NPDES Discharge Permit Authorization FOIA Documents

Under the federal Clean Water Act (CWA), passed in 1972, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has the authority to issue water pollution discharge permits under the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) to pollution sources that discharge to surface waters via a pipe or similar conveyance. EPA authorizes states to issue these NPDES permits once they have met the CWA’s requirements. EPA may authorize a state to issue one or more types of permits (e.g, individual permits, federal facilities, pretreatment programs, general permits, and sewage sludge) but EPA retains permit authority over all not transferred to the states. EPA and tribes issue permits for tribal lands.

To understand what a state has agreed to do, one needs to look at documents that comprise the state’s application for permit authorization and EPA’s approval letter. These documents are difficult to obtain and in many cases they have been lost by both EPA and the states. For this reason, NWEA used the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to obtain the NPDES program authorization documents that exist and has made them available here.

An EPA chart of state approval status is available here