117 



representing the intention to issue a permit, is published. Since the 

 Clean Water Act (the act) requires EPA to provide for public par- 

 ticipation in the permit process, the draft permit is made available 

 for comment; the public comment period is specified in the public 

 notice, and must be at least 30 days. If the permit is being issued 

 by EPA, a State certification is requested to determine if the 

 permit limitations are sufficent to meet State water quality stand- 

 ards for the receiving water that is involved. Also if there is 

 sufficient public interest, a public hearing will be held on the draft 

 permit. 



After review of comments received on the draft permit, the per- 

 mitting authority may issue or deny a final permit. If the terms of 

 the final permit are significantly different than those originally 

 proposed, then the final permit may be reproposed for public com- 

 ment. After the final permit is issued, any interested party may 

 contest its issuance or its terms within 30 days. As you know some 

 of the flower garden permits which were just issued are being 

 contested. If EPA issues the final permit the challenge is in the 

 form of a request for an administrative evidentiary hearing. 



The permit process is governed by our consolidated permit regu- 

 lations (an effort to streamline all of EPA's permitting efforts 

 which we hope works), and when EPA has approved a State 

 NPDES program, is additionally governed by a memorandum of 

 agreement with the State. EPA may object to the issuance of a 

 permit by a State, if the permit does not reflect the guidelines and 

 other requirements of the act. If the State fails to take timely 

 remedial action, EPA may issue a permit of its own, though this 

 has rarely occurred. 



An important new aspect of EPA's regulatory reform effort is the 

 provision which allows EPA or approved NPDES States to issue 

 general permits to control the discharge of pollutants from numer- 

 ous point sources located in the same geographic area if their 

 discharges warrant similar pollution control measures. As I will 

 discuss later, EPA issued 10 days ago its first three draft general 

 permits covering over 2,000 offshore oil and gas facilities operating 

 in the Gulf of Mexico. General permits can be issued without any 

 application required from individual owners or operators. After 

 deciding the geographic area to be covered by the general permit, 

 the permitting authority develops a draft general permit which is 

 subject to public notice, comment, and public hearing just as an 

 individual permit. 



All NPDES permits, both individual and general, contain interim 

 and final effluent limitations, schedules of compliance to achieve 

 final effluent limitations, self-monitoring and reporting require- 

 ments, and standard "boilerplate" language. 



Under the Clean Water Act, EPA has established effluent limita- 

 tions guidelines for a number of industrial categories. One such 

 category is the offshore subcategory of the oil and gas extraction 

 point source category. The offshore subcategory includes facilities 

 engaged in the production, field exploration, drilling, well produc- 

 tion, and well treatment within the oil and gas extraction industry 

 which are located seaward of the inner boundary of the territorial 

 seas. The guidelines for the offshores subcategory are technology- 

 based and form the basis for effluent limitations contained in 



