Urban Wet Weather and Integrated Planning/Permitting: Past, Present and Future

EPA and its stakeholders have considered how municipal wet weather issues could be better integrated on a watershed basis for close to 20 years (see USEPA 1994; USEPA 2002; USEPA 2003; USEPA 2007a). Addressing wet weather discharges in a holistic manner can provide for greater efficiency, more comprehensive planning, and less redundancy among permitting requirements. Nontraditional approaches may be required to address the challenges posed by wet weather discharges.This paper and accompanying presentation will consider innovative approaches that provide flexibility for management of wet weather programs, including EPA's most recent strategy related to “integrated planning.” The presentation and paper will review EPA's most recent policies and the framework issued June 2012. These documents will be reviewed and assessed in relation to previous policies issued by EPA and this paper will discuss the importance and need for a clear permitting approach to implement the strategy.