5 Tips for Employee SWPPP Training

• Inspectors
• Maintenance personnel
• ALL members of your Pollution Prevention Team

Your training should cover the contents of your facility stormwater pollution prevention plan (SWPPP), control measures implemented to achieve compliance with applicable discharge requirements, spill containment and cleanup procedures, maintenance, monitoring, inspection, planning, reporting, and documentation requirements. Sounds like a lot, right? Here are 5 tips for industrial stormwater training to make this big job a little easier.

1. Don’t leave anybody out of your training session. Stormwater training is required for all employees in your facility who work in areas where industrial activities or material handling activities are exposed to stormwater, or who are responsible for implementing activities necessary to meet the conditions of this permit.  This means that inspectors, maintenance personnel, and all members of your Pollution Prevention Team should be attending SWPPP training.

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2. Customize the training session to the issues at your facility, and ensure that employees are trained on the control measures they are expected to implement. Make sure to cover some of the basic principles of stormwater management, like:

• Stormwater pollution occurs when rainfall runoff picks up pollutants from the ground or areas exposed to rainfall.

• Polluted stormwater can cause significant water quality problems, such as fish kills and drinking water contamination. Stormwater runoff is typically discharged directly to receiving waters, and is not treated somewhere else, like at a wastewater treatment plant.

• Potential stormwater pollutants should be kept inside or under cover whenever possible.

• The best way to prevent stormwater problems is through general good housekeeping practices. A clean and organized facility will usually have very few stormwater problems.

• If anyone sees any potential stormwater problems, they should report it to the facility operator or a member of the stormwater pollution prevention team.

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3. Cover the right material. Your training session or sessions should cover the contents of your facility’s SWPPP, the control measures implemented to achieve compliance with applicable discharge requirements, spill containment and cleanup procedures, maintenance, monitoring, inspection, planning, reporting, and documentation requirements.

4. Train often. EPA recommends that you provide refresher training to all employees at least annually, whenever a new employee begins work in areas where industrial activities or material handling activities are exposed to stormwater or who are responsible for implementing activities necessary to meet the conditions of this permit, and whenever a substantial change is made to your facility’s SWPPP.  .

5. Don’t forget the paperwork. You should have a sign-in/sign-out sheet at each training class to document that employees have participated. Keep the sign-in/sign-out sheet with your SWPPP.

Tomorrow’s Advisor will explain some best management practices that you should be covering in your industrial SWPPP training sessions.