Any State that seeks to administer a program under this part shall submit a description of the program it proposes to administer in lieu of the Federal program under State law or under an interstate compact. The program description shall include:

(a) A description in narrative form of the scope, structure, coverage and processes of the State program.

(b) A description (including organization charts) of the organization and structure of the State agency or agencies which will have responsibility for administering the program, including the information listed below. If more than one agency is responsible for administration of a program, each agency must have statewide jurisdiction over a class of activities. The responsibilities of each agency must be delineated, their procedures for coordination set forth, and an agency may be designated as a “lead agency” to facilitate communications between EPA and the State agencies having program responsibility. If the State proposes to administer a program of greater scope of coverage than is required by Federal law, the information provided under this paragraph shall indicate the resources dedicated to administering the Federally required portion of the program.

(1) A description of the State agency staff who will carry out the State program, including the number, occupations, and general duties of the employees. The State need not submit complete job descriptions for every employee carrying out the State program.

(2) An itemization of the estimated costs of establishing and administering the program for the first two years after approval, including cost of the personnel listed in paragraph (b)(1) of this section, cost of administrative support, and cost of technical support.

(3) An itemization of the sources and amounts of funding, including an estimate of Federal grant money, available to the State Director for the first two years after approval to meet the costs listed in paragraph (b)(2) of this section, identifying any restrictions or limitations upon this funding.

(c) A description of applicable State procedures, including permitting procedures and any State administrative or judicial review procedures;

(d) Copies of the permit form(s), application form(s), and reporting form(s) the State intends to employ in its program. Forms used by States need not be identical to the forms used by EPA but should require the same basic information, except that State NPDES programs are required to use standard Discharge Monitoring Reports (DMR). The State need not provide copies of uniform national forms it intends to use but should note its intention to use such forms.

(e) A complete description of the State's compliance tracking and enforcement program.

(f) In the case of Indian Tribes eligible under §123.33(b), if a State has been authorized by EPA to issue permits on the Federal Indian reservation in accordance with §123.23(b), a description of how responsibility for pending permit applications, existing permits, and supporting files will be transferred from the State to the eligible Indian Tribe. To the maximum extent practicable, this should include a Memorandum of Agreement negotiated between the State and the Indian Tribe addressing the arrangements for such transfer.

(g) A state, tribe, or territory that newly seeks to implement an NPDES program after March 21, 2016 must describe whether the state, tribe, or territory will be the initial recipient of electronic NPDES information from NPDES-regulated facilities for specific NPDES data groups (see 40 CFR 127.2(c) and 127.27). In this program description, the state, tribe, or territory must identify the specific NPDES data groups for which the state, tribe, or territory will be the initial recipient of electronic NPDES information from NPDES-regulated facilities and how the electronic data system of the state, tribe, or territory will be compliant with 40 CFR part 3 (including, in all cases, subpart D to part 3), §123.26, and 40 CFR part 127.

[48 FR 14178, Apr. 1, 1983; 50 FR 6941, Feb. 19, 1985, as amended at 54 FR 18784, May 2, 1989; 58 FR 67981, Dec. 22, 1993; 59 FR 64343, Dec. 14, 1994; 63 FR 45122, Aug. 24, 1998; 80 FR 64099, Oct. 22, 2015]