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Massachusetts

The stormwater permit for construction in Massachusetts

Massachusetts is not NPDES authorised for construction stormwater, so EPA is the permitting authority and its 2022 Construction General Permit governs directly. That permit is one we have read, so the requirements below are real and cited.

Governing permit

2022 Construction General Permit

Issued by
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Version determined against
2022 CGP (as modified 2025)
Effective
2022-02-17
Expires
2027-02-16
Read the permitU.S. Environmental Protection Agency

Who may prepare the plan

Conditional, depends on the site

Massachusetts gates plan preparation conditionally. The gate is triggered by plan scope rather than acreage: Attaches to the Wetlands Protection Act pathway. Confirm which case applies to your plan before relying on a generated document.

Qualifying routes

  • Registered professional engineer

Weakest footing in the set: the requirement appears in an agency form, not the regulation, and the regulation itself is discretionary. Massachusetts is also an EPA-permitted state for the NPDES layer.

Not verifiedMassDEP Stormwater Report ChecklistSource

Does a site in Massachusetts 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

  • Massachusetts gates plan preparation conditionally. The gate is triggered by plan scope rather than acreage: Attaches to the Wetlands Protection Act pathway. Confirm which case applies to your plan before relying on a generated document.
  • Basinwise does not perform the physical site inspections the permit requires. Those must be carried out on site by a qualified person.
  • The source extraction contains the permit body (Parts 1-9) only. Appendices A (Definitions), B (Eligible Permit Areas), C (Small Construction Waivers), D (ESA Eligibility Procedures), E (Historic Property Screening), F (Buffer Requirements), G (Standard Permit Conditions), H (NOI Form), I (NOT Form), J (Chemical Treatment Request) and K (Turbidity Report Form) were NOT present in the extracted text. Every fact whose operative text lives only in an appendix is marked confidence "unverified" with a note naming the appendix to confirm.
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

    EPA. MA is not an NPDES authorized state, so EPA's Construction General Permit governs directly.

  3. 3

    Preparer credential

    Massachusetts gates plan preparation conditionally. The gate is triggered by plan scope rather than acreage: Attaches to the Wetlands Protection Act pathway. Confirm which case applies to your plan before relying on a generated document.

    Not verifiedMassDEP Stormwater Report ChecklistSource

What to do next

  1. 1. Confirm the governing permit. Read 2022 Construction General Permit directly. It is linked above, and it is the document an inspector will hold you to. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA Region 1)
  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 Massachusetts
  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 Massachusetts

Screen a Massachusetts site now

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

Screen your site

Runs in your browser

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 Massachusetts construction stormwater permit

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

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 Massachusetts?

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency issues 2022 Construction General Permit.

Does Massachusetts require a qualified preparer for the plan?

Massachusetts gates plan preparation conditionally. The gate is triggered by plan scope rather than acreage: Attaches to the Wetlands Protection Act pathway. Confirm which case applies to your plan before relying on a generated document.

Keep the record Massachusetts will ask you for

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

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