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Georgia

Wastewater Permitting

Agency Georgia Environmental Protection Division

The Wastewater Regulatory Program of the Georgia Environmental Protection Division (EPD) has been delegated authority by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to administer permits for the treatment and disposal of domestic and industrial wastewater under the Clean Water Act. EPD says a permit is required from it for any facility that intends to discharge, land apply, or inject wastewater or fluid within the State.

In a Phase I ESA

ASTM E1527-21 does not name wastewater permit records among its standard record sources. A permit says where a facility was allowed to send its wastewater, and some permits cover putting wastes on land.

  • Three kinds of permit. EPD says a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit is required of any point source that discharges or intends to discharge to waters of the State, and the definition of a point source it gives, citing 40 CFR 122.2, includes any pipe, ditch, channel, concentrated animal feeding operation or well. It requires a Land Application System (LAS) permit of anyone who land applies treated wastewater through a land treatment system, and a pretreatment permit of an industrial facility that discharges process wastewater to a publicly owned treatment works (POTW) and is classified as a significant industrial user. Injection is described on the Underground Injection Control page.
  • A local program may issue the permit. EPD says a POTW with an EPD approved pretreatment program is responsible for issuing, inspecting and enforcing the pretreatment permits for industries discharging to it, and that EPD issues them where there is no approved local program. For an industrial user, ask the POTW as well as EPD.
  • General permits name land uses worth a question. Besides individual permits, EPD issues general permits that cover a class of facilities. Those it lists as in effect include land application of manure and process wastewater from animal feeding operations, land disposal of domestic septage, mining and processing facilities, sand and gravel facilities, and private and institutional treatment plants that discharge treated domestic wastewater, at places such as mobile home parks, campgrounds, city or county owned schools and prisons, churches, nursing homes and motels. A septage or manure application site on or beside a property is one to ask about.
  • The sewage spill list is short. EPD posts a list of municipal sewage spills reported to it that covers the most recent 30-day period and is updated each business day. EPD notes that a zero in the quantity field means the amount of the spill has not been determined. An older spill is not on the list. EPD says all publicly owned treatment works should use GEOS, the Georgia EPD Online System, to report sewer spills.

What the record shows

EPD posts a workbook of Wastewater Permits in Effect, revised May 2025, with the branch's other permit lists. The pages read do not describe its columns. EPD says a permit can set monitoring locations, monitoring and reporting frequencies, the parameters to be monitored, and effluent limitations. EPD's eServices page links the federal NetDMR tool, which it says enables permittees to complete their discharge monitoring reports online. EPD also says a POTW with an approved pretreatment program is required, under its permit, to submit an annual report defining the activities and contributions of its industrial users.

Where to look a site up

  • Watershed Protection Branch - Lists, for the Wastewater Permits in Effect workbook and the branch's other permit lists.
  • EPD's Industrial Pretreatment page links a list of approved pretreatment programs, and its NPDES and LAS General Permits page describes each NPDES and LAS general permit in effect, and says the stormwater general permits are listed elsewhere.
  • The spill list, and a Spills in Georgia StoryMap that EPD says is updated weekly, are on EPD's Sewage Spills Report page.
  • The Wastewater Regulatory Program is at 470-607-3078, and the Watershed Protection Branch at 404-463-1511.

Getting the file

These are Watershed Protection Branch records, not Land Protection Branch records. EPD's Watershed Protection Branch page says a Georgia Open Records Act request to the branch goes through its Open Records Request Portal. The pages read do not describe a file room for wastewater permits. Give the facility's name and address, and the permit number if you have it.

Sources

Georgia Environmental Protection Division pages, read October 15, 2026:

Georgia Environmental Protection Division pages, read October 7, 2026:

Maintained by Barrow. General reference only, not legal or professional advice. Barrow is not affiliated with any government agency, and neither Barrow nor the information as presented here is endorsed by any state or government agency. See how Barrow drafts the report