3745-5-11 Water quality trading: incorporating trades into individual NPDES permits and general permits.

(A) For any permittee participating in trading activities, a special condition will be included in the NPDES permit to authorize water quality trading.

(B) The director may incorporate special conditions in an NPDES permit to limit water quality trading activities so that adverse local impacts do not occur, including:

(1) Limiting water quality trading to upstream trades;

(2) Requiring a higher trading ratio; or

(3) Including a cap on the portion of its effluent limit that a permittee can replace with water quality credits.

(C) When deciding whether or not to limit water quality trading activity in an NPDES permit, the director may consider such information as:

(1) The results of Ohio EPA water quality surveys that indicate existing local impacts;

(2) The results of modeling and data assessment and the availability of assimilative capacity for the pollutant;

(3) The presence of environmental factors such as low flow areas or impoundments that would cause the pollutant to persist longer in the water column; or

(4) The potential for any pollutant to cause acute effects.

(D) When water quality trading occurs between two permittees, the effluent limit in an NPDES permit will be based on the quantity of water quality credit being traded and will:

(1) For the permittee using the water quality credit, be increased; and

(2) For the permittee generating the water quality credit, be decreased.

(E) When point source-nonpoint source water quality trading occurs, the permittee’s NPDES permit will:

(1) Include the effluent limit that would apply without water quality trading;

(2) Include effluent monitoring and reporting requirements;

(3) Include any water quality credit being applied to the discharge; and

(4) Include special conditions necessary to determine compliance with any NPDES effluent limit.

(F) In accordance with Chapter 3745-38 of the Administrative Code, the director may issue a watershed general permit to establish pollutant-specific limitations for a group of similar permittees to achieve the pollutant reductions specified by a TMDL or multiple TMDLs for the same watershed.

Effective: 01/01/2007

R.C. 119.032 review dates: 01/01/2012

Promulgated Under: 119.03

Statutory Authority: 6111.03, 6111.04

Rule Amplifies: 6111.03, 6111.04