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SWPPP requirements: the checklist your permit holds you to
A SWPPP must contain what Part 7.2 of your construction general permit lists. Under EPA's 2022 permit that is eleven items: every operator, the stormwater team and its training, the work and its schedule, a site map, non-stormwater discharges, each control with its specs, inspection procedures, dewatering monitoring if any, species and historic-property records, a signed certification, and your NOI.
Three rules frame the list. The SWPPP has to be finished before you file the Notice of Intent (Part 7.1). It has to be on site, or somewhere you can produce it during an inspection (Part 7.3). And it has to be changed within seven days whenever the site, the operators or the controls change (Part 7.4). State permits use a similar skeleton because each must carry the federal effluent limits for construction sites in 40 CFR 450.21 (erosion and sediment controls, stabilization, pollution prevention), but each state adds items, so read your own permit's SWPPP section before you treat this list as complete.
The checklist, item by item
| Permit part | Item | What it has to say | Template |
|---|---|---|---|
| 7.2.1 | All site operators | Every other operator on the site and the areas each one controls. | 1.1 |
| 7.2.2 | Stormwater team | Names, positions and duties, who inspects, proof each member got the Part 6.2 training, and inspectors' certificates under Part 6.3. | 1.2 |
| 7.2.3 | Nature of construction | Property size, area disturbed (to the nearest quarter acre), the most disturbed at one time, support areas, a dated schedule from clearing to removing controls, every pollutant-generating activity with its pollutants, and business days and hours. | 2.1–2.4 |
| 7.2.4 | Site map | Property lines, where you'll disturb soil, slopes before and after grading, stockpiles, vehicle exits, receiving waters on site and within one mile downstream (and whether they are impaired or Tier 2, 2.5 or 3), critical habitat, drainage before and after grading, discharge points, inlets, every control and buffer. | 2.6, App. A |
| 7.2.5 | Non-stormwater discharges | Which of the Part 1.2.2 discharges (for example water-line flushing, dust control water) will or may occur. | 2.5 |
| 7.2.6 | Stormwater controls | For each Part 2.2, 2.3 and 2.4 requirement that applies: the control, its design specs and the manual they come from, maintenance specs and the installation schedule. Plus buffers, track-out, inlet protection, basins, chemicals, stabilization deadlines, spill response, waste handling and fertilizer. | 4–5 |
| 7.2.7 | Inspection, maintenance, corrective action | Which inspection schedule you follow, the rain gauge or weather station you rely on, any reduced-frequency dates, and the forms you'll use. | 6 |
| 7.2.8 | Turbidity monitoring | Only if you discharge dewatering water to a sensitive water: sampling, the meter and its manual, reporting and who does what. | 7 |
| 7.2.9 | Other federal requirements | Endangered species eligibility, historic property screening (Appendix E) and any contact about Class V injection wells (infiltration trenches, drywells). | 3 |
| 7.2.10 | Certification | Signed and dated by the signatory Appendix G.11 names. | 8 |
| 7.2.11 | After authorization | Your NOI and EPA correspondence, the acknowledgment with your NPDES ID, and a copy of the permit. | App. B, C |
The controls section is most of the work
Item 7.2.6 is where a template stops helping, because it asks what you will actually build and how it's specified. EPA's template splits it into fifteen erosion and sediment control subsections (natural buffers, perimeter controls, track-out, stockpiles, dust, steep slopes, topsoil, soil compaction, storm drain inlets, constructed drainage, sediment basins, chemical treatment, dewatering, other controls and stabilization) and eight pollution prevention subsections (sources, spills, fueling, washing, materials and waste, washout, fertilizers, other). For each one that applies, write the control, cite the spec (a manufacturer sheet or your state or county erosion control manual), say how it's maintained and when it goes in. Two maintenance rules are written into the permit and belong in your specs:
- Remove sediment from a perimeter control before it reaches half the control's above-ground height (Part 2.2.3).
- Start stabilizing any area that will sit idle 14 or more days by the end of the next business day, and finish within 14 days, or 7 days if more than five acres are disturbed at once (Part 2.2.14, Table 2).
EPA has said it often finds operators fencing the whole property line with silt fence whether or not water flows toward it. The proposed 2027 permit says plainly that perimeter controls are needed only where stormwater from disturbed areas can reach them, so a map that shows flow direction lets you specify less fence, not more.
What the inspection part must commit you to
The SWPPP names the schedule, and the inspection reports prove you kept it. Under Part 4.2 you choose between inspecting every 7 calendar days, or every 14 days plus within 24 hours of 0.25 inches of rain (or a snowmelt discharge from 3.25 inches of snow). Sites draining to sediment- or nutrient-impaired waters, or to Tier 2, 2.5 or 3 waters, must do both: every 7 days and after each such storm (Part 4.3). Reports are due within 24 hours of the inspection, signed, kept on site and retained three years after coverage ends (Part 4.7).
Whoever inspects must be a "qualified person" (Part 4.1): someone who passed EPA's free construction inspection course and exam, or who holds a current certification covering the topics Part 6.3 lists. EPA tightened this in 2022 because, in its words, "a large number of permitted operators are not conducting adequate inspections and documenting their findings."
What state permits add
State construction general permits keep EPA's skeleton and add their own items. The common additions are a named preparer qualification (California's Qualified SWPPP Developer, Georgia's certified design professional, and New Mexico's qualified erosion control specialist under EPA's own permit), a separate approved erosion control plan that the SWPPP must include (North Carolina and Virginia), different inspection triggers, and state forms for the site notice. The who can write a SWPPP guide covers the preparer rules state by state.
Questions
What three elements are part of a SWPPP?
The permit lists eleven items, not three. Guides that say three usually mean the site description and map, the stormwater controls, and the inspection and maintenance procedures. Those are the core, but a SWPPP without the team, the certification and the endangered species and historic property records is still incomplete under Part 7.2.
Does a SWPPP have to be stamped by an engineer?
Not under EPA's general terms: they name who must sign the SWPPP (Appendix G.11) and who may inspect (Part 6.3), not a professional who must stamp it. New Mexico's conditions in Part 9 add that a qualified erosion control specialist (a CPESC or a suitably trained engineer, for example) prepare it, with qualifications documented. Georgia requires a design professional's seal on every plan sheet, California a Qualified SWPPP Developer, and a sediment basin or county grading plan may need an engineer's design.
Can the SWPPP be electronic?
Yes. EPA allows it if the file reads like a paper record, is as legally dependable, and is immediately available to an inspector on site (footnote 93 to Part 7.3).
See the filled-in SWPPP example for what these items look like written out, or the inspection form guide for the reports. ePlan drafts these sections from four questions about your site; it's free to read and $49 to download the Word file (ePlan's SWPPP page).
Related guides
- SWPPP template: which one your permit wants, and how to fill it in
- SWPPP example: a filled-in plan for a commercial site disturbing 1.75 acres
- SWPPP inspection form: the free template, what it must record, and how often
About this page
This guide is published by Winding AI, Inc., the company that makes ePlan, one of the ways to get a SWPPP drafted that this site compares. We make money when someone pays ePlan to download a document or subscribes; we earn nothing from links to agencies or other products, and links to ePlan carry a tag so ePlan can count visits from here. Every fact on this page was read from the source it links to on the date shown above.