Notice of Public Hearing and Extension of Public Comment Period of Draft National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) General Permits for Small Municipal Separate Storm Sewer Systems (MS4)

The Director of the Office of Ecosystem Protection, Environmental Protection Agency--Region 1 (EPA), issued a Notice of Availability of Draft NPDES general permits for discharges from small MS4s to certain waters of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts on November 4, 2010. The draft general permits are the Draft Small MS4 General Permits for Massachusetts Interstate, Merrimack, and South Coastal Watersheds. These three general permits are for the discharge of stormwater from Small MS4s to the waters in these watersheds. The November 4, 2010 notice included information on a public hearing. The notice did not meet the time frames required by 40 CFR 124.10. Therefore, EPA has rescheduled the hearing and extended the comment permit of the draft permits. Throughout this documents the terms "this permit" and "the permit" will refer to all three general permits. Information on the draft permits, appendices and fact sheet is available at: http://www.epa.gov/ne/npdes/stormwater/mimsc_sms4.html.