Pollution Discharge (NPDES) Permits

You can take charge of pollution discharged into Missouri 's streams and lakes!  Make your voice heard when permits for these discharges (yes, they're legal!) are open for public comment.

The National Pollution Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) was developed to enforce the Clean Water Act protections against pollution from point sources in the nation's streams, rivers, and lakes.  "Point sources" include stormwater pipes, industrial and municipal wastewater discharges, and concentrated animal feeding operations--basically any confined discharge of pollutants.

Such discharges require NPDES permits that set limits on the kinds and amounts of pollution that may be released.  With limits that are appropriately restrictive, the permits are supposed to ensure that state water quality standards for the "receiving waterbody" are met and that existing uses, such as drinking water, swimming, and aquatic life, are protected.

NPDES permits were intended to be only a temporary stop-gap, until the goal of the 1975 Clean Water Act to completely eliminate (hence the "E" in NPDES) pollutant discharges into streams was met. The target date for that goal: 1985. Instead, NPDES permits have become institutionalized as an effectively permanent component of the wastewater system. Since the permits are given as a matter of course to any qualified applicant, the practical effect has been not to eliminate discharges but to increase their numbers on a given stream or lake until the water quality becomes obviously impaired.

In addition, the NPDES permit limits are often not restrictive enough.  For many rivers and lakes, state water quality standards are set too low to provide adequate protection for aquatic life or human use.  Even so, many permits allow pollution levels to exceed these minimal limitations established in the state regulations.

In Missouri , the state Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is responsible for issuing these permits and enforcing their provisions.  When a city, developer, or factory applies for a new permit or to renew an existing permit (every 5 years), DNR is supposed to review the application, assess the condition of the stream or lake to receive the discharge, and either deny the permit or approve it with conditions that would allow the waterbody to meet water quality standards given the discharge. 

If it decides to approve the permit, DNR releases a draft permit for 30 days of public review.  This comment period is all too brief, but it does allow citizens to examine the pollution limits and monitoring requirements set for the applicant by the agency before they go into effect and to raise questions and objections if those conditions don't meet standards or fail to protect the stream or lake.  

These comments are very important.   DNR needs to hear from those--citizens, activist groups, and other agencies-- who care about water quality and the ability of the state's streams and lakes to meet the full range of human and aquatic needs, not just from those seeking to discharge pollutants into those waters.  Public pressure to adhere to water quality standards and the Clean Water Act is critical in helping the agency resist the persistent pressure they receive from economic and political interests to fudge or altogether ignore those standards. 

DNR can also benefit greatly from information residents and others have about the watersheds involved.  One of the very real problems with the permitting process is that DNR generally lacks adequate data on the condition of the streams and lakes to be discharged into, and they don't have the resources to collect that data during the permit application review.  They certainly can't knowledgeably assess the effects of a proposed discharge on a stream if they don't have current data on it's condition--particularly its condition given the combined effects of existing pollutant discharges.

Comments that provide additional information or call into question the wisdom or legality of provisions of a draft permit may cause DNR to revise pollution limits or deny the permit entirely.  And if the permit is issued without changes and clearly fails to meet water quality standards, comments that were submitted then become important as the basis of a possible lawsuit.

To learn more about how you can write effective comments to protect the water quality in your watershed, please see our Missouri NPDES Comment Guide.

Additional Resources:

The U.S. Clean Water Act (EPA website)

The U.S. Clean Water Act (Cornell Legal Information Institute - searchable)

An excellent online course about the Clean Water Act, with a section on NPDES, by the River Network (very informative, and a much easier read than the Act itself)

Other groups focused on protecting America's waterways: Clean Water Network, River Network, and Prairie Rivers Network (Illinois).

Please call the Coalition (314-727-0060) with any questions or any information you may have about a particular permit or to discuss the NPDES process in general.  We look forward to working with you in helping protect and restore Missouri 's waters!