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PermitBird

Do I need a wetland permit?

You need a Section 404 permit, nationwide or individual, if your activity involves a discharge of dredged or fill material into a water of the United States, which includes most wetlands, streams and open water connected to the tributary system. If any link in that chain is missing, a Corps permit is usually not the right question to be asking.

Step 1: is it a water of the United States

Jurisdiction is the first and most contested question in this whole area, and it is determined by the Corps district, not by a desktop tool, a wetland delineation you commissioned, or this website. A watercourse that is dry most of the year, a depression that only holds water after storms, or a ditch dug entirely in uplands can each land on either side of the jurisdictional line depending on facts specific to the site. PermitBird screens against the assumption that the resource is jurisdictional; it does not make that determination. If jurisdiction is genuinely in doubt, the next step is a jurisdictional determination request to the district, not a guess.

Step 2: is there a discharge of dredged or fill material

Section 404 governs discharges of dredged or fill material, not every activity that touches a water of the United States. Placing fill for a road crossing, a building pad, a pipeline trench backfill, or a stream bank stabilisation structure is a discharge. Withdrawing water, most bridge work that does not place fill, and activities entirely outside jurisdictional waters generally are not, though they can trigger other permits under different statutes that this product does not cover.

Activities this product does not screen

Section 404 itself exempts categories of activity from permitting even where a discharge touches a jurisdictional water: normal farming, ranching and silviculture practices that are part of an established operation, maintenance of existing structures like dikes and levees, and construction of certain farm and stock ponds are the most common examples. Prior converted cropland is treated differently again. PermitBird's determination tool assumes Section 404 applies and screens which nationwide permit could authorise the activity; it does not evaluate whether an exemption removes the need for a permit in the first place. If your project might fall under one of these exemptions, that question needs to be worked through with the district before assuming either an exemption or a permit requirement applies.

Step 3: which activity, which permit

Once you know a discharge is happening in a jurisdictional water, the activity type points you toward a subset of the 57 nationwide permits: a road or rail crossing looks at linear transportation permits, a pipeline looks at utility line permits, a residential subdivision looks at the residential development permit, and so on. The determination tool maps your activity to its candidate permits automatically rather than making you search the list by hand.

Step 4: what is the impact

With a candidate permit identified, the impact numbers, permanent loss in acres, temporary impact, and stream bed linear feet where relevant, are measured against that permit's compiled limits, discussed in detail in the half acre limit guide. This is also where a pre-construction notification requirement gets triggered or not; see the PCN guide.

Step 5: which other layer might still stop you

Passing the federal nationwide permit test is not the end of the analysis. The district where the project sits can carry regional conditions that add restrictions on top of the national terms, and the state or tribe where the work occurs can condition, waive or deny the water quality certification a nationwide permit relies on. PermitBird is explicit where it does not yet hold this layer: district regional conditions and state Section 401 certifications are both flagged as uncompiled gaps in the data rather than silently assumed clean. Federal threatened and endangered species and historic properties review can also apply regardless of which nationwide permit is otherwise available.

A five-step self-check before you request a determination

In order: confirm the resource is a water of the United States, confirm the activity is a discharge of dredged or fill material, identify which candidate permit fits the activity, measure the impact against that permit's compiled limits, then check whether the district or the state adds anything on top. A project can pass every one of those steps and still need a jurisdictional determination or a district conversation before work starts, because screening and confirmation are different things. Working through the steps in order, rather than jumping straight to an acreage number, is what keeps a determination honest.

Use the determination tool to run your project's specifics through this decision path. It is a screening result built from compiled rule text, not a jurisdictional determination and not a permit. Only your Corps district can confirm either of those.

Frequently asked questions

How do I know if my site is a water of the United States?
Jurisdiction is determined by the Corps district based on site-specific facts, not by a desktop screening tool. If jurisdiction is in doubt, request a jurisdictional determination from the district rather than assuming either way.
What is a waters of the United States determination?
It is the Corps district's finding on whether a feature on your site is federally jurisdictional. An approved JD is a definitive, appealable determination of whether waters of the United States are present and where their boundaries lie. A preliminary JD is a non-binding statement that jurisdiction may exist, which lets a project proceed through permitting without settling the question. Relatively permanent waters, meaning those with continuous or seasonal flow rather than only brief flow after rain, and wetlands with a continuous surface connection to them, are the features most often at issue. Only an approved JD gives you something you can rely on or contest.
What activities count as a discharge of dredged or fill material?
Placing fill for a road crossing, building pad, pipeline trench backfill, or bank stabilisation structure counts as a discharge. Water withdrawal and most bridge work that places no fill generally do not fall under Section 404.
Can PermitBird tell me for certain that I need a permit?
No. PermitBird's determination tool is a screening result built from compiled federal rule text. It is not a jurisdictional determination and not a permit decision. Only your Corps district can confirm either.
What else can stop a project even if a nationwide permit seems to fit?
District regional conditions and state Section 401 water quality certification can each add restrictions or block a nationwide permit even where the federal-level acreage and activity terms are otherwise satisfied. Federal endangered species and historic properties review can also apply.
Where do I start if I think my project might need a wetland permit?
Start with PermitBird's determination tool: enter the state, district, activity type and impact numbers to see which nationwide permits could apply and whether a pre-construction notification is triggered.

Back to all guides, or run a project through the determination tool.