The following is EPA's definition of "industrial activity." If you fall under the definition you will be subject to the application requirements described in this handout.

"Storm water discharge associated with industrial activity" means the discharge from any conveyance which is used for collecting and conveying storm water and which is directly related to manufacturing, processing, or raw materials storage areas at an industrial plant. The term does not include discharges from facilities or activities excluded from the NPDES program under 40 CFR Part 122. For the categories of industries identified in paragraphs "1" through "10" of this definition, the term includes, but is not limited to, storm water discharges from industrial plant yards; immediate access roads and rail lines used or traveled by carriers of raw materials, manufactured products, waste material, or by-products used or created by the facility; material handling sites; refuse sites; sites used for the application or disposal of process wastewaters (as defined at 40 CFR 401); sites used for the storage and maintenance of material handling equipment; sites used for residual treatment, storage, or disposal; shipping and receiving areas; manufacturing buildings; storage areas (including tank farms) for raw materials, and intermediate and finished products; and areas where industrial activity has taken place in the past and significant materials remain and are exposed to storm water.

Storm water discharge associated with industrial activity includes only storm water discharges from all the areas (except access roads and rail lines) that are listed in the previous sentence where material handling equipment or activities, raw materials, intermediate products, final products, waste materials, by-products, or industrial machinery are exposed to storm water. For the purposes of this paragraph, material handling activities include the: storage, loading and unloading, transportation, or conveyance of any raw material, intermediate product, finished product, by-product or waste product. The term excludes areas located on plant lands separate from the plant's industrial activities, such as office buildings and accompanying parking lots as long as the drainage from the excluded areas is not mixed with storm water drained from the above described areas. Industrial facilities (including industrial facilities that are federally, state, or municipally owned or operated that meet the description of the facilities listed in this paragraph "1" – "11" include those facilities designated under 40 CFR 122.26(a)(1)(v). The following categories of facilities are considered to be engaging in "industrial activity" for purposes of this definition:

1. Facilities subject to storm water effluent limitations guidelines, new source performance standards, or toxic pollutant effluent standards under 40 CFR Subchapter N (except facilities with toxic pollutant effluent standards which are exempted under category "11" of this definition);
2. Facilities classified as Standard Industrial Classifications 24 (except 2434), 26 (except 265 and 267) 28 (except 283 and 285), 29, 311, 32 (except 323), 33, 3441, 373;
3. Facilities classified as Standard Industrial Classifications 10 through 14 (mineral industry) including active or inactive mining operations (except for areas of coal mining operations meeting the definition of a reclamation area under 40 CFR 434.11(1) because the performance bond issued to the facility by the appropriate SMCRA authority has been released, or except for areas of non-coal mining operations which have been released from applicable state or federal reclamation requirements after December 1, 1990 and oil and gas exploration, production, processing, or treatment operations, or transmission facilities that discharge storm water contaminated by contact with or that has come into contact with, any overburden, raw material, intermediate products, finished products, by-products or waste products located on the site of such operations; (inactive mining operations are mining sites that are not being actively mined, but which have an identifiable owner/operator; inactive mining sites do not include sites where mining claims are being maintained prior to disturbances associated with the extraction, benefaction, or processing of mined materials, nor sites where minimal activities are undertaken for the sole purpose of maintaining a mining claim);
4. Hazardous waste treatment, storage, or disposal facilities, including those that are operating under interim status or a permit under Subtitle C of RCRA;
5. Landfills, land application sites, and open dumps that have received any industrial wastes (waste that is received from any of the facilities described under this definition) including those that are subject to regulation under Subtitle D of RCRA;
6. Facilities involved in the recycling of materials, including metal scrap yards, battery reclaimers, salvage yards, and automobile junkyards, including, but not limited to, those classified as Standard Industrial Classification 5015 and 5093;
7. Steam electric power generating facilities, including coal handling sites;
8. Transportation facilities classified as Standard Industrial Classifications 40, 41, 42 (except 4221-4225), 43, 44, 45 and 5171 which have vehicle maintenance shops, equipment cleaning operations, or airport deicing operations. Only those portions of the facility that are either involved in vehicle maintenance, (including vehicle rehabilitation, mechanical repairs, painting, fueling, and lubrication), equipment cleaning operations, airport deicing operations, or which re otherwise identified under paragraphs "1" to "7" or "9" to "11" of this definition are associated with industrial activity;
9. Treatment works treating domestic sewage or any other sewage sludge or wastewater treatment device or system, used in the storage treatment, recycling, and reclamation of municipal or domestic sewage, including land dedicated to the disposal of sewage sludge that are located within the confines of the facility, with a design flow of 1.0 mgd or more, or required to have an approved pretreatment program under 40 CFR 403. Not included are farmlands, domestic gardens or lands used for sludge management where sludge is beneficially reused and which are not physically located in the confines of the facility, or areas that are in compliance with 40 CFR 503;
10. Construction activity including clearing, grading and excavation activities except: operations that result in the disturbances of less than one acre of total land area which are not part of a larger common plan of development or sale;
11. Facilities under Standard Industrial Classifications 20, 21, 22, 23, 2434, 25, 265, 267, 27, 28, 285, 30, 31 (except 311), 323, 34 (except 3441), 35, 36, 37 (except 373), 38, 39, 4221-4225, (and which are not otherwise included within categories "2" to "10");