The 2022 Construction General Permit Expires in 2027: What to Know Now

Every EPA general permit carries an expiry date on its cover page, and the one on the 2022 Construction General Permit reads 11:59pm, 16 February 2027. EPA published a proposed 2027 CGP on 3 August 2026, so the replacement is now a draft rather than a rumour, but it is not final. Nothing about that is alarming by itself; permits get reissued on a routine cycle. But it does mean every operator relying on the 2022 CGP, and every static template built against its specific Part numbers, is working against a document with a known end date and a replacement that is still being settled.

What's actually confirmed right now

The expiration date itself is not in question. The permit's own text states plainly that "this permit and the authorization to discharge expire at 11:59pm, February 16, 2027," and EPA's 2022 CGP page confirms it is still the current, effective permit. What's less settled is the reissuance itself. EPA's most recent CGP-related action was a narrow modification, published in the Federal Register on 15 April 2025, expanding eligible coverage to construction projects on Lands of Exclusive Federal Jurisdiction. EPA was explicit that this was a deliberately limited fix rather than the reissuance itself, reasoning that running a full new permit process in 2025 risked colliding with its own separate, anticipated reissuance of the CGP ahead of the February 2027 expiry.

The successor is now proposed. On 3 August 2026 EPA published a proposed 2027 CGP for public comment, under docket EPA-HQ-OW-2025-0760 on regulations.gov, and extended the comment deadline from 2 September to 17 September 2026 (see EPA's proposed 2027 CGP page). EPA's summary lists four areas of change: the Supreme Court's decision in City and County of San Francisco v. EPA, submission of Stormwater Pollution Prevention Plans when seeking coverage, sediment basin stabilisation measures, and streamlining of certain requirements. The comment period has closed, but the permit is not final until EPA issues it, so treat the proposal as a preview of direction rather than as requirements you can comply with today.

Until a final permit is published, the 2022 CGP remains the governing document. Check federalregister.gov and EPA's CGP page for the final notice, and do not assume a specific effective date before EPA states one.

What usually changes at a CGP reissuance

EPA has run this cycle before. The 2012 CGP gave way to the 2017 CGP, which gave way to the 2022 CGP now in force, each on roughly a five-year term. Looking at how the 2017-to-2022 transition played out is a reasonable guide to what the final 2027 permit is likely to touch, and what it probably won't. The August 2026 proposal already points the same way: targeted changes to specific topics rather than a reinvention.

What tends to move

• Geographic coverage. The 2022 CGP dropped Idaho (outside Indian country) and oil and gas construction in Texas from its footprint, because both states had since become fully authorised to run their own NPDES programme. A 2027 CGP will reflect whichever states have shifted authorisation status by then.
• Response to intervening case law and rulemaking. The 2022 CGP incorporated the 2014 amendments to EPA's construction and development effluent limitation guidelines. The 2025 modification exists specifically to respond to a court decision, San Francisco v. EPA, on end-result water quality limits. The proposed 2027 CGP lists the San Francisco v. EPA decision as one of its four areas of change.
• Specific deadlines, thresholds and section numbering. Even where the substance carries over, the permit is redrafted from the ground up each cycle, so a plan's citations to a specific Part number are not guaranteed to still point at the same requirement once a new permit takes effect.

What tends to hold

EPA's own fact sheet for the 2022 CGP modification describes most of the 2017 CGP's provisions as retained into the 2022 permit, with clarifying changes rather than wholesale rewrites, such as making explicit that electronic SWPPPs, inspection reports and corrective action logs satisfy the recordkeeping requirement. The core architecture, a written SWPPP, routine site inspections, a corrective action process, and Notice of Intent and Notice of Termination filings, has carried across every recent cycle. Reissuance rewrites the document; it does not usually reinvent the underlying compliance model.

Why a static template is a real risk here

A SWPPP built from a downloaded PDF or Word template that cites "Part 2.2" or "Part 3.1" of the 2022 CGP is citing a document that will eventually stop being the governing one. That's not a defect in today's template; it's a defect in treating any construction-permit document as permanently correct. The 2017-to-2022 transition shows the pattern: geography shifts, legal responses get folded in, and section numbering is redrawn even when the substance underneath survives. A plan that hardcodes a Part number is betting that number never moves, and the historical record says it eventually will.

It's a fair question to ask of any tool that generates permit paperwork: does it hardcode today's Part numbers, or does it track which version of the permit it's citing? Basinwise's determination engine reads its requirements from a dataset that carries its own version stamp, with each individual rule tied to a specific citation and quoted source text rather than baked into application logic. That doesn't make a reissuance invisible or automatic; someone still has to update the dataset once a new permit exists. It does mean a determination is dated and traceable rather than silently assuming a permit that has moved on. More on how that's built on our developer documentation.

What to actually do between now and February 2027

• Read the proposal, then watch for the final permit. EPA proposed the 2027 CGP on 3 August 2026 and comments closed on 17 September. Read the changes it highlights, especially SWPPP submission at the time of seeking coverage, then check federalregister.gov or EPA's CGP page for the final notice rather than assuming a specific month.
• Don't assume today's Part numbers survive unchanged. If you're building internal templates or training material that cites specific sections, expect to revisit them once a successor is finalised, even where the underlying obligation doesn't change.
• Don't assume coverage rolls over automatically. Historically, CGP reissuances have required operators to file fresh under the new permit rather than simply continuing under old paperwork. Read the actual transition instructions in whatever permit EPA issues, rather than assuming continuity.
• Check whether the federal CGP is even your permit. EPA's CGP only issues coverage directly in a short list of states, territories and federal lands; most operators are under a state-issued construction permit running on its own separate cycle. Our state permit hub lists the issuing agency by state.