Enforcement response procedures

Staff evaluating a construction site

Enforcement response procedures

Enforcement response procedures (ERPs) identify the enforcement tools available to municipal staff to use if they observe noncompliance with your municipality's regulatory mechanisms for illicit discharge detection and elimination, construction stormwater runoff control, and post-construction stormwater management. The ERPs should identify the tools available for staff to use, such as notices of violation, stop work orders, or withholding of funds; who can use the enforcement tools; enforcement follow-up actions, such as follow-up inspections; how and when enforcement is escalated if the violation isn't corrected; and documentation requirements.

The MS4 General Permit requires permittees to develop and implement ERPs to compel compliance with the regulatory mechanisms for illicit discharge detection and elimination, construction stormwater runoff control, and post-construction stormwater management (MS4 General Permit Part III.B.1.).

Enforcement documentation

The MS4 General Permit requires permittees to document specific information related to enforcement actions, including verbal warnings, used by the permittee to compel compliance with their regulatory mechanisms (MS4 General Permit Part III.B.2.). For every enforcement action, the following must be documented, at a minimum:

• Name of the person or party responsible for noncompliance
• Date and location of the violation
• Description of the violation, including a reference to the regulatory mechanism
• Corrective actions and completion schedule to return the person or party to compliance
• Date and type of enforcement used (e.g. verbal warning, written notice, citation, stop work order, withholding of local authorizations)
• Referrals to other regulatory organizations, if any
• Date the violation was resolved

Resources

• Enforcement action documentation template - MPCA's documentation template to track all of the required information related to enforcement actions
• Enforcement response procedure - City of Red Wing's enforcement response procedure
• Enforcement response procedure - City of Big Lake's enforcement response procedure
• Documentation that MS4 staff should retain - List of all the documentation requirements (what information to keep, how long to keep it, level of detail to keep, etc.) for compliance with the MS4 permit