clearance Map,” stated Brier.

Brier offered several agency contacts to assist permittees. Contact INDOT Freight Manager Leslie Morgan to disclose unsafe routes or difficulty with a permit involving accessing a project site.

If you need help using the new permitting system, contact DOR Motor Carrier Services Division OSW Supervisor James Vest or Morgan.

Contact Dan Osborn if you have feedback or recommendations about any aspect of OSW permitting.

Oversize/Overweight Permitting Enhancement Effective 8/6

Posted on by Richard Hedgecock
Source: Kristin Brier, Freight Manager, Indiana Department of Transportation, (317) 232-2040 or kbrier@indot.in.gov

In order to provide continuous improvement to the oversize / overweight permitting program, INDOT and IDOR are implementing an enhancement to improve the bridge review process for overweight vehicle permits under 200,000 pounds GVW. This enhancement will take effect on Monday, August 6.

Users are asked to pay particular attention to the following items:

  1. Customers will enter the start date of the permit.  The system will no longer default to the date the application was submitted.
  2. Customers will enter the date range in which the permitted load will be moved.
  3. When entering trip origins, customers will enter the city or town and the cross-street closest to the first state road, US Highway, or Interstate on your route. For example, if the route origin is US 31 at Alto Road in Kokomo, the origin should be entered as Kokomo/Alto Rd.
  4. When entering destinations, customers will enter the city or town and the cross street or exit number closest to the departure from the last state road, US highway, or interstate on your route. For example, if the route destination is US 31 at 236th Street in Westfield, the destination should be entered as Westfield/236th St.

Significant Change to Oversize/Overweight Vehicle Permitting

Posted on by Dan Osborn

Starting July 16, 2018, bridge analysis will be required for an Oversize/Overweight (OSOW) Vehicle permit requests for a gross vehicle weight (GVW) load of 134,000 pounds or greater. The Indian Department of Transportation (INDOT) sent notices to contractors and other permittees during the week of July 1, 2018. The memorandum can be found on the Indiana Department of Revenue’s (INDOR) Oversize/Overweight web page. The current threshold triggering a bridge analysis is 200,000 GVW.

ICI staff and industry members met with INDOT and INDOR staff on July 9 to review the change and discuss expected challenges for all stakeholders due to the change. INDOT Bridge Design Division is currently gearing up for estimated 120 bridge analyses per day (based on summer month volume) by hiring six dedicated administrative staff. Industry expressed concerns with rerouting due to deficient bridges and permits in critical situations driven by the typical characteristics of heavy highway and bridge construction including weather and unforeseen conflicts. INDOT stressed planning to provide a two to three-day notice. But, agency representatives stated they will consider avenues for emergency permits for unforeseen circumstances to avoid missing critical project deadlines.

INDOR provided guidance to ICI including OSOW Vehicle permit route text entering instructions.

ICI and ACEC comment on EPA’s Draft 2017 General Permit

Posted on by Dan Osborn

EPA is preparing to reissue the Construction General Permit. The general permit, issued under the Clean Water Act’s National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System, authorizes stormwater discharges from construction activities. Learn more about it from the EPA or AGC of America.

ICI partnered with ACEC Indiana to submit the following comments on behalf of the industry:

Comments regarding U.S. EPA’s Draft 2017 General Permit
EPA-HQ-OW-2015-0828
Offered by:  Indiana Constructors, Inc. and American Council of Engineering Companies of Indiana
Date:  May 10, 2016

Public Accessibility (Online) of Storm Water Pollution Prevention Plan (SWPPP) Information
SWPPPs are fluid documents that are modified to accommodate changed conditions, utilities and multi-phase construction. Public access to the initial SWPPP will create issues for taxpayers, owners, designers, and contractors due to costly delays and production interference as owners/operators, designers and contractors will be forced to respond to unsolicited public oversite and scrutiny based off of initial SWPPP documents that do not reflect the current work site conditions.

Public Notice of Permit Coverage
EPA proposes a new requirement that the permittee’s sign/posting (or other public notice) of permit coverage must also include information informing the public on how to contact EPA if storm water pollution is observed in the discharge. There were 1,725 permits open during 2015 in Indiana. We recommend that the EPA remove this proposed requirement due to the potential inquiry backlog that could be generated from posting EPA’s contact information at every permitted site.

More Frequent Site Inspections
We request that EPA provide evidence that substantiates the lower inspection trigger threshold as observations in Indiana do not warrant such a significant increase in inspection frequency. Decreasing the inspection trigger threshold from .5 to .25 inches is a very significant change. For example, in review of two Indiana locations (Plainfield and Ft. Wayne) and their respective daily rainfall measurements between March 15, 2015 and November 15, 2015, the number of rainfall events over .5 inches were 28 (Plainfield) and 17 (Ft. Wayne). The rainfall events over .25 inches were 48 and 36, respectively. If the State of Indiana adopts the .25 inch threshold, contractors would be required to increase inspections by around 90%, using the example locations. To put this in terms of dollars, the cost to project owners and taxpayers, will be in the millions of dollars per year in Indiana.

Numeric Reporting Requirements vs. BMPs
It is critically important to industry that, in the final regulatory text, EPA clearly state that numeric permit requirements are not mandatory. Industry is concerned about proposed modifications to the current regulations at 40 C.F.R. § 122.34 that would delete the word “narrative” as it relates to effluent limitations, and also delete the additional explanatory text that “BMPs are generally the most appropriate form of effluent limits.” Again, we oppose these changes, which directly contradict CWA intent, fall outside the scope of the court’s remand and are improper actions for this rule-making. We request that EPA retain the above-referenced language in the final rule to make clear that effluent limitations may be in the form of non-numeric BMPs.

Construction vs. Real Estate Development Industries
The construction and real estate development industries are separate and distinct from each other; contractors cannot warrant the post-construction performance of storm water controls that others design, operate and maintain. Storm water BMPs are designed and constructed per known conditions. Future performance of properly designed and constructed BMPs and storm water controls systems can be negatively affected by post-construction modifications to on-site and off-site characteristics. Industry is increasingly concerned about scenarios that would burden the contractor with the long-term, legal liability for the performance of permanent storm water controls after the design and/or construction firm leaves the project.

Expanded and Transparent (Online) NOI Reporting
We will be interested in the ease of use of electronic reporting tools and will be motivated to provide feedback on future EPA drafts regarding this topic.

Thank you for considering our comments.

 Dan Osborn  Beth Bauer, CAE
 Director of Government Affairs  Executive Director
 Indiana Constructors, Inc.  American Council of Engineering Companies of Indiana
 One N. Capitol Ave., Ste. 1000  55 Monument Circle, Ste. 819
 Indianapolis, IN 46204  Indianapolis, IN 46204