Municipal stormwater permit reissuance

We reissued the current permits on July 1, 2019. The Phase I and Phase II permits expire on July 31, 2024.

We are beginning to work on the 2024 permit reissuance to identify issues and necessary improvements for the permits.

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2024 permit reissuance

We're working on the 2024 permit reissuance. We welcome early input to help develop the proposed draft permits.

Permit reissuance process

Spring 2022 — Listening sessions: We shared our early thinking on proposed changes and gathered additional input.
Fall 2022 / Early 2023 — Preliminary drafts of permit sections: We provided preliminary drafts of specific permit sections for informal comment.
Summer 2023 — Formal draft permits: We will hold a formal public comment period, to include a workshop and hearing, on the draft permits.
July 2024 — Make permit decision.

Preliminary permit drafts for informal comment — Winter 2023

As part of our Phase I and Western Washington Phase II Municipal Stormwater Permit reissuance process, we asked for feedback on preliminary draft language proposed for two specific permit sections:

Phase I Permit: Preliminary Draft - Structural Stormwater Controls Program (S5.C.7) (version updated to correct typos on page 12 and in Table 3).
Western WA Phase II Permit: Preliminary Draft — New section — Stormwater Controls for Priority Developed Areas.

We accepted comments Feb. 23 – March 23, 2023. We will use the informal comments we received to develop the proposed language for the formal draft permits, anticipated for public comment in Summer 2023.

View comments submitted Winter 2023.

We hosted a virtual workshop on March 6, 2023. A copy of the workshop presentation is available online.

Preliminary permit drafts for informal comment — Fall 2022

From Oct. 17 – Dec. 2, 2022, we held an informal comment period on several preliminary draft proposals for the permits and stormwater management manuals, both eastern and western (SWMM).

We prepared several preliminary draft proposals for a 45-day informal comment period. Some of the preliminary drafts are excerpts of permit sections and not a complete representation of all the permit requirements.

See comments submitted Fall 2022.

We held a virtual workshop on the preliminary draft sections and Stormwater Management Manual updates on Nov. 7, 2022.

Preliminary Draft Permit Topics

Standard outfall reporting — mapping
1. Template 1: GIS database (zip file will open)
2. Template 2: GIS Shapefile (zip file will open)
3. Template 3: Excel
Tree retention — stormwater planning or monitoring & assessment
PCBs — Education and outreach, IDDE, O&M
Sweeping — O&M
EWA Effectiveness Studies — Monitoring & assessment
Controlling runoff – Appendix 1
1. Western WA Preliminary Draft App. 1
2. Eastern WA Preliminary Draft Permit Construction/Post-Construction and App 1

Visit the Stormwater manual page for preliminary drafts available for comment.

Listening sessions

We hosted listening sessions on June 6 and June 13, 2022, to prepare for the 2024 reissuance of the municipal stormwater permits (Phase I, Western WA and Eastern WA Phase II) and concurrent updates to the stormwater management manuals (SWMM), both eastern and western.

The listening sessions provided an opportunity to:

Present our preliminary plans for the scope of changes for the 2024 permits and SWMMs.
Share early input we received from our stakeholders.
Hear further input on the proposed scope of changes.

Listening session presentations

Eastern WA Permit focus presentation
Western WA Permit focus presentation
View the SWMM presentation: An Overview of Ecology’s Plans for the (Next) Stormwater Manual Updates

Early input

We accepted early input until Feb. 25, 2022.

Early input ideas help inform the scope of significant issues to be addressed in our reissuance of the 2024 permits.

View early input comments

Collaboration opportunities

Structural Stormwater Control Policy Advisory Committee

Policy Advisory Committee Meetings were held May – December 2022, details are posted on our SSC PAC project page.

The Structural Stormwater Control (SSC) Policy Advisory Committee (PAC) — focused on recommendations regarding the Phase I SSC program requirements, and also provided recommendations on a retrofit approach for 2024 WWA Phase II Permit.

PAC Membership:

Rod Swanson, Clark County
Blair Scott, King County
Maureen Meehan, Pierce County
Bill Leif, Snohomish County
Merita Trohimovich, City of Tacoma
Ingrid Wertz, City of Seattle
Sheena Pietzold, WDOT
Jane Dewel, Port of Seattle
Jenny Gaus, City of Kirkland
Larry Schaffner, Thurston County
Jason Quigley, Skagit County
Ken Gill, City of Shelton
Peter Holte, City of Redmond
Alyssa Barton, Puget Soundkeeper
Aaron Clark, Stewardship Partners

Stakeholder-run collaboration — ad-hoc groups

Some Phase I and Phase II permittees are engaging in a collaborative process to discuss and recommend permit changes. Permittees are engaging with one another, as well as environmental stakeholders and other interested parties. This is not an agency-led effort so please contact the Stormwater Center below for more information.

Contact for ad-hoc groups:

Laurie Larson-Pugh, Washington Stormwater Center

More information regarding the ad-hoc groups is on the Washington Stormwater Center website.

Appeal update

The Pollution Control Hearings Board's decision on permit section S4 has been appealed (see PCHB decision below). We expect this process to proceed later this year.

In early 2021, we settled four appeal issues with Puget Soundkeeper Alliance (PSA) regarding the LID List Approach (see Appendix 1 of the Permits); that settlement resulted in Ecology providing additional clarification. In December 2021, the Pollution Control Hearings Board (PCHB) sent a notice that they intend to grant summary judgement to Ecology on six legal issues raised by the appeal, leaving only two issues for the PCHB appeal hearing. In January 2022, we reached a settlement agreement with PSA, therefore the PCHB canceled the appeal hearing.

The settlement agreement includes this language regarding Ecology’s commitments:

Ecology and PSA agree in principle that retrofit requirements for Phase II permittees need to be appropriately scaled to the size and capacity of the individual jurisdictions.
Ecology agrees to consider retrofit requirements for Phase II permittees as part of its process for developing the next Phase II Permit and proposes to utilize the work already in progress under the current Phase II Permit, the development of the Stormwater Action Plans, and the stakeholder process to inform a proposed retrofit requirement for the next Draft Phase II Permit.
To develop the draft retrofit proposal, Ecology agrees to consider and assess scalable retrofit requirements based on amount of impervious cover, population size, growth, and other appropriate measures.
As part of the permit development process, Ecology agrees to provide the rationale and legal basis for the permit decisions with the formal draft Western Washington Phase II Municipal Stormwater Permits.

Appeal documents

We will periodically update this page to include documents or decisions related to the appeal of the permits. For additional information, see the Pollution Control Hearing Board’s webpage for cases: P19-043c & P19-044.

PCHB decisions

Notices of Appeal

Consolidated appeal issues

Phase I and WWA Phase II consolidated issues

Current permit documents

Comments on the formal draft 2019 permits

We held a public comment period on formal draft documents from Aug. 15 to Nov. 14, 2018. View the comments we received during the comment period.

We held a total of seven hearings and workshops across the state, including two webinars. During the workshops, we explained the proposed changes to the permits and answered questions. In Western Washington, the workshops also included information regarding the draft stormwater manual. The public hearings provided an opportunity for the public to give formal comments on the draft permit.

Contact information

Abbey Stockwell
Phase II Municipal Stormwater Permit Writer
abbey.stockwell@ecy.wa.gov
360-407-7221

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