Industrial stormwater permits and SPPP compliance.
A New Jersey facility with outdoor storage, loading, fueling, or processing exposed to rain is expected to hold an industrial stormwater permit and to maintain the Stormwater Pollution Prevention Plan that goes with it — manufacturers, bulk storage and fuel distribution, scrap and recycling, concrete and asphalt plants, quarries, marinas, transfer stations, fleet yards. We obtain coverage, write the SPPP to the site as it actually operates, and carry the inspections, sampling, training, and annual certification the permit requires.
Services
Permit determination
Whether the facility needs coverage, and under which permit: the Basic Industrial Stormwater General Permit (5G2) or a sector-specific permit for concrete products, scrap metal and auto recycling, or mining and quarrying.
Request for Authorization
Prepared, filed, and followed through to coverage in the facility’s name.
Stormwater Pollution Prevention Plan
Site map, inventory of exposed materials and activities, best management practices, inspection schedule, spill procedures; written to the site as it runs, and certified.
Inspections and records
The inspections the permit sets, performed or scheduled, with the dated records an inspector will ask for.
Monitoring
Stormwater sampling where the permit requires it, analysis through accredited partner laboratories, results reported.
Treatment system operation
Inspection, maintenance, and operation of sediment basins, oil/water separators, and stormwater treatment units, and NJDEP Class N licensed operator coverage where the permit requires it; see Operations.
Annual employee training
Delivered at the facility, with attendance records.
Annual report and certification
Prepared and filed.
Plan updates
When the site changes: a new tank, a new yard, a new process, a new owner.
Applicability
New Jersey’s industrial stormwater program runs under NJPDES. A facility needs coverage when stormwater runs off areas where industrial activity is exposed to precipitation — material storage, loading and unloading, vehicle fueling and maintenance, outdoor processing, waste handling. Most facilities are covered under the Basic Industrial Stormwater General Permit (5G2); scrap metal and auto recycling, concrete products, and mining operations have sector-specific permits with their own monitoring and inspection terms.
Coverage carries an SPPP, routine inspections, annual employee training, and an annual report and certification; the plan must be updated when the site changes, and the general permits themselves are reissued on a five-year cycle. A facility with no industrial exposure may be able to certify out of coverage — a determination we are often asked to check before the facility signs it.
Typical situations
- A letter from NJDEP asking whether the facility has stormwater coverage
- A plan written years ago for a yard that has since changed completely
- An inspection that found no records of routine walks or annual training
- A new owner or operations manager inheriting a permit nobody can explain
- A sector permit with monitoring requirements the facility didn’t know it had
FAQ
Does my facility need an industrial stormwater permit in New Jersey?
If stormwater runs off areas where industrial activity or materials are exposed to precipitation — outdoor storage, loading and unloading, fueling, outdoor processing, waste handling — the facility needs NJPDES coverage, usually under the Basic Industrial Stormwater General Permit (5G2). A facility with everything under roof may be able to certify that it has no exposure; we check that determination before anyone signs it.
What is an SPPP, and who has to have one?
The Stormwater Pollution Prevention Plan is the written plan the permit requires: a site map, an inventory of the materials and activities exposed to rain, the best management practices in use, the inspection schedule, and spill procedures. Every facility covered by an industrial stormwater permit must have one, keep it at the site, and keep it current.
How often does the SPPP have to be updated?
Whenever the site changes in a way the plan does not describe — a new tank, a new yard, a new process, a new owner — and whenever an inspection finds that the plan and the site disagree. The permit also requires an annual certification that the plan is current and being followed.
What does the permit require every year?
Routine inspections with dated records, annual training for the employees whose work touches the exposed areas, and the annual report and certification. Sector-specific permits — scrap metal and auto recycling, concrete products, mining — add monitoring: stormwater samples collected at the outfalls, analyzed, and reported.
NJDEP wrote asking whether we have coverage. What now?
Answer it on time and with the facts: whether industrial activity is exposed, which permit applies, and when the Request for Authorization will be filed. That letter is usually the start of coverage rather than an enforcement action, and the response sets the tone. Send it to us the day it arrives and we will read it the same day.
Not sure whether the facility needs coverage, or whether the plan still matches the site?
Tell us what the yard looks like and which permit, if any, the facility holds. We’ll tell you what coverage and the plan will take.