NPDES Industrial Storm Water General Permits

Apply for coverage under the 2022 Industrial General Permit. Georgia EPD will begin accepting Notices of Intent and No Exposure Exclusion forms via GEOS with permit reissuance on June 1, 2022.

• NPDES General Permit No. GAR050000 for Stormwater Discharges Associated with Industrial Activity (2022 IGP) [June 2022]
• Factsheet for NPDES General Permit No. GAR050000
• Factsheet Addendum for NPDES General Permit No. GAR050000
• Summary of Public Comments
• Strikethrough mark-up of the content changes, not including formatting, between the 2017 IGP and the 2022 IGP is available here . This document is for reference only, please refer to the official 2022 permit for specific requirements.

Georgia EPD is moving to online form submittal. Please register for the Georgia EPD Online System (GEOS; http://epd.georgia.gov/geos/) for renewal of coverage or to apply for coverage. Please visit the GEOS Training and Technical Assistance page for more information.  You may also consult the Industrial Stormwater GEOS Guide. Please do not attempt to submit documentation for permit coverage via the mail.

New Facilities

For new facilities or facilities that have not applied for coverage under the Industrial General Permit, please complete the Facility Information Form   and email the completed form to the Industrial Stormwater Team ([email protected]). 

The 2022 NPDES General Permit No. GAR050000 for Stormwater Discharges Associated with Industrial Activity (2022 IGP) became effective June 1, 2022. This is the replacement permit for the 2017 IGP (GAR050000) which expired on May 31, 2022. The new general permit will expire on May 31, 2027.

The 2022 forms (Notice of Intent, No Exposure Exclusion, Notice of Termination and Annual Report Forms) are available through the Georgia EPD Online System (GEOS; http://epd.georgia.gov/geos/). Older versions of these forms will not be accepted nor will submissions sent on paper in the mail. If you have questions regarding GEOS, please review this help document:   Industrial Stormwater GEOS Guide.

Permittees who are covered via an NOI under the Industrial General Permit (IGP) must submit an Annual Report (AR) for their facility for each calendar year by January 31st of the following year. All submittals must be made through the Georgia EPD Online System (GEOS; http://epd.georgia.gov/geos/). Only Responsible Officials (ROs) and the Preparers they assign can complete the AR.

Annual Reports no longer contain quantitative sample data as in years past; Annual Reports should contain qualitative data about the site (for example, information about corrective actions and BMP updates). Quantitative sample data (the results from samples sent to a lab, for example) go into NetDMR only. For more information about NetDMR, please see the section below called "NetDMR Reminders and Resources."

REMINDER: 2024 Annual Report Reminder

This is a reminder that Annual Reports (AR) for the period covering January 1, 2024 to December 31, 2024 are due by January 31, 2025 for those facilities that filed a Notice of Intent (NOI) under the 2022 Industrial General Permit (IGP). The AR form must be submitted electronically through the Georgia EPD Online System (GEOS). Please refer to the Annual Report Submittal Guide for directions and to  Annual Report Submittal Tips [2022]  for additional helpful information.

PLEASE NOTE, IF YOUR FACILITY FILED A NO EXPOSURE EXCLUSION (NEE) FORM, THERE IS NO REQUIREMENT TO FILE AN ANNUAL REPORT.

Data to Submit	Where to Submit It	When to Submit It	Permit Reference	Where to Find Help & Training
Annual Report (AR)	GEOS GEOS - Public (georgia.gov)	Due by January 31, 2025	Part 7.3 (Page 47 & 48)	GEOS Training and Technical Assistance | Environmental Protection Division (georgia.gov) GEOS Support – State of Georgia (zendesk.com)

NetDMR Submittals for Industrial Stormwater At-A-Glance:

Data to Submit	Where to Submit It	When to Submit It	Permit Reference	Where to Find Help & Training
Monitoring Data (indicator, benchmark, etc.)	NetDMR EPA NetDMR Streamlined Registration	45 days after the end of each calendar quarter (even if you didn't sample)	Part 6 (Page 36 – 47)	EPA Net DMR Help Site: NetDMR Homepage - OECA ICIS (servicenowservices.com)

If you have any questions about your NetDMR account, you may contact EPD Support here: [email protected]

Setting Up Your Account 

EPA hosted a training webinar on December 14, 2022 at 1:00 pm (EST). A copy of this recorded training is available here. A copy of the Q&A chat box (edited for clarity) is available here . A PDF copy of the PowerPoint used for this session is available here .

Additional EPA Training resources are available here:

• NetDMR Help Center - NetDMR Training Schedule (servicenowservices.com)
• EPA Net DMR Help Site: NetDMR Homepage - OECA ICIS (servicenowservices.com) 

Instructions on how to create your NetDMR account are here PowerPoint Presentation (govdelivery.com) and also at this video link Creating a CDX Account for NetDMR | Environmental Protection Division (georgia.gov). 

FAQs regarding quarterly data reporting in NetDMR 

What is due, when? 

1. Quarterly discharge monitoring reports (DMRs) are required to be submitted through NetDMR 45 days following the quarterly reporting period starting January 1, 2023.  That means that the first quarterly reporting is due May 15, 2023. 

What if I haven’t collected any data yet? 

1. Quarterly reporting is still required in NetDMR.  You must still log into NetDMR and enter NODI code 9 to indicate “Conditional Monitoring – Not Required”. 

What is my Permit Number in the DMR system? 

1. Your permit number will be “GAIS” + the last 5 digits of your NOI unique ID number. Your NOI number can be found inside your ARs or inside of GEOS after the word “watershed” in the source column of the permits under your account.  Your permit number will not be GAR050000 in this system…that is the general permit number shared by every industry covered by this permit.  

2. GAR050000 is the general permit number.  Your specific permit number for use in NetDMR is found in GEOS (PDF) . 

   The permit number in NetDMR will consist of 9 characters starting with "GAIS00000"  (example: GAIS12345, GAIS01234).  If your number, as found in GEOS, is already 9 numbers with 4 leading zeros, simply replace those leading zeros with the characters “GAIS” so that the NetDMR permit number totals 9 alphanumeric characters.

 

Reasons permit may not be in NetDMR:

•            Unapproved NOI's will not be in NetDMR. 

•            NEE's do not report in NetDMR

 

If there are errors in the parameters of the DMR... 

1. For extra parameters you should not have: please use NODI code 9 and include a comment in the comment box inside of the DMR to highlight what parameters were added in error. 
2. For parameters that were left out/omitted: provide data inside the comment box for parameters that may have been omitted.  
3. If you have something called MSP as an outfall: MSP means “material storage pile”. If we gave you that in error, please use NODI code 9 and the comment box inside of the DMR to say that you do not have a material storage pile. 

Note: the use of NODI code 9 satisfies the reporting requirement and will prevent the auto-generation of a violation 

 

 

Other notables:

•            Annual Reports get reported in GEOS (please see the section above this called "Submitting Annual Reports.")

•            NetDMR is for reporting sampling data collected beginning as of January 1, 2023. NetDMR is not for data collected during calendar year 2022.

The IGP requires permitted facilities to determine if they discharge into, or within one linear mile, upstream of, and in the same watershed as, any portion of an impaired water. Impaired Waters are those waterbodies where the EVALUATION is listed as NOT SUPPORTING on Georgia’s 305(b)/303(d) List of Waters. This information is autopopulated on the NOI/NEE form on GEOS, but permittee should check using the tools below.

Lists

Full lists of all impaired waterbodies, as well as listing methodology and key abbreviations, are available at http://epd.georgia.gov/georgia-305b303d-list-documents. Please use the 2022 List Documents and Integrated Report, since these are the most recent approved lists.

Maps

The GIS datasets are available at: http://epd.georgia.gov/geographic-information-systems-gis-databases-and-documentation.

EPD's Industrial Facility Inspection Form

EPD conducts between 100 to 125 inspections per year of facilities either permitted under the IGP through submission of a Notice of Intent or excluded from coverage through submittal of a No Exposure Exclusion.  Below is the form we use to inspect.  Please note that it generally follows the order of the permit and that permit citations are given for most items.

• NPDES General Permit No. GAR050000 Facility Inspection Checklist [March 2023]

MS4 Contact List

Facilities covered under the IGP that discharge to a Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System (MS4) are required to send a copy of their Notice of Intent (NOI) to the MS4.  Please refer to the MS4 Stormwater Contact List below to determine the county where your facility is located.

• MS4 Stormwater Contact List (Word Format) [July 2022]

Permittee Lists for NPDES Industrial Stormwater 2022 IGP

This is a list of the facilities that either have coverage under 2022 IGP Notice of Intent (NOI) or exemption from No Exposure Exclusion (NEE). Whether they have an NOI or NEE is indicated in the column entitled “Submittal Type.”

• List of Facilities Covered Under the 2022 IGP  [November 2023]

SIC Code Reference Materials

If your facility has a primary Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) code listed in Appendix D of the IGP and discharges stormwater associated with industrial activity, then the facility must file a Notice of Intent (NOI) for coverage under the IGP or a No Exposure Exclusion (NEE) for exemption from it. For more information about SIC codes please refer to www.osha.gov.

•   Appendix D of the IGP  [June 2022]

NPDES Regulatory Status for Mines

Determination of NPDES Regulatory Status of Various Discharges on a Mine Site [2017]

The Georgia Environmental Protection Division (EPD) Watershed Protection Branch has initiated bi-annual stakeholder workgroup meetings to review and discuss PERMIT NO. GAR050000, hereafter called the IGP. These meetings provide stakeholders with the opportunity to engage in dialog with EPD staff to discuss the implementation of the 2022 IGP throughout the term of the permit.

The first virtual meeting was held on November 18, 2022 and focused on proposed corrections, such as typos and omissions, to the 2022 IGP.  Slides from this meeting are available here .

The second Industrial Stormwater Stakeholder Workgroup Meeting was held on October 25, 2023. View the meeting agenda here  and view the slides from this meeting here .