Draft General Permit Renewal

Storm Water Associated with Construction Activity in the Big Darby Creek Watershed

Ohio EPA is public noticing a draft renewal National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) general permit that would cover the entire Big Darby Creek watershed and would authorize storm water discharges from construction activity disturbing one or more acres. Also, the permit would authorize some discharges that are not entirely considered construction storm water (such as trench dewatering), as well as storm water discharges associated with on-site concrete and asphalt batch plants.

An Ohio EPA public hearing to accept comments on the draft general permit has been scheduled for 4:00 p.m. on January 31, 2012 at the Ohio EPA Central Office, Conference Room A, 50 West Town Street, Columbus, Ohio 43216. The public hearing will end when everyone in attendance has had an opportunity to provide comments related to the draft general permit.

In lieu of attending the public hearing, written comments may be submitted in person or by mail no later than February 7, 2012. Deliver or mail all comments to:

The Ohio EPA permit number should appear next to the above address on the envelope and on each page of any submitted comments.

• Public Notice (PDF 46K)
• Fact Sheet (PDF 99K)
• Draft General Permit Renewal (OHCD00002) - (PDF 738K)

Final General Permit

Storm Water Associated with Construction Activity in the Big Darby Creek Watershed

The Big Darby Creek watershed is among the most biologically diverse stream systems of its size in the Midwest. Befitting this distinction, Ohio water quality standards regulations assign the most stringent aquatic life use designations (exceptional warmwater habitat and coldwater habitat) and the outstanding state water antidegradation category to many of the larger streams in the watershed. The watershed is home to several endangered species and Big and Little Darby Creeks are designated state and national scenic rivers. However, recent studies document declines in water quality and stream habitat, some of which have been found to be directly related to construction activity. Among the most visible and widely publicized future threats to the Big Darby Creek watershed is conversion of farm land to suburban and commercial land uses, especially in Franklin County.

As a result, Ohio EPA has developed an alternative general permit for storm water associated with construction activity specifically for the Big Darby Creek watershed. This alternative permit implements many of the basic recommendations regarding the programs, activities and Best Management Practices developed through the Total Maximum Daily Load process and the State Water Quality Management Plan and 208 Plan. Ohio EPA believes implementation of these recommendations is necessary to protect the unique water quality and biological integrity of the Big Darby Creek system.

Permit Compliance Materials Big Darby Creek Watershed Map [PDF 993K] Ground-Water Recharge Table-Applicability Map [PDF 1,090K] Land Use Map [PDF 1,356K] Hydrologic Soil Group Data Related Documents Big Darby Creek Watershed TMDL Report State Water Quality Management Plan Appendix 9-3. 208 Plan Prescriptions for Water Quality Protection within the Big Darby Creek Watershed [PDF 675K]
GIS Data for Download Save the following .zip files to your computer's hard drive and use a program such as PKZIP or WINZIP to extract the files. Land Use Data from TMDL (grid) [ZIP 390K] Watershed Boundaries (shapefile) [ZIP 402K] Ground-Water Recharge Table-Applicability (shapefile) [ZIP 165K]

For additional information contact:

Jason Fyffe
DSW Storm Water & Enforcement Section
(614) 728-1793
e-mail: jason.fyffe@epa.state.oh.us

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