Georgia
The stormwater permit for construction in Georgia
Georgia runs its own NPDES programme, so a state issued construction general permit governs. Below is what our engine can say about it, and where we have not read that permit, what it will not say.
Governing permit
General NPDES Permit No. GAR100001, Stormwater Discharges Associated With Construction Activity For Stand Alone Construction Projects
- Issued by
- Georgia Environmental Protection Division (Georgia EPD), Department of Natural Resources
- Permit number
- GAR100001
- Version determined against
- as published by the state agency
- Effective
- 2023-08-01
- Expires
- 2028-07-31
Who may prepare the plan
A credentialed preparer is requiredGeorgia requires a credentialed preparer. Treat the generated document as a complete draft for that person to review, adopt and sign. It is not by itself a compliant filed plan.
Qualifying routes
- Georgia-licensed engineer, architect, landscape architect, forester, geologist or surveyor
- CPESC
A state specific training course or exam is layered on top of the qualifying credential.
All routes must also complete the GSWCC certification course. The preparer signs a prescribed certification block.
Does a site in Georgia need coverage
Worked for a one acre site as a reference point. Change the acreage in the tool below and the answer, and its reasoning, change with it.
Coverage
Permit coverage required
The project disturbs 1 acres, at or above the 1 acre threshold, so it needs permit coverage.
Determined against dataset version 2026-07-19.
Read these before you act on the answer
- Requirements below are what we have read and cited directly from General NPDES Permit No. GAR100001, Stormwater Discharges Associated With Construction Activity For Stand Alone Construction Projects, not the federal CGP. A category we have not yet transcribed from this permit is omitted here rather than assumed to match EPA's rule.
- Georgia EPD actually issues THREE parallel construction general permits, confirmed by fetching all three PDFs: GAR100001 (Stand Alone Construction Projects), GAR100002 (Infrastructure Construction Projects), and GAR100003 (Common Development Construction Projects). All three were signed 06/20/2023, share the identical printed effective date (August 1, 2023) and expiration date (July 31, 2028), and were spot-checked to confirm the core numeric provisions extracted here (7-day/rain-triggered inspection frequency, 14-day stabilization initiation, 25-ft/50-ft/25-ft buffer rules, 3-year record retention, 14-day NOT deadline) are worded identically across all three permits. This dataset was built primarily from the full text of GAR100001; GAR100002/GAR100003 were not fully diffed line-by-line, so category-specific eligibility criteria (which project types must use GAR100002 vs. GAR100003) and any minor category-specific variations were not exhaustively verified. Separately, public reporting (Georgia EPD press release fetched at https://epd.georgia.gov/press-releases/2023-07-27/construction-stormwater-permit-update) indicates the 2023 permits' real-world effective date was stayed by a legal petition filed in July 2023, and per web search results the stay was reportedly lifted around August 23, 2024 — meaning the 2018 permit versions actually governed discharges from 2023 into 2024. This delay is NOT stated as a verbatim quote from a fetched primary document (only from a WebFetch-summarized press release and search-engine synthesis), so it is reported here only as a coverage-gap caveat, not as a verified fact; the permit.effectiveDate field below reflects the date printed in the permit document itself. Fee amounts (Part II.D), Appendix A (submittal addresses/regional schedules) and Appendix B (turbidity benchmark table by site size) were not reviewed in detail. Sampling/monitoring requirements (Part IV.D.6) were not extracted.
- Georgia requires a credentialed preparer. Treat the generated document as a complete draft for that person to review, adopt and sign. It is not by itself a compliant filed plan.
- Basinwise does not perform the physical site inspections the permit requires. Those must be carried out on site by a qualified person.
How this answer was reached, step by step
- 1
Coverage threshold
The project disturbs 1 acres, at or above the 1 acre threshold, so it needs permit coverage.
- 2
Permitting authority
Georgia. The state runs its own programme under GAR100001.
- 3
Preparer credential
Georgia requires a credentialed preparer. Treat the generated document as a complete draft for that person to review, adopt and sign. It is not by itself a compliant filed plan.
What to do next
- 1. Confirm the governing permit. Read General NPDES Permit No. GAR100001, Stormwater Discharges Associated With Construction Activity For Stand Alone Construction Projects directly. It is linked above, and it is the document an inspector will hold you to. Georgia Environmental Protection Division (Georgia EPD), Department of Natural Resources
- 2. Settle the preparer question before you draft. Getting this wrong costs a redraft at best. The detail is on the credential page for this state. Preparer credential in Georgia
- 3. Screen the site. Run the real acreage and receiving water facts through the tool below. You get the inspection frequency, the stabilisation deadlines and the filing path with the permit section behind each.
- 4. Read the requirements in full. SWPPP requirements in Georgia
Screen a Georgia site now
Runs in your browser. Nothing about the site is transmitted.
What people ask about the Georgia construction stormwater permit
Do I need a stormwater permit for a construction site in Georgia?
Permit coverage is triggered at one acre of land disturbance, and below one acre if the project is part of a larger common plan of development or sale that will ultimately disturb an acre or more. The project disturbs 1 acres, at or above the 1 acre threshold, so it needs permit coverage.
Who issues the construction stormwater permit in Georgia?
Georgia Environmental Protection Division (Georgia EPD), Department of Natural Resources issues General NPDES Permit No. GAR100001, Stormwater Discharges Associated With Construction Activity For Stand Alone Construction Projects.
Does Georgia require a qualified preparer for the plan?
Georgia requires a credentialed preparer. Treat the generated document as a complete draft for that person to review, adopt and sign. It is not by itself a compliant filed plan.
Keep the record Georgia will ask you for
The screening is free. Holding the written plan and the retained inspection log is what the permit actually demands.