Section 200.20. General.

 

(1)  When the department issues, reissues or modifies a permit to include a water quality based effluent limitation under s. 283.13 (5) , Stats., the permittee may apply to the department for a variance from the water quality standard used to derive the limitation. 

(2)  In order to obtain a variance, a permittee shall demonstrate, by the greater weight of credible evidence, that attaining the water quality standard is not feasible because of one or more of the following:

(a) Naturally occurring pollutant concentrations prevent the attainment of the standard.

(b) Natural, ephemeral, intermittent or low flow conditions or water levels prevent the attainment of the standard, unless these conditions may be compensated for by the discharge of sufficient volume of effluent discharges without violating water conservation requirements.

(c) Human caused conditions or sources of pollution prevent the attainment of the standard and cannot be remedied or would cause more environmental damage to correct than to leave in place.

(d) Dams, diversions or other types of hydrological modifications preclude the attainment of the standard, and it is not feasible to restore the water body to its original condition or to operate the modification in a way that would result in the attainment of the standard.

(e) Physical conditions related to the natural features of the water body, such as the lack of proper substrate, cover, flow, depth, pools, riffles, and the like, unrelated to water quality, preclude attainment of aquatic life protection uses.

(f) The standard, as applied to the permittee, will cause substantial and widespread adverse social and economic impacts in the area where the permittee is located.

History: Cr. Register, November, 1999, No. 527 , eff. 12-1-99.