NPDES Permitting

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) established the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) Permit Program to control water pollution by regulating point sources that discharge pollutants into waters of the United States. The Clean Water Act prohibits anyone from discharging pollutants from a point source to waters of the U.S. without an NPDES Permit. The NPDES Permit Program is typically administered by state environmental regulatory agencies through delegation agreements with EPA.

NPDES permit authorizations are required for any type of industrial, municipal, and agricultural wastes discharged into water, and most discharge permits are issued for a five-year period after which they must be renewed or terminated. Examples of discharges requiring permit coverage include industrial and commercial process wastewater, wastewater from sewage treatment facilities and water treatment facilities, industrial stormwater, stormwater associated with construction activities, stormwater and other wastewater from mining operations, and wastewater from concentrated animal feeding operations and aquatic animal production facilities.

Skelly and Loy provides expert professional NPDES-related consulting services for stormwater and process water discharges from commercial, industrial, municipal, mining, and construction industries. Our experience includes but is not limited to the following.