North Carolina
The stormwater permit for construction in North Carolina
North Carolina 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
NCG01 Construction Stormwater General Permit
- Issued by
- North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality (NCDEQ), Division of Energy, Mineral and Land Resources (DEMLR)
- Permit number
- NCG01
- Version determined against
- as published by the state agency
- Effective
- 2024-04-01
- Expires
- 2029-03-31
Who may prepare the plan
Conditional, depends on the siteNorth Carolina gates plan preparation only above a threshold this site does not meet. The gate applies above 1 acres. This site is 1 acres. On what we have verified, a generated plan can be adopted without a credentialed signature.
Qualifying routes
- NCG01 permit text itself imposes no preparer credential for the SWPPP; it defines a 'qualified professional' (licensed PE, CPESC, licensed landscape architect, or soil scientist) but only as who may conduct periodic self-inspections, not who drafts the plan
- State-administered Erosion and Sedimentation Control Plan (DEMLR/Land Quality Section, for sites without a delegated local program): no PE/RLA/PLS credential required by state statute or rule — DEQ's own FAQ confirms licensure is not required for submitting E&S plans to DEMLR
- Delegated local E&S programs (roughly 60 NC cities/counties operate DEQ-delegated programs under local ordinance): many require the plan to bear the seal/signature of a registered PE, registered landscape architect, registered land surveyor, registered architect, or Certified Professional in Erosion and Sediment Control (CPESC) — confirmed for Raleigh, Durham, Henderson County, Buncombe County and Chatham County ordinances; the requirement is not uniform statewide and depends on which local program, if any, has jurisdiction
Read the NCG01 permit text and NC's Sedimentation Pollution Control Act framework directly. Neither the NCG01 permit nor the state-reviewed E&S Plan pathway (state statute/rules, confirmed by DEQ's own FAQ) imposes a PE/RLA/PLS seal requirement — that pathway is genuinely open. The real gate, where one exists, lives at the roughly 60 DEQ-delegated local E&S programs, which set their own ordinance-level preparer/seal requirements (several confirmed to require PE/RLA/PLS/CPESC). Because jurisdiction (state vs. a specific local program) determines whether any credential applies, this is coded 'conditional' rather than 'open' or 'gated'. Not exhaustively verified against all ~60 local program ordinances individually; confirm the specific local program, if any, covering the site.
Does a site in North Carolina 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 NCG01 Construction Stormwater General Permit, 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.
- This record covers Parts I, II (Sections A-G), and III (Sections A-C) plus the first page of Part IV, Section A of the current NCG010000 permit (effective 2024-04-01, PDF created 2024-03-31) — 24 of its 35 pages. Not yet reviewed: the remainder of Part IV Section A (items 7-19: duty to mitigate/halt, civil-criminal liability details, property rights, severability, inspection and entry, tampering/falsification penalties, duty to reapply, planned changes, anticipated noncompliance), Part IV Section B (Permit Administration — general permit expiration/transfer mechanics, when an individual permit may be required/requested beyond the 180-day note captured here, signatory requirements, fee requirements), and Part V (Definitions). No numeric effluent limits or benchmark values (e.g., turbidity) were found anywhere in the reviewed text — this was affirmatively checked: the prior (2019-2024) version of this permit had a Part II, Section G, Item 7 titled 'Compliance with the Turbidity Standard,' but that item is absent from the current (2024-2029) permit's Section G, which now ends at Item 8 'Upset of E&SC Measures' with a new Item 5 'Secondary Containment' inserted instead — so numericLimitsAndBenchmarks is omitted as genuinely absent from the current permit, not merely unverified. No explicit 'qualified person'/certified-inspector credential requirement for who may perform the routine self-inspections was found stated in the reviewed text (distinct from the SWPPP-preparer credential already verified in prior work, which this task was told to exclude) — inspection.qualifiedPerson is therefore omitted rather than guessed. The coverage threshold (disturbance of one acre or greater, or part of a common plan of development of that size) matches federal's 1-acre threshold, so no thresholds entry was created. NC has no fixed day-count NOI-before-construction or NOT-after-completion deadline analogous to other states' 'X days before/after' rules — coverage is instead gated on E&SC plan approval and Certificate of Coverage (COC) issuance/close-out, which are described here with NC-specific ids rather than forced into the federal deadline.noi.newSite/deadline.not.submission shapes.
- North Carolina gates plan preparation only above a threshold this site does not meet. The gate applies above 1 acres. This site is 1 acres. On what we have verified, a generated plan can be adopted without a credentialed signature.
- 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
North Carolina. The state runs its own programme under NCG01.
- 3
Preparer credential
North Carolina gates plan preparation only above a threshold this site does not meet. The gate applies above 1 acres. This site is 1 acres. On what we have verified, a generated plan can be adopted without a credentialed signature.
VerifiedNCG01 Construction Stormwater General Permit (NCG010000) Parts I-III; N.C.G.S. 113A-54.1, 113A-57(4); 15A NCAC 04B .0107, .0118; City of Raleigh Stormwater Design Manual Ch. 6; Durham City-County Unified Development Ordinance Sec. 3.8; Henderson County Code Subpart ESource
What to do next
- 1. Confirm the governing permit. Read NCG01 Construction Stormwater General Permit directly. It is linked above, and it is the document an inspector will hold you to. North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality (NCDEQ), Division of Energy, Mineral and Land Resources (DEMLR)
- 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 North Carolina
- 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 North Carolina
Screen a North Carolina site now
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What people ask about the North Carolina construction stormwater permit
Do I need a stormwater permit for a construction site in North Carolina?
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 North Carolina?
North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality (NCDEQ), Division of Energy, Mineral and Land Resources (DEMLR) issues NCG01 Construction Stormwater General Permit.
Does North Carolina require a qualified preparer for the plan?
North Carolina gates plan preparation only above a threshold this site does not meet. The gate applies above 1 acres. This site is 1 acres. On what we have verified, a generated plan can be adopted without a credentialed signature.
Keep the record North Carolina will ask you for
The screening is free. Holding the written plan and the retained inspection log is what the permit actually demands.