NetDMR Frequently Asked Questions

NetDMR is a web-based application that allows National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) Permittee Users to enter and electronically submit Discharge Monitoring Report (DMR) data through the Central Data Exchange (CDX) to the Integrated Compliance Information System (ICIS). This is replacing the paper-based DMR submission process currently used and will be required starting on December 21, 2016.

Starting on December 21, 2016, all NPDES (National Pollution Discharge Elimination System) permittees will have to submit their DMRs online using NetDMR. LAS (land application system), pre-treatment, PID, and general permittees will also be required to use NetDMR and will be phased in eventually.

Initially, it will seem unfamiliar. However, it has many features that are similar to other on-line applications, such as online banking, ticket reservation, etc. The more you use NetDMR, the easier it will become. In-person training sessions are being held at various locations statewide to guide facility users through the registration and DMR entry/submission processes. You are encouraged to participate in one of these many trainings being offered throughout the year to familiarize yourself with NetDMR.

First, create an account on the NetDMR Site, https://netdmr.epa.gov/index.html. Next, request access to your permit and request the role of Signatory Authority. Please print, sign and mail your subscriber agreement to EPD. Once you have submitted your subscriber agreement you must receive approval from GA EPD. Once approval is received you may then start entering DMR data electronically in the system. For additional more detailed information please visit the “Getting Started” page. There are many nuances to the various roles.  In-person training sessions are being held at various locations statewide to guide facility users through the registration and DMR entry/submission processes. You are encouraged to participate in one of these many trainings being offered throughout the year to familiarize yourself with NetDMR.

It is recommended that you visit the “Getting Started” page. Once you have familiarized yourself with that the web address for NetDMR is https://netdmr.epa.gov.

No. You will have to create a whole new account in Production NetDMR, going through the same steps that you took when you created an account in Test NetDMR.

That’s no problem. Test NetDMR is strictly a learning environment; it allows the facility personnel to become familiar with the electronic format of NetDMR without any negative consequence.

Contact EPD IT Support Team.

It does not take very long to create your account in NetDMR, usually less than 15 minutes. Once you have created your account you must request a role through the system in order to be able to fully use NetDMR. The first person requesting a role from your facility must request the role of Signatory Authority/Permit Administrator. That individual will need to print, sign and mail the subscriber agreement to EPD. Once EPD has received the subscriber agreement the Signatory should be approved within one week and may then start entering DMR data electronically in the system. Other Roles may be requested from the Permit Administrator at your facility. The only role that requires EPD approval is Signatory. All other roles requests are approved by the facility Permit Administrator.

That depends on what you will be using NetDMR for. Some users will only be reviewing DMRs, others will be managing or signing them. However, most users can learn NetDMR in a few hours or a day. The more you use NetDMR, the easier it gets. In-person training sessions are being held at various locations statewide to guide facility users through the registration and DMR entry/submission processes. You are encouraged to participate in one of these many trainings being offered throughout the year to familiarize yourself with NetDMR. This training typically lasts 4 hours. That depends on what you will be using NetDMR for. Some users will only be reviewing DMRs, others will be managing or signing them. However, most users can learn NetDMR in a few hours or a day. The more you use NetDMR, the easier it gets. In-person training sessions are being held at various locations statewide to guide facility users through the registration and DMR entry/submission processes. You are encouraged to participate in one of these many trainings being offered throughout the year to familiarize yourself with NetDMR. This training typically lasts 4 hours.

Contact EPD IT Support Team for NetDMR support and an account administrator at EPD can re-set your password and other account information.

For many permittees, an upper level manager or government official has responsibility for signing DMRs and sending them to EPD. Those people need to learn NetDMR, or re-assign their duties to someone who can learn NetDMR. We recommend that everyone who handles DMRs in any way learn the basics of NetDMR so they can understand. In-person training sessions are being held at various locations statewide to guide facility users through the registration and DMR entry/submission processes. You are encouraged to participate in one of these many trainings being offered throughout the year to familiarize yourself with NetDMR.

You should contact EPD. The information in NetDMR that describes your permit, effluent limits, etc., is pre-programmed into NetDMR by EPA, who maintains a master database of all NPDES permits. Only EPD can ask EPA to change anything in related to your permit in NetDMR.

No. Once you start using NetDMR in the Production Environment, you cannot go back to paper DMRs.

• Reduces paperwork burden
• Improves data quality by automatically error-checking and validating data prior to submission
• Improves timeliness and accessibility of data
• Provides instant confirmation of submission
• Allows for revisions of DMRs to be submitted electronically
• Allows for electronic submittal of attachments and supplemental documentation

Starting on December 21, 2016, all NPDES (National Pollution Discharge Elimination System) permittees will have to submit their DMRs online using NetDMR. LAS (land application system), pre-treatment, PID, and general permittees will also be required to use NetDMR and will be phased in eventually.

Any facility with an Individual or General NPDES Permit that is currently required to submit paper DMRs to GA EPD will be required to use NetDMR for all submittals after December 21, 2016.

At the NetDMR test or live website the user can check to make sure their NPDES permit ID is valid for NetDMR submittal by clicking on the "Checking your Permit ID" hyperlink, entering their NPDES number and then clicking on the "CheckPermitID" button. If the resulting answer says the permit number is not valid, make sure that the permit ID was entered correctly. If you are unsure of what your permit ID is this link may be helpful http://www.epa.gov/enviro/html/fii/fii_query_java.html. Contact the NetDMR Administrator, at EPD IT, if you have questions.

The NetDMR Live Site (Production) is https://netdmr.epa.gov. Make sure that you select the correct instance of NetDMR. “Instance” means the agency you submit your DMRs to for most users using this FAQ it will be “Georgia Environmental Protection Division”.

• User Name
• Password
• Security Questions

Make sure you remember the email address you are using for NetDMR, your NetDMR User Name and Password for logging onto NetDMR and also the answers to the five security questions: they are case sensitive. You will need this information not only to logon to NetDMR but also to submit DMRs for processing, so please record this information in a secure location.

Your password will need to be changed every 3 months. After this time has expired, you will be required to create a new password. You will not need to create a new account, you will just be asked to create a new password by entering the current password and then choosing a new password.

On the login screen under the form for inputting username and password there are “forgot username” and “forgot password” links. Use these for assistance in recovering your username and/or password.

Yes. NetDMR will allow up to 20 MB per individual attachment. You may have multiple attachments as long as each attachment is under the 20 MB limit. Any explanation of permit noncompliance (including permit limit exceeds, missed samples or reduced frequency of analysis) should be saved as a pdf document and attached to the NetDMR.

NetDMR will provide a list of NODI (no data indicated) codes from which you can choose, when there is no NPDES data to report. Some of these codes will eventually generate a violation in the EPA database while others will not. For example if an outfall had no discharge for the monitoring period the NetDMR user can enter "No Discharge" (NODI code "C") for that outfall's entire DMR and it will not generate a violation in the EPA database.

Whenever a NODI code is used instead of measurement data, the NetDMR submitter should place a comment in the comment section of the NetDMR to explain why no data was entered. For example, if no flow was measured due to a flow meter problem, the user could use NODI "G" on the parameter line and then explain on the comment box that the flow meter was being fixed after lightning hit.

As with measured data, the NetDMR user will be responsible for the correct reporting and use of the No Data Indicated (NODI) codes when no data is reported.

Please complete all the blanks for all parameters listed on the NetDMR screen. All NPDES permitted monitoring requirements should contain monitoring results or one of the no discharge codes to explain the reason a monitoring result is not reported.

The NetDMR system will allows users to sign and electronically submit DMR documents that have blank required fields; however you will receive a soft error and have to acknowledge that you intentionally left the parameter blank. Upon NetDMR submittal, the NetDMR data is immediately imported into the U.S. EPA database.

The U.S. EPA database will flag the limit violations and missing data after the NetDMR is submitted, which will be visible at the ECHO (Environmental Compliance History Online) website within 2 months of the NetDMR submittal. The reporting violation and permit noncompliance status in the EPA database will continue until the non-reported information is received by NetDMR.

NetDMR will automatically generate the required units based on your individual permit. You may use a different reporting unit but if you do, it will generate a soft error that you will be required to acknowledge before you can save and submit.

Monitoring results below the level of detection (BMDL) can be reported in NetDMR as either NODI = B or

If your NPDES permit requires you to sample one time during the monitoring period (monthly, quarterly, semiannual, annual) and no other samples are collected for that parameter/monitoring period, the single sample result needs to be reported for both of the Monthly Average and weekly Maximum/Daily Maximum for that parameter, if both are required.

Typically, when searching for NetDMRs on the search page, Quarterly reporting can be found on the last month of a calendar quarter (March, June, September, December); Semiannual reporting can be found on the last month of a six-month calendar period (June, December) and Annual reporting can be found on the last month of the calendar year, December. Please contact NetDMR Administrator, at EPD IT Support, if you have questions about this. 

Yes, by opening the submitted NetDMR for a particular monitoring period, the NetDMR user can pull up the originally submitted DMR, make changes and submit as a Revised NetDMR. This will generate a new COR. There will then be 2 COR’s in the database; one for the original and one for the revised DMR.

A request for the Signatory role will require submission of a subscriber agreement within the live/production side of NetDMR. The applicant must agree to its terms and conditions and then print, sign, and mail the completed form to the contact address listed on the Subscriber Agreement. While you will still be able to log into NetDMR, you won’t be able to access your permit until you are approved by EPD. Remember that the first person requesting roles from your facility must request the role of Signatory. Until the first Signatory role is approved for a permit, no other roles can be requested for the permit.

The new signatory will need to create a new account in NetDMR, request signatory role and submit their subscriber agreement to EPD. Also, the new Signatory should send an email to NetDMR Administrator, at EPD IT Support, to let GA EPD know. Upon completion of the registration process and approval from GA EPD, the new signatory will be able to electronically sign the NetDMR.

No. Last year EPD was requiring that a test submittal be done through the test site but they have lifted that requirement this year. You are encouraged to use the test system to familiarize yourself with the system but you no longer are required to make a test submission prior to using the live site.

NetDMR can be used to send electronic copies of other NPDES required reports to EPA by submitting these documents as an attachment to an electronic DMR.  The Attachment can be submitted in a “pdf”, “Word”, and/or “Excel” format and will retain the format that it was submitted in.  However, EPA recommends a “pdf” format to prevent any inadvertent changes being made to the attachment.

The following restrictions apply to any attachments added through NetDMR:

• Each file may not be larger than 20 megabytes.
• The File Name must not contain any spaces
• File formats that are not acceptable are .com, .dll, .exe. or .vbs

“Hard Errors” must be corrected prior to submittal whereas with “Soft Errors” you must either correct or acknowledge that these are valid entries prior to submittal.

Make sure that you have selected the correct instance of NetDMR. “Instance” means the agency you submit your DMRs to for most users using this FAQ it will be “Georgia Environmental Protection Division”.

A NODI Code identifies when “no data indicated” occurs. The full list of acceptable NODI codes can be found in the documents sections under NODI Codes.

Yes. In the far upper left corner if you click on the ‘My Account’ link you will be able to print out the subscriber agreement by clicking the printer icon found Under the ‘My Permits’ section in the row with your Signatory role.

On many of the actions in NetDMR simply hitting submit is not enough. You must also hit the “Verify” button to finalize the action.