Storm Water Phase I Program November 1990 Phase I of EPA’s administrative rules for the storm water program were published in the Federal Register on this date. The mandate for the new storm water program came from the reauthorization of the 1987 Clean Water Act. These rules required storm water permits for large and medium municipalities (large municipalities have populations over 250,000; medium municipalities have populations between 100,000 to 250,000). Salt Lake City and Salt Lake County are the only municipalities in Utah that fit the qualifications for permitting, however, with the highway and drainage system that UDOT had through the two municipalities, UDOT was a co-permittee in both municipal permits. Applications for large and medium municipalities were due in two parts. Part A for large municipalities was due November 18, 1991, Part B was due November 16, 1992.
Part A for medium municipalities was due May 18, 1992, Part B was due May 17, 1993. To achieve compliance with the new storm water permit Salt Lake City and Salt Lake County developed storm water ordinances with legal authority and financial resources to support an extensive storm water management and monitoring program. Also included in Phase I of the UPDES storm water program was the requirement of storm water permits for industrial activity. Included in the range of industrial storm water permits required was a storm water permit for construction activity. All construction projects causing disturbances of 5 acres or more are required to get storm water permits. Deadlines for submission of Phase I industrial storm water permit applications was in October 1992. The storm water permit program is under 402 of the Clean Water Act, or it is in the NPDES Program. As in Utah, all states that already had primacy for the NPDES permitting program were obligated to develop the storm water program. One of the significant issues of this mandate was that funding did not come with assumption of the program. Storm Water Phase II Program August 1995 The Phase II storm water administrative rules are developed, following the promulgation of EPA regulations. In these rules Phase II permits were divided into tier I and tier II. Tier I included permits that the permitting authority determined were contributing to a water quality impairment or were a significant contributor of pollutants to waters of the state. Few if any permits were required during tier I in Utah. The requirements for tier II were developed when the EPA promulgated more defining Phase II regulations on December 8, 1999. As a result of these regulations and the population density determinations in the consensus for 2000, 74 small municipalities were identified as falling under Phase II municipal storm water permit requirements, and of industrial storm water permits, construction activity from 1 to 5 acres was included.