                                 CODE OF VIRGINIA

WATERSHED GENERAL PERMIT FOR NUTRIENTS (§ 62.1-44.19:14)

A. The Board shall issue a Watershed General Virginia Pollutant Discharge
Elimination System Permit, hereafter referred to as the general permit,
authorizing point source discharges of total nitrogen and total phosphorus to
the waters of the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries. Except as otherwise
provided in this article, the general permit shall control in lieu of
technology-based, water quality-based, and best professional judgment, interim
or final effluent limitations for total nitrogen and total phosphorus in
individual Virginia Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permits for
facilities covered by the general permit where the effluent limitations for
total nitrogen and total phosphorus in the individual permits are based upon
standards, criteria, waste load allocations, policy, or guidance established to
restore or protect the water quality and beneficial uses of the Chesapeake Bay
or its tidal tributaries.

B. This section shall not be construed to limit or otherwise affect the
Board&#8217;s authority to establish and enforce more stringent water
quality-based effluent limitations for total nitrogen or total phosphorus in
individual permits where those limitations are necessary to protect local water
quality. The exchange or acquisition of credits pursuant to this article shall
not affect any requirement to comply with such local water quality-based
limitations.

C. The general permit shall contain the following:

   1. Waste load allocations for total nitrogen and total phosphorus for each
   permitted facility expressed as annual mass loads, including reduced waste
   load allocations where applicable under the ENRC Program. The allocations for
   each permitted facility shall reflect the applicable individual water
   quality-based total nitrogen and total phosphorus waste load allocations. An
   owner or operator of two or more facilities located in the same tributary may
   apply for and receive an aggregated waste load allocation for total nitrogen
   and an aggregated waste load allocation for total phosphorus for multiple
   facilities reflecting the total of the water quality-based total nitrogen and
   total phosphorus waste load allocations established for such facilities
   individually;

   2. A schedule requiring compliance with the combined waste load allocations
   for each tributary as soon as possible taking into account (i) opportunities
   to minimize costs to the public or facility owners by phasing in the
   implementation of multiple projects; (ii) the availability of required
   services and skilled labor; (iii) the availability of funding from the
   Virginia Water Quality Improvement Fund as established in &#xA7; 10.1-2128,
   the Virginia Water Facilities Revolving Fund as established in &#xA7;
   62.1-225, and other financing mechanisms; (iv) water quality conditions; and
   (v) other relevant factors. Following receipt of the compliance plans required
   by subdivision C 3, the Board shall reevaluate the schedule taking into
   account the information in the compliance plans and the factors in this
   subdivision, and may modify the schedule as appropriate;

   3. A requirement that the permittees shall either individually or through the
   Association submit compliance plans to the Department for approval. The
   compliance plans shall contain, at a minimum, any capital projects and
   implementation schedules needed to achieve total nitrogen and phosphorus
   reductions sufficient to comply with the individual and combined waste load
   allocations of all the permittees in the tributary. The compliance plans may
   rely on the exchange of point source credits in accordance with this article,
   but not the acquisition of credits through payments authorized by &#xA7;
   62.1-44.19:18, to achieve compliance with the individual and combined waste
   load allocations in each tributary. The compliance plans shall be updated
   annually and submitted to the Department no later than February 1 of each
   year. The compliance plans due beginning February 1, 2023, shall address the
   requirements of the ENRC Program;

   4. Such monitoring and reporting requirements as the Board deems necessary to
   carry out the provisions of this article;

   5. A procedure that requires every owner or operator of a facility authorized
   by a Virginia Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit to discharge
   100,000 gallons or more per day, or an equivalent load, directly into tidal
   waters, or 500,000 gallons or more per day, or an equivalent load, directly
   into nontidal waters, to secure general permit coverage by filing a
   registration statement with the Department within a specified period after
   each effective date of the general permit. The procedure shall also require
   any owner or operator of a facility authorized by a Virginia Pollutant
   Discharge Elimination System permit to discharge 40,000 gallons or more per
   day, or an equivalent load, directly into tidal or nontidal waters to secure
   general permit coverage by filing a registration statement with the Department
   at the time he makes application with the Department for a new discharge or
   expansion that is subject to an offset or technology-based requirement in
   &#xA7; 62.1-44.19:15, and thereafter within a specified period of time after
   each effective date of the general permit. The procedure shall also require
   any owner or operator of a facility with a discharge that is subject to an
   offset requirement in subdivision A 5 of &#xA7; 62.1-44.19:15 to secure
   general permit coverage by filing a registration statement with the Department
   prior to commencing the discharge and thereafter within a specified period of
   time after each effective date of the general permit. The general permit shall
   provide that any facility authorized by a Virginia Pollutant Discharge
   Elimination System permit and not required by this subdivision to file a
   registration statement shall be deemed to be covered under the general permit
   at the time it is issued, and shall file a registration statement with the
   Department when required by this section. Owners or operators of facilities
   that are deemed to be permitted under this section shall have no other
   obligation under the general permit prior to filing a registration statement
   and securing coverage under the general permit based upon such registration
   statement;

   6. A procedure for efficiently modifying the lists of facilities covered by
   the general permit where the modification does not change or otherwise alter
   any waste load allocation or delivery factor adopted pursuant to the Water
   Quality Management Planning Regulation (9VAC25-720) or its successor, or an
   applicable total maximum daily load. The procedure shall also provide for
   modifying or incorporating new waste load allocations or delivery factors,
   including the opportunity for public notice and comment on such modifications
   or incorporations; and

   7. Such other conditions as the Board deems necessary to carry out the
   provisions of this chapter and &#xA7; 402 of the federal Clean Water Act (33
   U.S.C. &#xA7; 1342).

D. 1. The Board shall (i) review during the year 2020 and every 10 years
thereafter the basis for allocations granted in the Water Quality Management
Planning Regulation (9VAC25-720) and (ii) as a result of such decennial reviews
propose for inclusion in the Water Quality Management Planning Regulation
(9VAC25-720) either the reallocation of unneeded allocations to other facilities
registered under the general permit or the reservation of such allocations for
future use.

   2. For each decennial review, the Board shall determine whether a permitted
   facility has:
   				a. Changed the use of the facility in such a way as to make discharges
   unnecessary, ceased the discharge of nutrients, and become unlikely to resume
   such discharges in the foreseeable future; or
   				b. Changed the production processes employed in the facility in such a way
   as to render impossible, or significantly to diminish the likelihood of, the
   resumption of previous nutrient discharges.

   3. Beginning in 2030, each review also shall consider the following factors
   for municipal wastewater facilities:
   				a. Substantial changes in the size or population of a service area;
   				b. Significant changes in land use resulting from adopted changes to
   zoning ordinances or comprehensive plans within a service area;
   				c. Significant establishment of conservation easements or other perpetual
   instruments that are associated with a deed and that restrict growth or
   development;
   				d. Constructed treatment facility capacity;
   				e. Significant changes in the understanding of the water chemistry or
   biology of receiving waters that would reasonably result in unused nutrient
   discharge allocations over an extended period of time;
   				f. Significant changes in treatment technologies that would reasonably
   result in unused nutrient discharge allocations over an extended period of
   time;
   				g. The ability of the permitted facility to accommodate projected growth
   under existing nutrient waste load allocations; and
   				h. Other similarly significant factors that the Board determines
   reasonably to affect the allocations granted.
   				The Board shall not reduce allocations based solely on voluntary
   improvements in nutrient removal technology.

E. The Board shall maintain and make available to the public a current listing,
by tributary, of all permittees and permitted facilities under the general
permit, together with each permitted facility&#8217;s total nitrogen and total
phosphorus waste load allocations, and total nitrogen and total phosphorus
delivery factors.

F. Except as otherwise provided in this article, in the event that there are
conflicting or duplicative conditions contained in the general permit and an
individual Virginia Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit, the
conditions in the general permit shall control.

G. The Board shall adopt amendments to the Water Quality Management Planning
Regulation and modifications to Virginia Pollutant Discharge Elimination System
permits or registration lists to establish and implement the Phase III Watershed
Implementation Plan Enhanced Nutrient Removal Certainty Program (ENRC Program)
as provided in this subsection. The ENRC Program shall consist of the following
projects and the following waste load allocation reductions and their respective
schedules for compliance.

   1. Priority projects for additional nitrogen and phosphorus removal (schedule
   for compliance):
   				Each priority project and the associated schedule of compliance shall be
   incorporated into the applicable Virginia Pollutant Discharge Elimination
   System permit or registration list. Each priority project facility shall be in
   compliance (i) by complying with applicable annual average total nitrogen and
   total phosphorus concentrations for compliance years 2026, 2028, and 2032;
   (ii) for the South Central Wastewater Authority WWTF, by implementing a phased
   construction program approved by the Department, and acquiring sufficient
   point source credits until its phased construction is completed as provided in
   this subsection; or (iii) only for a facility subject to an aggregated waste
   load allocation, by exercising the option of achieving an equivalent
   discharged load by the date set out in the schedule of compliance based on the
   applicable total nitrogen and total phosphorus annual average concentrations
   and actual annual flow treated without the acquisition and use of point source
   credits generated by permitted facilities not under common ownership.
   Noncompliance shall be enforceable in the same manner as any other condition
   of a Virginia Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit.
   				The following requirements shall apply to the phased construction program
   to upgrade the South Central Wastewater Authority WWTF: (a) by August 1, 2023,
   the South Central Wastewater Authority (SCWWA) shall submit a phased
   construction program to the Department, which shall review and approve such
   program by September 1, 2023, or as soon as possible thereafter;(b) by
   December 31, 2023, or within 150 days of approval by the Department of the
   phased construction program, whichever is later, SCWWA shall commence
   construction of the initial phase of construction; (c) by February 1, 2024,
   and annually thereafter, SCWWA shall submit a progress report to the
   Department describing its progress toward completing the phased construction
   program; (d) within 30 days of substantial completion of each major phase of
   construction, SCWWA shall submit an application for a certificate to operate
   to the Department and promptly place the associated treatment units into
   operation; (e) the phased construction program for the SCWWA WWTF priority
   project shall be completed as soon as possible on the schedule approved by the
   Department but no later than January 1, 2030; and (f) for each compliance year
   during the phased construction program that the facility does not achieve the
   nutrient removal technology concentration specified in this subsection, the
   SCWWA WWTF shall be responsible for acquiring sufficient point source credits
   to comply with its total nitrogen and total phosphorus waste load allocations
   applicable to that compliance year.

   2. Nitrogen waste load allocation reductions &#x2014; HRSD-York River WWTP:
   				Reduce the total nitrogen waste load allocation for the HRSD-York River
   WWTP to 228,444 lbs/year effective January 1, 2026.

   3. James River HRSD SWIFT nutrient upgrades:
   				Reduce total nitrogen waste load allocations for HRSD treatment works in
   the James River basin to the following allocations effective January 1, 2026:
   				Reduce total phosphorus waste load allocations for HRSD treatment works in
   the James River basin to the following allocations effective January 1, 2026:
   				Reduce total phosphorus waste load allocations for HRSD treatment works in
   the James River basin to the following allocations effective January 1, 2030:
   				Reduce total phosphorus waste load allocations for HRSD treatment works in
   the James River basin to the following allocations effective January 1, 2032:
   				Transfer the total nitrogen (454,596 lbs/year) and total phosphorus
   (41,450 lbs/year) waste load allocations for the HRSD-Chesapeake/Elizabeth STP
   to the Nutrient Offset Fund effective January 1, 2026.
   				Transfer the total nitrogen (153,500 lbs/yr) and total phosphorous (17,437
   lbs/yr) waste load allocations for the HRSD-J.H. Miles Facility consolidation
   to HRSD in accordance with the approved registration list December 21, 2015,
   transfer.

HISTORY: 2005, cc. 708, 710; 2010, c. 288; 2017, c. 9; 2021, Sp. Sess. I, cc.
363, 364; 2022, cc. 127, 128; 2023, cc. 177, 178.