Coverage
Do I need a SWPPP?
Yes, if your construction site will disturb one acre or more, and yes if it will disturb less than an acre but sits inside a larger common plan of development that will. The plan has to be written before you file the Notice of Intent, not after. Every line below carries the permit section it came from.
The three doors
What actually puts a site under the permit
A site is covered if any one of these applies. They are read out of the 2022 Construction General Permit, which governs where EPA is the permitting authority.
Will disturb one or more acres of land, or will disturb less than one acre of land but are part of a common plan of development or sale (as defined in Appendix A) that will ultimately disturb one or more acres of land
will disturb less than one acre of land but are part of a common plan of development or sale (as defined in Appendix A) that will ultimately disturb one or more acres of land
The operative definition of "common plan of development or sale" is in Appendix A, which is not present in the extracted source. Confirm the definition text against Appendix A before relying on edge-case interpretation.
Have been designated by EPA as needing permit coverage under 40 CFR § 122.26(a)(1)(v) or 40 CFR § 122.26(b)(15)(ii)
The party has operational control over construction plans and specifications, including the ability to make modifications to those plans and specifications; or The party has day-to-day operational control of those activities at a project
The one people miss
A half acre lot in a subdivision is covered
Everyone knows the acre. The trigger that catches builders is the second half of the same sentence: a lot that is small on its own is covered on the acreage of the development it belongs to. The person building the lot measures the lot, and the permit measures the plan. That mismatch is why a single house on a quarter acre can need coverage while the builder is certain it does not.
will disturb less than one acre of land but are part of a common plan of development or sale (as defined in Appendix A) that will ultimately disturb one or more acres of land
The operative definition of "common plan of development or sale" is in Appendix A, which is not present in the extracted source. Confirm the definition text against Appendix A before relying on edge-case interpretation.
The half acre lot that needs a permit: the larger common plan trigger
Two different things
Permit coverage is not the SWPPP, and the SWPPP is not the permit
Coverage is the authorisation to discharge. The plan is one of the conditions attached to it, and it has to exist first.
All operators associated with a construction site under this permit must develop a SWPPP consistent with the requirements in Part 7 prior to their submittal of the NOI. 82, 83, 84 The SWPPP must be kept up-to-date throughout coverage under
Where there are multiple operators associated with the same site, they may develop a group SWPPP instead of multiple individual SWPPPs; each operator remains responsible for compliance (footnote 83).
You must keep a current copy of your SWPPP at the site or at an easily accessible location so that it can be made available at the time of an on-site inspection or upon request by EPA
You must modify your SWPPP, including the site map(s), within seven (7) days of any of the following conditions:
SWPPP Certification. Your signatory must sign and date your SWPPP in accordance with Appendix G, Part G.11.
The signatory requirements themselves are in Appendix G, which is not present in the extracted source.
Sequence
The order it has to happen in
The plan is a precondition of applying, and the application carries a lead time. Working back from the first machine on site is how people find out too late.
You must develop a SWPPP consistent with Part 7 before submitting your NOI for coverage under this permit.
must submit to EPA a complete and accurate NOI in accordance with the deadlines in Table 1 prior to commencement of construction activities
The value was read from Table 1, whose three columns interleave in the PDF text layer, so no contiguous verbatim quote spanning the full row is available; the quote is the nearest contiguous supporting text. Re-read Table 1 in the source PDF to confirm the row values.
your authorization is delayed or denied.
The value was read from Table 1, whose three columns interleave in the PDF text layer, so no contiguous verbatim quote spanning the full row is available; the quote is the nearest contiguous supporting text. Re-read Table 1 in the source PDF to confirm the row values.
Complete installation of stormwater controls by the time each phase of construction
Quote truncated at the extracted line break; the clause continues on the following line. Confirm the full sentence of Part 2.1.3 against the source PDF before rendering it as user-facing copy.
Two acreages, not one
The number that decides coverage is not the number that decides your deadline
Coverage is measured on total disturbance. The stabilisation deadline is measured on land open at any one time, and those are the same number only on a site that is never phased.
Table 2 of Part 2.2.14a keys the seven versus fourteen day deadline on the total amount of land disturbance occurring at any one time. Footnote 37 spells out what that means: a ten acre project that stabilises finished ground before opening more, so that cumulative disturbance never exceeds five acres, keeps the fourteen day deadline. Stabilising land frees up land. Treat the project total as the deadline number and you hand back a week the permit gave you.
The requirement to initiate stabilization immediately is triggered as soon as you know that construction work on a portion of the site is temporarily ceased and will not resume for 14 or more days
soon as practicable, but no later than 14 calendar days
This row includes sites disturbing more than five acres total over the course of a project, but that limit disturbance at any one time (i.e. phase the disturbance) to five acres or less. Stabilizing completed acreage can "free up" land for further disturbance while staying under the five-acre cap (footnote 37). Table 2 sets both columns on the same physical lines, so no single contiguous run of the PDF text layer contains this row's full sentence: the quote is therefore the longest contiguous fragment that still reads as the rule, and the full clause is 'Complete the installation of stabilization measures as soon as practicable, but no later than 14 calendar days after stabilization has been initiated.' The quote previously began 'to five acres or less', which was contiguous and verbatim but spanned the column boundary and so read as nonsense. Re-read Table 2 in the source PDF to confirm the row values.
Complete the installation of stabilization measures as soon as practicable, but no later than seven (7) calendar days after stabilization has been initiated.
Complete stabilization as soon as practicable, but no later than seven (7) calendar days after stabilization has been initiated.
This accelerated deadline applies regardless of the amount of land disturbed at any one time, i.e. it removes the 14-day option that a site of five acres or less would otherwise have. Cross-referenced by Part 3.2.
This is why the screening tool below asks for both figures. Leave the second one blank and it assumes the whole disturbed area is open at once, which can only shorten the deadline it reports, and it tells you it made that assumption rather than asserting phasing it was never told about. See how the determination is built.
Answer it for your site
Screen your site free, in this tab
It runs the same engine as the API and the paid product, here in the browser. There is no request behind it, so your acreage and location have nowhere to go.
Who is allowed to write it
The federal permit requires the plan to be signed by the operator's signatory and imposes no preparer credential of its own. States do. We verified 7 that require a credentialed preparer outright and 6 that gate it conditionally, on acreage or on plan scope. A named role in a permit is not automatically a credential, and some of the credentials people cite belong to the reviewers rather than the authors.
Your state can be stricter
Everything above is the federal permit, which governs where EPA is the permitting authority. Most states run their own construction programme, and a state programme must be at least as protective as the federal one: it can be stricter and never looser. Several are, on acreage, on inspection frequency and on who signs. We hold 52 jurisdictions and we never substitute the federal figures for a state permit we have not read.
What we are not
Where this product stops
Worth reading before you decide what a generated plan buys you.
You are responsible for ensuring that any person conducting inspections pursuant to this Part is a “qualified person.” A qualified person is someone who has completed the training required by Part 6.3.
And in a state that gates preparation on a credential, a generated document is a complete draft for that credentialed preparer to review, amend and sign. It saves them the assembly work, it does not replace their signature, and it says so on its own face. Where a state has no preparer gate, an operator can adopt it directly. None of this is legal or engineering advice.
FAQ
Common questions about needing a SWPPP
Do I need a SWPPP?
If you operate a construction site that will disturb one acre or more of land, yes. You also need one if the site disturbs less than an acre but is part of a larger common plan of development or sale that will ultimately disturb one acre or more, and you need one if EPA has designated the site regardless of its size. All three triggers are in 2022 CGP Part 1.1.2. The acre is measured on the project's total disturbance over its life, which includes grading, stockpiles, haul roads, staging and laydown, not just the building footprint.
My lot is only half an acre. Am I really covered?
If the lot is part of a subdivision, a phased commercial development or any other common plan of development or sale that will ultimately disturb an acre or more, then yes. Part 1.1.2 puts a site under the permit where it will disturb less than one acre of land but is part of a common plan of development or sale that will ultimately disturb one or more acres. This is the single most commonly missed trigger in the permit, because the person building the lot measures the lot. The operative definition of common plan sits in Appendix A, which our extraction of the permit body does not include, so confirm an edge case against Appendix A before relying on it.
Is needing permit coverage the same as needing a SWPPP document?
No, and conflating them is what produces the late scramble. Coverage is the authorisation to discharge, obtained by filing a Notice of Intent. The SWPPP is a document the permit requires you to have developed BEFORE that NOI is submitted, under Part 1.4.1 and Part 7.1. So the plan is not something you produce once you are permitted. It is a precondition of applying, and the NOI itself has to go in at least 14 calendar days before construction begins.
How long before I break ground do I need this?
Work back from three deadlines. The NOI must be submitted at least 14 calendar days before construction activities commence (Part 1.4, Table 1). Coverage then begins 14 calendar days after EPA notifies you it has received a complete NOI (Part 1.4.3, Table 1), which is a second window and not the same one. And the SWPPP has to be finished before the NOI goes in at all (Part 1.4.1). Stormwater controls must be installed by the time each phase of construction begins (Part 2.1.3).
Does the acreage that decides coverage also decide my deadlines?
No. Coverage is measured on total disturbance. The stabilisation deadline is measured on the amount of land disturbed AT ANY ONE TIME, under Table 2 of Part 2.2.14a. Footnote 37 is explicit that a project exceeding five acres in total still gets the longer 14 day deadline if it phases the work so cumulative disturbance never exceeds five acres, using stabilisation of finished ground to free up land to disturb next. Above five acres open at once the deadline halves to seven days. Our screening tool takes both numbers separately for exactly this reason, and tells you when it has had to assume an unphased site.
Can I write the SWPPP myself?
Under the federal permit the plan must be signed by the operator's signatory (Part 7.2.10), and the permit body imposes no preparer credential. Several states do. California requires a Qualified SWPPP Developer, and other states gate preparation on a licensed engineer, sometimes only above an acreage threshold. A named role in a permit is not automatically a credential, and some credentials belong to the people who review plans rather than the people who write them. Check your own state before you conclude either way.
Does the federal answer apply in my state?
Only where EPA is the permitting authority. Most states run their own NPDES construction programme, and a state programme must be at least as protective as the federal one, which means it can be stricter but never looser. Several are considerably stricter on acreage triggers, inspection frequency and who may prepare the plan. Where we have not read a state's permit we return no requirements and name the agency to confirm with, rather than substituting the federal figures.
Will a SWPPP template do?
The permit requires the document to be site specific: your site map, your receiving waters, your controls, your operators, your inspection procedures. A template is a starting shape, not a plan, and a form filled in loosely is a routine inspection finding. The plan also has to be modified within seven days of the conditions in Part 7.4.1, including changes made in response to corrective actions, so a document that was accurate at the NOI and never touched again is not compliant either.
Find out in about a minute, before it becomes a deadline
Free to screen, runs in your browser, and every requirement it returns names the permit section behind it.