The Environmental Management Commission shall develop and implement a permit program for municipal and domestic wastewater collection systems on a systemwide basis. The collection system permit program shall provide for performance standards, minimum design and construction requirements, a capital improvement plan, operation and maintenance requirements, and minimum reporting requirements. In order to ensure an orderly and cost-effective phase-in of the collection system permit program, the Commission shall implement the permit program over a five-year period beginning 1 July 2000. The Commission shall issue permits for approximately twenty percent (20%) of municipal and domestic wastewater collection systems that are in operation on 1 July 2000 during each of the five calendar years beginning 1 July 2000 and shall give priority to those collection systems serving the largest populations, those under a moratorium imposed by the Commission under N.C. Gen. Stat. § 143-215.67, and those for which the Department of Environmental Quality has issued a notice of violation for the discharge of untreated wastewater. (2001-452, s. 2.6; 2015-241, s. 14.30(u); 2017-10, s. 4.3.)