What are QNCRs?
The Permit Compliance System (PCS) tracks the compliance and enforcement activities conducted under the NPDES program, and automatically generates the QNCR. The Quarterly Non-Compliance Report (QNCR) lists all active National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) facilities that are major dischargers (defined below) under Standard NPDES permits (NPDES majors covered under General NPDES permit numbers are excluded) within a State or Region for which instances of Reportable Noncompliance (RNC) have been recorded within the current reporting period. Because data entry and posting often lags behind events, Region 10 adds handwritten notes to bring the information up to date.
A municipal major is one that has a design flow of 1 MGD or greater or a service population of 10,000 or greater. Non-municipal facilities status is determined using the rating system specified on the NPDES Permit Rating Work Sheet which was issued along with an instruction document on June 27, 1990, in a memo from James E. Elder titled, "New Non-Municipal Rating System". This system includes the following factors: (1) toxic pollutant potential, (2) flow/stream volume, (3) conventional pollutants, (4) public health impact, (5) water quality factors, and (6) proximity to near coastal waters. The NPDES Permit Rating Work Sheet and its instructions also describe the process for establishing discretionary majors.
The QNCR contains the name, location, and NPDES number of each of the permitted facilities, the instances of RNC, and the enforcement actions that have been taken in response to the instances of RNC. The report is sorted by: municipals; then industrials; then federals. Facilities are displayed by: Non-Compliant and Resolved; then Resolved-Pending.