As of March 1, 2018, the 3 new general permits are in effect and may be found on the NPDES Storm Water General Permits, Permitting Guidance, and Application Forms page. Online Storm Water Permit Application Process Now Accepts Electronic Checks Watershed Permitting Guidance 2014 3 The watershed permitting tool that should be used in a given situation will vary, depending on the characteristics of the area and the sources of pollution impacting it. For example, in a highly urbanized area the best option might be a group permit for municipal separate storm sewer system (MS4s), if National EPA Stormwater Websites - EPA operates multiple websites with technical and regulatory information about the NPDES stormwater program. It is organized according to the three types of regulated stormwater discharge - construction activities, industrial activities, and municipal separate storm sewer systems. Technical Review Workgroup & Products Check out the new O&M EZ form , which allows you to create one Operation and Maintenance Agreement for an entire site. For your convenience, only the cover page has to be signed and notarized. Stormwater NPDES Permits. Stormwater is water from rain or melting snow that does not immediately soak into the ground. Stormwater runs off of land and hard surfaces such as streets, parking lots, and rooftops, and picks up pollutants, such as fertilizers, dirt, pesticides, and oil and grease. The Stormwater Permitting Program develops, plans and implements statewide stormwater control policies, strategies and rules to protect surface waters of North Carolina from the impacts of stormwater pollutants and runoff. or NPDES, Industrial Stormwater Program covers a wide variety of Watershed-based Permitting -- Watershed-based permitting is a process that produces NPDES permits that are issued to point sources on a geographic or watershed basis. Since nutrient pollution often has far-field, cumulative impacts on a waterbody, stakeholders may wish to pursue a watershed-based permitting approach to NPDES permits. NPDES Permit Writers' Manual Front Section (PDF) (14 pp, 803 K) Chapter 1. Development of the Clean Water Act and the NPDES Program (PDF) (8 pp, 580 K) Chapter 2. Regulatory Framework and Program Areas of the NPDES Program (PDF) (18 pp, 341 K) Chapter 3. Overview of the NPDES Permitting Process (PDF) (6 pp, 677 K) Chapter 4. Storm water permits, forms, and other information Urban storm water runoff contains pollutants from roads, parking lots, construction sites, industrial storage yards and lawns. The Storm Water Program regulates storm water discharges from construction sites, industrial facilities and municipalities. standards (e.g. State stormwater handbooks and design guidance manuals) may be used to calculate BMP performance. c) Stormwater management systems on redevelopment sites may utilize offsite mitigation within the same USGS HUC10 as the redevelopment site to meet the equivalent retention or pollutant removal requirements in part 2.3.6.a.ii.4(b). * The federal Clean Water Act's National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) has various permitting requirements based on different types of pollution discharges. Both NPDES and State Waste Discharge stormwater general permits aim to control pollution discharges to