A Plain Breakdown of the NJDEP Annual Fee, SWPPP Preparation, Consultant Setup, Facility Upgrades, Inspections, Training, and Annual Certification
If you've read anything about New Jersey stormwater permits, you've probably seen the Basic Industrial Stormwater General Permit, known as the 5G2, described as the simplest and cheapest option. That's fair, but the state's fee is only one line in the budget. Getting covered also means an application package, a stormwater pollution prevention plan, sometimes a consultant, sometimes changes to your site, and then inspections, training, and an annual certification every year after that. NJDEP's annual fee for the 5G2 starts at $800, hiring us to set everything up typically runs $1,500 to $5,000, and what you spend getting materials and activities indoors or under cover can range from nothing to the biggest number on the page.
Below, we walk through each cost in the order you'll meet it: the NJDEP fee, plan preparation, consultant help with the application and setup, facility upgrades, and the yearly work of staying covered. We also include a table of what pushes each number up or down. If you'd rather skip ahead and talk through your own facility, you can reach out to RMA anytime.
Table of Contents
TL;DR
NJDEP's annual fee for 5G2 coverage starts at $800 a year, with no separate application fee, and the permit doesn't require stormwater sampling, so there are no lab costs. The bigger costs are the one-time setup, which runs about $1,500 to $5,000 when RMA handles the site visit, application package, plan, and training, plus any changes needed to get materials and activities indoors or under cover. After the first year, expect the state fee plus staff time for monthly inspections, annual training, and the annual certification, with optional consultant support on top.
What Does 5G2 Coverage Cost in New Jersey, Start to Finish?
The 5G2 is a New Jersey Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NJPDES) general permit. NJPDES is the state's version of the federal NPDES program, which regulates what leaves your site with rain and snowmelt. NJDEP makes the 5G2 available to regulated industrial facilities that have eliminated, or can eliminate within six months of authorization, all exposure of industrial materials and activities to stormwater. In everyday terms, that's operations that run entirely indoors or under cover, like print shops, breweries, fabricators, and indoor recyclers. Our guide to the 5G2 Basic Industrial Stormwater Permit covers who qualifies, so here we'll stick to the money.
The costs fall into three buckets. The first is what you pay NJDEP, which is the annual fee. The second is one-time setup, meaning the application package, the stormwater pollution prevention plan, training, and any changes to your site so nothing is exposed to rain. The third is the recurring work of staying covered, which is mostly your team's time. Most facilities pay for some of these with cash and some with hours, and the table below shows where each one lands.
| Cost Component |
Who You Pay |
How Often |
Typical Cost |
| NJDEP annual fee |
NJDEP |
Every year, prorated the first year |
$800 minimum in NJDEP's fee schedule |
| SWPPP preparation |
Your staff or a consultant |
Once, then updates when the site changes |
Staff time if you write it yourself, or included in consultant setup |
| Consultant application and setup |
Consultant |
Once |
About $1,500 to $5,000 at RMA |
| BMP and exposure upgrades |
Contractors and vendors |
As needed |
From nothing to a significant capital expense |
| Monthly and annual inspections |
Your staff |
Monthly, plus one comprehensive inspection a year |
Staff time |
| Annual training |
Your staff or a training provider |
Yearly, and for new employees |
Staff time, plus a course fee if you buy one |
| Annual certification |
Your staff |
Yearly |
Staff time |
| Optional ongoing consultant support |
Consultant |
Yearly |
Our rule of thumb for stormwater work is 10 to 30 percent of the setup cost per year |
Putting rough numbers together, year one for a facility that hires us comes to the NJDEP fee (up to $800, prorated for the part of the fee year that's left) plus our setup range of $1,500 to $5,000. That's roughly $2,300 to $5,800 before any changes to the facility itself. After that, the permit costs the state fee plus your team's time, with optional support if you want it. Those figures assume your site already qualifies for the 5G2, and the facility changes we'll cover later are the real wild card.
What Is the NJDEP Annual Fee for 5G2 Coverage?
New Jersey funds its stormwater program with annual fees instead of application fees. The fee schedule in N.J.A.C. 7:14A-3.1 lists $800 for the Basic Industrial Stormwater General Permit, and NJDEP's recent annual fee reports show the same $800 minimum. For comparison, most other stormwater general permits start higher, commonly at $2,300 a year, and an individual industrial stormwater permit carries a $4,100 minimum. In our experience there's no separate application fee for the 5G2, so your first bill arrives after NJDEP authorizes you, and it's prorated for the part of the fee year that remains.
NJDEP sets fees each fiscal year, so check the current fee schedule and the latest annual fee report before you finalize a budget. The bigger practical risk is the bill itself. NJDEP has occasionally failed to send one, and unpaid fees can put your coverage in jeopardy, so if you've been authorized and nothing has shown up, call and ask for it. Timing is another thing to plan around, because authorization can take anywhere from a few weeks to several months. Our article on how long it takes to get a New Jersey stormwater permit explains what to expect, and we recommend running your inspections and training as if you're covered while you wait.
How Much Does 5G2 SWPPP Preparation Cost?
The 5G2 requires a stormwater pollution prevention plan, which NJDEP calls an SPPP and which people also call an SWPPP, an SP3, or just a stormwater plan. We'll use SWPPP from here on, because that's how most facility managers say it. NJDEP offers a template made up of forms that walk you through describing your operation, so the plan doesn't have to be a blank-page exercise. You don't mail the finished plan to NJDEP either. You keep it on site, follow it, and certify to NJDEP each year that you're doing so.
If you write the SWPPP yourself, the cost is staff time: walking the site, listing every activity and material, confirming where water leaves the property, naming the people responsible, and writing it all up. For a small facility that runs entirely indoors with a person on staff who's comfortable with regulations, that can be a reasonable choice, and we'll tell you so. Our article on whether you can write your own SWPPP lays out what that involves. The risk of going alone is that a plan that doesn't match what's happening on site, or that misses an outdoor activity, can mean a Notice of Violation and a deadline to fix it. For most facilities who hire help, plan preparation isn't a separate line item, because it's bundled into the consultant setup we'll cover next.
How Much Does a Consultant Cost to Set Up 5G2 Coverage?
For many facilities, consultant help with the application and setup is the largest single cost of getting covered, and it's often several times the NJDEP fee. What we typically do on a 5G2 project is visit the site (or review it remotely when that works) to confirm the 5G2 is the right permit, prepare and file the application package, which includes a Notice of Intent, a supplemental form, and a certification form, write a SWPPP built around what your facility really does, and train your team on the plan and on how to run inspections. Over the years, our fees for that package have averaged between about $1,500 and $5,000, depending on the complexity of the facility and its operations.
The site visit protects your budget. The most expensive mistake with the 5G2 is applying for it when something is still exposed, because then you're paying for a plan and a permit that don't fit. A good consultant checks that before anything gets filed and can tell you whether a few inexpensive changes would get you qualified, or whether a different path makes more sense, like an industry-specific general permit, an individual permit, or New Jersey's no exposure exclusion. Our guides on which NPDES permit you need and what no exposure means cover those options.
We're not the cheapest consultant, and we don't try to be. You'll work with senior staff, not an intern, and we do a real site assessment instead of filling in a template. Compared with an environmental engineering firm we're usually a little less expensive, because engineering is its own costly specialty, and if your site needs genuine engineering work you'll pay engineering prices for it. We don't do engineering or construction work. We also aren't the right fit if you're shopping solely on the lowest price or the fastest turnaround, since our timelines depend on workload and we'll say so up front. And if you have a capable person on staff and a simple site, you may not need us at all. Our article on getting a stormwater permit yourself will help you decide.
To see what the setup would cost for your facility, use our NPDES pricing calculator. It's below, and it gives you an instant estimate without a form or a sales call.
Keep in mind that the calculator estimates what it costs for us to help you with the permitting work. It doesn't include NJDEP's annual fee, which you pay the state directly, or any changes to your facility, which come from contractors and vendors. Our broader article on what an NPDES permit costs also shows how stormwater pricing works outside New Jersey.
What Do 5G2 BMP and Exposure Upgrades Cost?
Best management practices, or stormwater BMPs, are the physical and procedural steps that keep pollutants out of runoff. For the 5G2 the main one is eliminating exposure, which means every material and industrial activity is indoors, under cover, or in a sealed container. That includes loading and storage areas, and even dumpsters have to be covered when they're not in use. Depending on your site, meeting that standard can cost nothing at all, because everything is already inside. It can also mean buying a storage shed or covered structure, moving inventory indoors, or replacing an open dumpster with a fully contained one.
We can't put a single price on this part, because it depends entirely on what's sitting outside today. We can tell you what shows up in real projects. One 5G2 facility we worked with swapped its uncovered trash dumpster for a fully contained one, and because employees were tossing cigarette butts in the lot, it also bought several cigarette receptacles for the outdoor areas. Another facility found during its monthly inspections that its parking lot was routinely dirty, which led to a sweeping contractor, a cost that repeats for as long as the permit does.
If you can't eliminate exposure within six months of authorization, the 5G2 isn't available to you, and the alternatives cost more. An industry-specific general permit may fit if you're in a covered industry, and an individual NJPDES industrial permit has a $4,100 minimum annual fee and tougher requirements. That's why spending a little to qualify for the 5G2 is often the cheaper route. If getting everything covered means building a structure or an addition, the construction-phase approvals for that work, such as building permits and soil erosion and sediment control certification, are separate from the 5G2. Your contractor or engineer handles those, and we don't prepare them. Where we help is deciding whether the upgrade is worth it and getting the operational permit and plan right once it's built.
What Do 5G2 Inspections, Training, and Annual Certification Cost Each Year?
Once you're covered, the yearly work is lighter than under any other NJPDES stormwater permit, and it's mostly time instead of cash. Someone on your pollution prevention team inspects the areas exposed to rain and snowmelt each month and documents what they find, then does one more comprehensive inspection each year that also reviews the SWPPP, inspection records, and training records. The 5G2 doesn't require stormwater sampling, which is where a lot of other permits pick up their recurring costs, so you won't pay for lab analysis or take samples in the rain. Our guide to doing a stormwater visual inspection covers what to look for.
Training is required at least once a year, and new employees whose work could affect stormwater need it before they start that work. The permit doesn't dictate a format, so a short in-house session works if you document who attended, what you covered, how long it ran, and who led it. Some facilities prefer an outside course, and our article on taking 5G2 training online explains what NJDEP expects. Our online training library is one option if you'd rather buy a course than build one.
The annual certification means submitting NJDEP's certification form once a year, with the due date tied to your authorization, and keeping a copy and your plan on file. It takes little time, but it's easy to forget, and a missed filing or missing records is the kind of thing that turns into a Notice of Violation. That's the real cost of skipping the routine: NJDEP can inspect a 5G2 facility, and the usual outcome of a documentation gap is a deadline to fix it. Some of our clients handle everything themselves after setup. Others hire us for annual support, which can include reminders, plan updates, inspection prep, and answers when questions come up. It can be hands-off or hands-on, and our rule of thumb for ongoing stormwater support is 10 to 30 percent of the original setup cost per year.
What Drives 5G2 Costs Up or Down, and How Can You Keep Them Low?
Two facilities can both qualify for the 5G2 and end up with very different totals. The table below shows the factors that move the numbers most, and which direction each one pushes.
| Cost Driver |
Pushes Cost Up |
Keeps Cost Down |
| Outdoor exposure |
Materials, equipment, or dumpsters outside that need structures, covers, or relocation |
Everything already indoors or in sealed containers |
| Site size and complexity |
Multiple buildings, several activities, more drainage to map |
One building, simple layout, few activities |
| Existing SWPPP and records |
Starting from scratch, or an outdated plan that needs a rewrite |
A current plan that only needs an update, often a few hundred to a few thousand dollars |
| Number of facilities |
Each site needs its own coverage, plan, and annual fee |
Handling several sites at once lowers the per-site consulting cost |
| In-house capability |
Nobody on staff has time or comfort with permit paperwork |
A capable person who can write the plan, inspect, and certify |
| Timeline |
Rush work after an inspector's visit or a violation letter |
Flexible scheduling and annual reviews planned in advance |
| Permit fit |
Discovering later that the 5G2 doesn't apply and starting over |
Confirming the right permit before anything is filed |
| Bundling and travel |
Sites that require overnight travel |
Combining stormwater with other compliance work, or doing part of the assessment remotely |
Pricing out exposure fixes before you apply tells you whether the 5G2 really is your cheapest route, and putting annual training and the certification on your calendar avoids rush fees and missed deadlines. Be careful with the lowest quote for setup, too. A firm that skips the site visit or hands you a template can save money on day one, but a plan that doesn't match your site has to be redone. Our overview of NJPDES stormwater permit requirements is a useful place to check what any quote should cover.
How Can RMA Help You Budget for 5G2 Coverage?
We're a family-run firm based in New Jersey, and we've worked with NJDEP's industrial stormwater permits for decades. For the 5G2, that usually means confirming the permit fits your site, telling you plainly what it would take to qualify if it doesn't yet, preparing the application package and a SWPPP that matches how your facility runs, and training your team to handle inspections and the annual certification. After that, we offer annual support if you want it, and we're just as happy to hand you everything and let you run it yourself.
If you'd like a number for your facility, start with the pricing calculator above, or reach out to RMA by phone at 888-RMA-0230, by email at info@rmagreen.com, or through the form on our website. There's no pressure and no obligation. We'll look at your situation, tell you whether we're the right fit, and if we aren't, or you don't need us, we'll say that and point you in the right direction.
