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Ohio

The stormwater permit for construction in Ohio

Ohio 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 Permit Authorization for Stormwater Discharges Associated with Construction Activity Under the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (OHC000006)

Issued by
Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (Ohio EPA)
Permit number
OHC000006
Version determined against
as published by the state agency
Effective
2023-04-23
Expires
2028-04-22

Who may prepare the plan

No preparer credential found

No preparer credential was found for Ohio. On what we have verified, a generated plan can be adopted by the operator without a credentialed signature. Local ordinances can still be stricter than state law.

No preparer credential found in the reviewed sources. Not exhaustively verified; confirm with the state agency and any local ordinance.

No permit section cited. Confirm this with your permitting authority.

Does a site in Ohio 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

Verified

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 Permit Authorization for Stormwater Discharges Associated with Construction Activity Under the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (OHC000006), 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.
  • Ohio's general permit contains no numeric effluent limits or benchmarks (turbidity, pH, TSS, etc.) for ordinary construction-site discharges — Part V.V 'General Effluent Limitation' is narrative only ('free of substances... in amounts that will...'), with no numeric thresholds. The only numeric percentage figures found in the permit body are (a) the 70% vegetative-cover density that defines 'final stabilization' (Part VII.M) and (b) the 80% TSS-removal / 20 mg/L effluent criteria used only to qualify an alternative post-construction BMP for approval (Part III.G.2.e.x), not a discharge limit on ordinary runoff. Ohio has no acreage-tiered stabilization-completion deadline like federal Table 2; instead it uses a two-table (permanent/temporary) system keyed to proximity to surface waters and dormancy duration (Part II.B), modeled below with new state.oh.* ids rather than forced into the federal stabilization.complete.* ids. No explicit numeric hours/days deadline was found in the permit text for how soon after an inspection the written inspection report/checklist itself must be completed (only that it must be completed following each inspection), so inspection.report.deadline is omitted rather than invented. Appendices A (Big Darby Creek Watershed) and B (Olentangy River Watershed) contain additional watershed-specific requirements (including a shorter 45-day pre-construction NOI deadline and mandatory SWP3-with-NOI submission) that were not further explored in this pass.
  • No preparer credential was found for Ohio. On what we have verified, a generated plan can be adopted by the operator without a credentialed signature. Local ordinances can still be stricter than state law.
  • 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. 1

    Coverage threshold

    The project disturbs 1 acres, at or above the 1 acre threshold, so it needs permit coverage.

    VerifiedPart 1.1.2Source
  2. 2

    Permitting authority

    Ohio. The state runs its own programme under OHC000006.

  3. 3

    Preparer credential

    No preparer credential was found for Ohio. On what we have verified, a generated plan can be adopted by the operator without a credentialed signature. Local ordinances can still be stricter than state law.

What to do next

  1. 1. Confirm the governing permit. Read General Permit Authorization for Stormwater Discharges Associated with Construction Activity Under the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (OHC000006) directly. It is linked above, and it is the document an inspector will hold you to. Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (Ohio EPA)
  2. 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 Ohio
  3. 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. 4. Read the requirements in full. SWPPP requirements in Ohio

Screen a Ohio site now

Runs in your browser. Nothing about the site is transmitted.

Screen your site

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Total land disturbance over the whole project, including staging and access. This decides whether you need a permit at all.

Optional. If you phase the work, the most that will be disturbed at once. Leave blank if the whole site is open together. The stabilisation deadline turns on this figure, not the total.

A half acre lot inside a 40 acre subdivision is covered even though the lot alone is under the threshold. This is the most commonly missed trigger in the permit.

Receiving water and site conditions(optional, but they change the inspection frequency)

May allow a reduced inspection frequency during the seasonally dry period.

EPA keeps permitting authority in Indian country even inside a state that runs its own programme.

No account, no card, nothing transmitted.

What people ask about the Ohio construction stormwater permit

Do I need a stormwater permit for a construction site in Ohio?

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 Ohio?

Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (Ohio EPA) issues General Permit Authorization for Stormwater Discharges Associated with Construction Activity Under the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (OHC000006).

Does Ohio require a qualified preparer for the plan?

No preparer credential was found for Ohio. On what we have verified, a generated plan can be adopted by the operator without a credentialed signature. Local ordinances can still be stricter than state law.

Keep the record Ohio will ask you for

The screening is free. Holding the written plan and the retained inspection log is what the permit actually demands.