(a) The department shall review each existing permit at least once every five years to determine whether the permit conforms with changes to law, regulation or whether physical circumstances have changed since the permit last received full technical review.

(b) If any applicable toxic effluent standard or prohibition (including any schedule of compliance specified in such effluent standard or prohibition) is promulgated under section 307(a) of the Clean Water Act for a toxic pollutant and that standard or prohibition is more stringent than any limitation on the pollutant in the permit, the department shall institute proceedings to modify the permit in order to achieve conformance with the toxic effluent standard or prohibition and in conformance with ECL 17-0809.

(c) The department shall use a priority ranking system of SPDES permits. The ranking system shall prioritize permits for full technical review and, when necessary, modification.

(d) The department may require the permittee to submit a comprehensive application as set forth in sections 750-1.6 and 750-1.7 of this Subpart or other information prior to conducting a full technical review of the permit. The permittee shall submit any information or data as the department may reasonably require for the purposes of fulfilling its responsibilities under the ECL and the act, within 90 days from the date of the request, unless an extension is granted by the department. If the department subsequently issues a revised permit, that permit will be deemed anew permit rather than a modification.

(e) Whenever the department reviews the SPDES permit priority ranking system for possible modification, the department shall formally solicit and provide for the involvement of the public in such review. The department shall annually publish in the Environmental Notice Bulletin the priority ranking list in effect at the time of the publication, and solicit and provide for the involvement of the public in a review of the priority ranking list. The published list may be limited to those permits that have attained a priority ranking scores high enough to be likely to be selected for complete technical review within the 12 months following publication.