United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
Office of Water
Enforcement (EN 335)
Washington DC 20460
June 1979
C-7
A Guide to the
Consolidated
Application
Form
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ABOUT THE CONSOLIDATED PERMIT APPLICATION
FORM AND PROPOSED NPDES REGULATIONS
This Guide outlines the major features of
EPA's draft consolidated permit application form
and proposed National Pollutant Discharge Elimi-
nation System (NPDES) regulations which were
published in the Federal Register on June 14, 1979
(44 FR 34346). The consolidated application form
will be used by permit applicants for the NPDES
permit program, the Hazardous Waste Management
permit program, the Underground Injection Control
permit program, and the Prevention of Significant
Deterioration permit program. The proposed NPDES
regulations establish the way that the new applica-
tion form will be used in the NPDES program and
establish uniform application requirements among
EPA and States authorized to operate HPDES programs.
TO OBTAIN COPIES OF THE REGULATIONS OR GUIDES
Write to:
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Public Information Center (PM 215)
401 M Street, S.W.
Washington, D.C. '20460
TABLE OF CONTENTS
I. OVERVIEW Page 1
II. THE CONSOLIDATED APPLICATION Page 5
FORM AND INSTRUCTIONS
III. PROPOSED NPDES REGULATIONS Page 11
CONTROLLING THE DISCHARGE
OF POLLUTANTS
iv. PUBLIC COMMENTS Page 17
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A Guide to The
Consolidated Permit Application
I. OVERVIEW
When a facility'needs a permit from the
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), EPA provides
an application form which the facility must fill
out. The application form is used to collect
information EPA needs to write an environmental
permit for a facility. EPA is developing a new
application form, designed to be as simple as
possible to complete, as a part of its effort to
streamline the process of obtaining a permit.
The new application form will be used when EPA is
the permitting authority; States may consolidate
their applicaion forms if they wish. EPA has
published a draft of the new application form to
provide the public an opportunity to submit
comments and suggestions on EPA's new approach.
EPA has also proposed new regulations for one
permit program, the National Pollutant Discharge
Elimination System (NPDES) which controls the
discharge of pollutants to surface waters. These
proposed regulations, which emphasize the control
of toxic pollutants,, are closely tied to the new
NPDES application form.
The draft of the new consolidated application
form and the proposed NPDES regulations appeared in
the same issue of the Federal Register on June 14,
1979 (44 FR 34346). Also in that issue, EPA has
proposed a set of consolidated permit program
regulations (44 FR 34244, June 14, 1979). Table 1
outlines the organization of the June 14 publication
of the Federal Register. For details on the
consolidated regulations, a Guide to the Proposed
Consolidated Permit Regulations (C-3) can be
obtained from EPA as described inside the back
cover of this Guide.
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TABLE 1
ORGANIZATION OF PARTS II AND III OF THE
FEDERAL REGISTER OF JUNE 14, 1979 (44 FR 34244)
Part II page
Proposed Consolidated Permit Preamble 34244
Program Regulations Regulations 34267
Part III
A: Public Notice of Draft Preamble 34346
Consolidated Permit Forms 34351
Application Form Instructions 34366
B: Proposed NPDES Regulations Preamble 34393
Controlling the Discharge Regulations 34414
of Pollutants
The Permit Application Form
EPA is developing a single consistent set of
permit application forms which incorporates both
revised forms for the NPDES permit program and new
forms for other permit programs.
o The consolidated form covers four programs:
-National Pollutant Discharge Elimination
System (NPDES) permits issued under the
Clean Water Act (CWA);
-Hazardous Waste Management permits issued
under the Resource Conservation and
Recovery Act (RCRA);
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-Underground Injection Control permits
issued under the Safe Drinking Water
Act; and
-Prevention of Significant Deterioration
permits for new sources issued under the
Clean Air Act.
o The form will be used by any facility
applying to EPA for a permit under any of
those four programs.
o Questions common to all permit programs are
in one part of the application form (Form
1), so that applicants will not have to
report the same information to EPA more
than once.
o Questions relating to each specific permit
program are in separate parts (Forms 2-5),
so that applicants will not have to report
any information which is not relevant to
getting the specific permits they need.
o NPDES permit application forms are being
revised and updated by deleting many
questions on the existing form which are
not necessary to write permits and by
adding other questions needed to identify
and control discharges of toxic pollutants.
In developing the consolidated permit applica-
tion form, EPA has tried to do three things:
o Avoid asking for information more than
once.
o Avoid asking for information EPA does not
need to write an appropriate permit.
o Assure that EPA obtains essential information
to write permits and to protect the public
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against the introduction of harmful pollu-
tants into the environment.
Proposed NPDES Regulations Controlling Discharges
of Pollutants
The primary means of controlling discharges of
pollutants into surface waters is by setting
numerical limits on specific pollutants in permits
issued under the NPDES program. These permit
limits reflect the level of treatment which the OVA
requires dischargers to achieve, or the level
necessary to protect water quality, whichever
is more stringent. EPA is now proposing regula-
tions to regulate two new aspects of the program:
1. In addition to pollutants regulated in the
past, permits may control the organic toxic pollutants
listed under section 307(a) of the CWA.
o Dischargers will report levels of the
307(a) toxic pollutants so that permitting
authorities can determine what limits to
place in permits.
o In some cases, permits will require the
necessary level of treatment of toxic
pollutants by setting limits on other
pollutant parameters, including some which
are not themselves toxic. In this situation,
these other pollutant parameters are being
used as "indicators" for the toxic pollutants.
The regulations provide that in these
cases, "indicators" can be regulated in
permits as if they were toxic pollutants.
2. EPA is now establishing control over
pollutants not specifically limited by an NPDES
permit.
o EPA first raised the issue of how to
establish this coverage in December 1977.
(42 FR 65209, December 30, 1977).
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o EPA proposed a regulation on August 21,
1978 (43 FR 37078) which limited permittees
to the levels of any pollutants required to
be reported in their NPDES permit application
forms, when not directly limited in
their permits.
o This proposal received a large number of
comments from people who were concerned
about the cost and feasibility of the way
the regulation would be implemented. Many
commenters felt that they could not adequa-
tely review the proposal until EPA made the
revised NPDES permit application available.
o EPA agreed that the proposed regulation
should be reviewed along with the new
application form; therefore, now that the
new NPDES application form has been deve-
loped, this regulation has been proposed
again in a slightly modified form. EPA
proposes to limit permittees to five times
the levels they report in their applications,
which will account for the variability of
waste streams while still prohibiting
significant increases in discharges.
Multiples other than five may be applied in
certain cases.
II. THE CONSOLIDATED PERMIT APPLICATION FORM AND
INSTRUCTIONS
A group composed of representatives from all
of the EPA program offices concerned with the
consolidated application form designed the overall
structure of the single set of application forms
and wrote the questions included in the general
information form (Form 1). Some of the program-
specific parts of the consolidated permit application
form have not yet been developed, but each part of
the application form will be incorporated into the
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single set of forms when it is ready. Table 2
shows what all the parts of the application form
will be with the date that each part has been or
will be published in .draft form for public comment.
The major features of the four draft forms
published in the June 14, 1979 Federal Register are
outlined below.
Form 1 — General Information
EPA has collected the questions needed by
every permit program into this one form, such as
the name, location, and major activities of a
facility. Form 1 also includes a series of
questions to pinpoint the pathways by which the
facility introduces pollutants into the environment;
these questions serve as a guide to lead applicants
to the additional program-specific parts they need
to fill out.
Form 2 — Discharges to Surface Waters under NPDES
Applicants for FPA-issued NPDFS permits will
be required to use the new NPDES application forms
soon after they are published in final form, but
States which have been approved to issue NPDFS
permits may develop their own forms. 'The forms
which States develop must ask for substantially the
same information as the new EPA forms under the
proposed NPDES regulations, so that the application
requirements will be uniform nationally.
Form 2b - Concentrated Animal Feeding Opera-
tions and Aquatic Animal Production Facilities,
This form is similar to the existing form,
although changes have been made to fit
it to the consolidated format and to align it
with the new NPDFS regulations for these
facilities (44 F1? 32854, June 7, 1979).
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TABLE 2
THE CONSOLIDATED PERMIT APPLICATION FORM
Date of Publication
Form 1 - General Information June 1979
Form 2 - Discharges to Surface Water
(NPDES permits under the Clean
Water Act)
2a - Publicly Owned Treatment Works December 1979*
2b - Concentrated Animal Feeding
Operations and Aquatic Animal
Production Facilities
June 1979
2c - Existing Manufacturing, Commercial,
Mining and Silvicultural
Operations June 1979
Form 3 - Hazardous Wastes Information
Summary
(Section 3005 permits
under the Resource Conservation
and Recovery Act
Form 4 - Underground Injection of
Fluids
(Underground injection
control permits under
the Safe Drinking Water Act)
Form 5 - Proposed Facilities
(Permits for Prevention of
Significant Deterioration
under the Clean Air Act
and for NPDES new sources
and new dischargers, and
for new injection wells)
June 1979
August 1980*
December 1979*
* Estimated
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Form 2c - Existing Manufacturing, Commercial,
Mining, and Silvicutural Operations. This
form has been changed substantially from the
existing form. Some of the significant
changes in the new application form are:
o Less information is required on the general
characteristics of the facility and its
operations, thus focusing the questions
more narrowly on the information needed to
write a permit.
o More analysis may be required of the
applicant's d ischarge.
-Certain applicants must test certain
discharges for the presence and levels
of toxic pollutants listed under section
307(a) of the OTA.
-All applicants must report levels of
certain pollutants which have been
regulated in the past.
o Applicants must describe any significant
variability they expect in the levels of
reported pollutants.
o At their option, applicants may submit
information on discharges of hazardous
substances listed under section 311 of the
CWA and obtain exemption for those discharges
from the requirements and penalties of
section 311. Instead, they will be regulated
under the NPDES program.
The instructions for Form 2c include a section
describing appropriate sampling and analytical
methods.
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Form 3 - Hazardous Waste Information Summary
1. Within 90 days of the date that final
regulations are published under section 3001 of the
Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), all
existing facilities which generate, transport,
treat, store, or dispose of hazardous wastes
nust file a notification form. Existing facilities
are facilities in operation or under physical
construction before the final §3001 regulations are
published. The notification form is not a part
of the consolidated application form because it is
a brief form which is filed only once and because
it is not an application for a permit. Its purpose
j.3 to provide EPA with an initial inventory of
existing facilities.
2. Within 180 days of the publication of
final §3001 regulations, all owners or operators of
existing treatment, storage, or disposal facilities
must file Forms 1 and 3.
o This is Part A of the application required
to be submitted for a RCRA permit.
o Form 3 asks for information on the design
and location of the hazardous waste facility,
the waste handled, and the treatment,
storage and disposal processes used.
o Facilities which submit the notification
and Forms 1 and 3 on time will be granted
"interim status." Interim status means
that the facility:
-will be treated as having been issued a
valid permit.
-must meet certain minimum requirements
which are described in regulations
proposed on December 18, 1978 (43 FR
58995).
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-may continue to operate until an actual
permit is issued or denied.
3. A facility granted "interim status" will
be notified by a.letter from EPA when to submit
certain additional information necessary to issue
an actual permit.
o This is Part B of the process of applying
for a FORA permit.
o An application form was not developed for
Part B, because the proposed regulations
require detailed narrative descriptions
of the operational plans and characteristics
of the facility. There requirements appear
in §122.23 of the proposed consolidated
permit program regulations (44 FR 34244,
June 14, 1979).
o The reported information will be used to
determine whether a permit should be issued
or denied, and what conditions to place in
the permit.
"Special" RCRA permits will be granted to
facilities which qualify as health care or experi-
mental facilities. Applicants who qualify for
health care special permits need not answer
certain questions in Forms 1 and 3, and also will
not have to submit any information required in Part
B. Applicants for experimental special permits
must submit Forms 1 and 3, but they may be exempted
from submitting some of the information required
in Part B. These requirements appear in sections
122.23 and and 122.25 of the consolidated permit
program regulations (44 FR 34244, June 14, 1979).
Facilities which are not existing facilities
must submit all of the information required to
apply for a permit (Parts A and B) at least 180
days before commencing construction. Physical
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construction of the facility cannot begin until a
permit is issued.
Instructions to .the Forms
The instructions which accompany the consoli-
dated permit application form include:
o General instructions.
o Detailed instructions for each individual
form.
o Additional sections reflecting all four of
the consolidated permit programs:
-a consolidated glossary
-a section detailing the exemptions from
the requirements to obtain permits under
each program.
o A summary of analytical methods to be used
for the NPDES application form.
III. PROPOSED NPDES REGULATIONS CONTROLLING THE
DISCHARGE OF POLLUTANTS
The new NPDES application form and the proposed
NPDES regulations which accompany it are central to
EPA's program for regulating discharges of pollutants
to surface waters, especially toxic pollutants.
The application form will gather essential information
about the facility and the composition of its
effluents, which EPA or approved NPDES States will
use to write an appropriate permit.
To make these application requirements uniform
nationally, EPA is proposing regulations which
require approved NPDES States to ask for essentially
the same information as EPA. States may accomplish
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this by using EPA's form or by developing their own
application form. EPA is also proposing regulations
which will establish the way that the discharge of
pollutants, especially toxic pollutants, will be
controlled. The major features of the proposed
regulations are discussed below.
Analytical Testing Requirements
All applicants must report levels of certain
pollutants in all of their waste streams. In
addition, a major new reporting requirement is that
certain applicants must test for the toxic pollutants
listed under section 307(a) of the Clean Water Act
in certain waste streams.
Data on levels of pollutants in effluents will
be used for two purposes:
o To determine what effluent limits will be
placed in the permit, and
o To establish a baseline reflecting current
discharges. This will be used
to prohibit future significant increases in
discharges.
A major consideration in designing the testing
requirements is to minimize the costs incurred by
applicants by asking for no more testing informa-
tion than is necessarv. For reporting purposes
pollutants are listed in three groups on the permit
application form:
o All applicants must analyze all effluents
for a few pollutants commonlv regulated in
the past, with a minimum of one sample per
outfall.
o Applicants in industrial categories most
likely to discharge toxics must analvze for
the 5307(a) toxic pollutants in process
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wastewater discharges. Those industrial
categories are the 36 "Group I" industries
listed in section III of the preamble to
the proposed NPDES regulations (44 FR
34396', June 14, 1979). The minimum require-
ment is one 72-hour sample per outfall.
Where applicants are not required to
analyze for all of the toxic pollutants,
they must analyze for or estimate levels of
any of these pollutants which they believe
are present.
o All applicants must analyze for or estimate
levels of certain other pollutants if they
believe those pollutants to be present in
their effluents.
One point of concern in developing the appli-
cation form requirements was the availability of
test methods for toxic pollutants. EPA does not
yet have standard methods of analysis for many of
these pollutants, but will propose testing methods
(including gas chromotography/mass spectrometry
techniques) as EPA standard methods in July 1979.
Permit Limits on Indicator Pollutants
The information reported in a facility's
application form allows a permit writer to identify
which effluent limitations guidelines and water
quality standards are an appropriate basis for the
facility's permit. To assist permit writers in
determining permit limitations where effluent
limitations guidelines do not apply, EPA is develop-
ing guidance on the treatability of pollutants,
especially toxic pollutants. In addition, EPA is
developing a scheme for the use of biological
monitoring tests, which measure acute toxicity in
the permit issuance process.
In some cases where facilities report levels
of toxic pollutants present in their effluents, it
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mav not be appropriate to set linits on individual
toxic pollutants in their permits:
o Fffluent limitations quidelines or water
quality standards may not specificallv
limit.the pollutant of concern.
o Applicants and permit writers may not be
familiar with toxic pollutants and may
find it hard to come to an aqreement on
specific levels of removability.
o Compliance monitorinq for toxic pollutants
is relatively expensive.
In such situations, limits can be set on
pollutants which are not toxic and which have been
requlated in the past. These limits on non-toxic
pollutants will require permittees to attain
the same deqree of control over toxic pollutants as
specific limits on those toxic pollutant would have
required. In this case, the non-toxic pollutants
are being used as "indicators" for the toxic
pollutants. EPA believes that settinq permit
limits on indicators will frequently be a qood
alternative to settinq limits on many individual
toxic pollutants.
Cne issue which arises in usinq non-toxic
pollutants as indicators for toxics is that in some
cases, different kinds of pollutants are eliqible
to be requlated in different ways. The CWA esta-
blished three classes of pollutants: conventional,
toxic, and non-conventional. When conventional or
non-conventional pollutants are used as indicators
for toxic pollutants, accordinq to the proposed
requlations, they will be requlated as if they are
toxic pollutants. This means that:
o Permit limitations on conventional pollu-
tants used as indicators will reflect Rest
Available Technology rather than the
potentiallv less strinqent Rest Conventional
Technoloqy.
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o Permit limitations on nonconventional
pollutants used as indicators will not be
eligible for water quality or economic
modifications under sections 301(c) and
301(g) of the CWA.
The proposed regulations require permit
writers to link the control of a conventional or
nonconventional pollutant to the control of toxic
pollutants before the conventional or nonconven-
tional pollutant can be regulated as an indicator
for toxic pollutants. The Agency invites comments
on this proposal.
Application-Based Limits
EPA is proposing to extend the NPDES regula-
tions to address discharges of pollutants not
directly limited in a permit. Significantly
increased discharges of pollutants above the levels
reported in a permittee's application form are
prohibited by the proposed regulations.
The proposed regulations provide that for all
pollutants not directly limited in an NPDES permit,
a permittee is limited to:
o Five times the level reported in the NPDES
application form; or
o Five times the detection limit of the EPA
standard method of analysis, if the pollu-
tant is not detected or not reported;
or
o A higher multiple of the reported levels,
if the applicant demonstrates through
additional testing that a higher multiple
appropriately describes the normal varia-
bility of the waste stream.
The multiple of five in the proposed regulation
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will account for the normal variability of pollutant
levels in effluents, while still prohibiting
significant increases in discharges of pollutants.
EPA has chosen this approach after considering
a number of alternatives. These alternatives are
described in the preamble to the proposed regula-
tions (44 FR 34393, June 14, 1979), together
with requests for comments and for any additional
data which would help to determine whether a
multiplier different than five might be more
appropriate for the final regulations.
Discharges of Hazardous Substances
Another significant new feature of the NPDES
permit application form is that it provides an
option for applicants to report discharges of
hazardous substances listed under Section 311 of
the CWA. Section 311 controls spills of hazardous
substances, some of which may also be subject to
the NPDES permit program. Last year, Congress
passed amendments to the CWA to eliminate this
overlap, exempting discharges of hazardous materials
from the requirements and liabilities of §311 under
certain circumstances. Congress intended that such
circumstances include instances where discharges
are covered instead by the NPDES program.
Regulations inplementing these new amendments
were proposed by EPA on February 16, 1979 (FR
10271). These proposed regulations provide that
one mechanism for exempting discharges of hazardous
substances is reporting these substances in an
NPDES application form. The optional question in
the new NPDES permit application form reflects
these proposed regulations by allowing applicants
to identify actual or potential discharges of
hazardous substances, and to describe treatment
methods for them.
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IV. PUBLIC COMMENT
EPA has published the draft consolidated
application form and proposed NPDES regulations to
request public comments and suggestions on them.
This Guide has highlighted some significant issues
in the new forms and regulations, which are discussed
in greater detail in the preambles in Part III of
the June 14, 1979 Federal Register (44 FR 34346).
EPA welcomes comments on the general approach taken
to consolidating the application forms for the
various permit programs, on the specific questions
and instructions for any of the forms, on the
balance between the cost and the need for infor-
mation required to be reported, on the innovative
provisions in the proposed NPDES regulations, and
on any other issues which are of interest to the
public. Please address all comments by September
12, 1979 to:
Edward Kramer (A-l)
U.S. EPA
Permits Division (EN-336)
401 M Street, S.W.
Washington, D.C. 20460
The public is also invited to participate in
hearings that have been scheduled on the proposed
consolidated application form. The hearings will
also cover the proposed consolidated regulations.
They will be held in Dallas, Chicago, Seattle, and
Washington, D.C. For further details, contact
Ms. Judy Shaffer at the above office, telephone
202-755-0750. Comments and hearings will play a
major role in determining the shape of the final
regulations.
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ABOUT THIS GUIDE
This Guide is one in a series of pamphlets
which describe various EPA permit programs.
The full series includes:
. A Guide to New Regulations for NPDES (C-l)
. A Guide to the Underground Injection
Control Program (C-2)
. A Guide to Proposed Consolidated Permit
Regulations (C-3)
. A Guide for States on Proposed Consolidated
Permit Regulations (C-4)
. A Guide to the Hazardous Waste Management
Program (C-5)
. A Guide to the Dredge or Fill Permit
Program (C-6)
. A Guide to the Consolidated Application
Form (C-7)
TO OBTAIN COPIES OF THE REGULATIONS OR GUIDES
Write to:
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Public Information Center (PM-215)
401 M Street, S.W.
Washington, D.C. 20460
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