Draft General Permit for Facilities that Discharge Non-Contact Cooling Water (NCCW GP) in Massachusetts & New Hampshire
EPA Region 1 is issuing this Draft General Permit for certain non-contact cooling water discharges (Draft NCCW GP) to all waters of the States of Massachusetts and New Hampshire, unless otherwise restricted. This Draft NCCW GP establishes effluent limitations and requirements, effluent and ambient monitoring requirements, reporting requirements, and standard conditions for existing facilities with non-contact cooling water discharges.
EPA has published a Notice of Availability (NOA) for this Draft General Permit in the Federal Register on September 22, 2023. The NOA, Draft General Permit, Fact Sheet, and supporting documents are provided in the links below. The public comment period will be sixty (60) days.
The prior NCCW GP was issued on November 3, 2014 and expired on November 4, 2019. The 2014 NCCW GP provided coverage for 37 facilities in Massachusetts and New Hampshire and most of these facilities are expected to seek coverage under the reissued GP. This NCCW GP will replace the expired NCCW GP.
Notices of Intent
Existing Permitted Discharges: Facilities with existing coverage under the NCCW GP that expired on November 4, 2019 must file an NOI to EPA and the respective State for coverage within 60 days of the effective date of this permit. An NOI is not required if the permittee submits a notice of termination (NOT) before the 60 day time frame expires.
Proposed New Discharges: Facilities with proposed new discharges of NCCW that are seeking coverage under this General Permit must submit an NOI to EPA and the respective State, at least 60 days prior to the commencement of discharge. This would include those facilities covered by 2014 GP that did not submit an Administrative Continuation Request (ACR) form to administratively continue coverage after the 2014 NCCW GP expired.
All NOIs received by EPA that EPA proposes to authorize will be posted on the EPA's NPDES NCCW GP website, https://www.epa.gov/npdes-permits/noncontact-cooling-water-general-permit-nccw-gp-massachusetts-new-hampshire, for a minimum of 15 days. Following the 15 day period, EPA will either grant authorization, request additional information, or deny authorization under this permit and require submission of an application for an individual NPDES permit. An operator will be authorized to discharge under the NCCW GP upon the effective date indicated in the authorization to discharge provided by EPA in writing.
The Draft NCCW GP is available through the links below.
Draft NCCW GP Documents
- Public Notice: Notice of Availability of Draft NPDES Non-Contact Cooling Water General Permit (pdf)
- Draft Non-Contact Cooling Water General Permit (pdf)
- Fact Sheet and Supplemental Information (pdf)
- Attachment A: Permit Standard Conditions and Definitions (pdf)
- Attachment B: Example Engineering and Dilution Factor Calculations (pdf)
- Attachment C: Example BTA Components (pdf)
- Appendix 1: Areas of Critical Concern (ACEC) in Massachusetts (pdf)
- Appendix 2: Endangered Species Act Review and Requirements (pdf)
- Appendix 3: National Historic Preservation Act Review & Requirements (pdf)
- Appendix 4: Notice of Intent and Notice of Termination Instructions (pdf)
- Appendix 4: Tables A. List of the 37 Facilities Covered Under the 2014 NCCW GP (pdf)
- Appendix 5: Suggested Notice of Intent (NOI) Form (pdf)
- Appendix 6: Suggested Notice of Termination (NOT) Form (pdf)
- Appendix 7: Notice of Change (NOC) Suggested Form & Instructions (pdf)
- Appendix 8: EPA, MassDEP, and NHDES Mailing Addresses (pdf)
- Appendix 9: Minimum Levels and Test Methods for Groundwater Sources of Non-Contact Cooling Water (pdf)
EPA Contacts
Technical Contacts
George Papadopoulos (papadopoulos.george@epa.gov), 617-918-1579; Alternate: John Nagle (nagle.john@epa.gov), 617-918-1054
Administrative Contacts
Marian Spahn (spahn.marian@epa.gov), 617-918-1732; Alternate: Glenda Velez (velez.glenda@epa.gov), 617-918-1677
State Contacts
MassDEP
Xiaodan Ruan (xiaodan.ruan@mass.gov), (857)-256-4172
NH DES
Hayley Franz (hayley.franz@des.nh.gov), 603-271-0671