The Reasons DEP Can Require an Individual NPDES Permit, What Changes If It Happens, and How to Address DEP's Concerns Early
If you've heard that Pennsylvania DEP might move your facility off the PAG-03 general permit and onto an individual permit, the news probably landed badly. PAG-03 is the general permit most industrial facilities in Pennsylvania use, one set of rules for every facility in a sector. An individual permit is written for your facility alone, which sounds like more work, more cost, and more attention from DEP. The change is real, but it follows a predictable process, and the reasons behind it are usually things you can see coming. The short version is that DEP moves a facility when PAG-03 stops fitting the discharge: sampling results that stay high, a sensitive or impaired stream, activities PAG-03 doesn't cover, or a decision that your site needs terms written just for it.
Below, we walk through each of those triggers, what changes for your facility if DEP requires an individual permit, and what you can do now to address DEP's concerns before a letter shows up. We've kept this tied to what the permit and the regulations say, so you can check your own paperwork against it. If you'd rather talk through your situation at any point, feel free to reach out to RMA.
Table of Contents
TL;DR
PA DEP can require an individual permit whenever the PAG-03 general permit stops fitting a discharge. The usual reasons are sampling results that stay above the permit's benchmark values after corrective actions, a discharge to a High Quality, Exceptional Value, or impaired stream, activities or wastewater PAG-03 doesn't cover, or a DEP finding that the site needs terms written for it. If it happens, DEP sends a written notice with a deadline, you file a more detailed application, and the draft permit goes out for public comment, while your PAG-03 coverage continues as long as your application is complete and on time. Fixing the causes early and staying in touch with your DEP regional office is the best way to keep the process calm.
Why Can PA DEP Require an Individual NPDES Permit in Place of PAG-03?
PAG-03 is a general permit. DEP wrote one set of conditions for a whole category of industrial stormwater discharges, and each facility gets coverage by submitting a Notice of Intent (NOI) to its DEP regional office. That works when facilities are similar enough that the same benchmarks and best management practices (BMPs) protect the stream at every site. When a facility stops fitting that mold, Pennsylvania's NPDES regulations at 25 Pa. Code § 92a.54 let DEP deny coverage, or revoke it, and require an individual permit instead.
The regulation lists the reasons. In plain terms, DEP can act when a discharge has the potential to contribute pollution that's better controlled under its own permit, when the facility isn't complying with the general permit's conditions, when the discharge won't result in compliance with an effluent limit or water quality standard, when it would go to a High Quality or Exceptional Value stream, or when DEP decides an individual permit is needed to stay in line with the Clean Water Act, the Clean Streams Law, or its own rules. The PAG-03 permit repeats that list, and both the regulation and the permit let any interested person petition DEP to require an individual permit for a specific discharge. If you want a refresher on how the permit types differ, our guide to general, individual, and no exposure permits covers the basics, and our PAG-03 guide walks through the general permit itself.
Here's how the common triggers map to what DEP looks at.
| Trigger |
What DEP looks at |
Where it comes from |
| Benchmark results that stay high |
Sampling results for the same pollutant at the same outfall over consecutive monitoring periods, and what your corrective actions changed |
PAG-03 Part C and the sector appendices |
| Sensitive or impaired receiving waters |
Whether your discharge goes to a High Quality, Exceptional Value, or impaired stream, and whether a TMDL applies |
PAG-03 eligibility list and 25 Pa. Code § 92a.54(e) |
| Discharges PAG-03 doesn't cover |
Process wastewater, certain wash water, and other sector-specific exclusions |
PAG-03 sector appendices |
| Compliance problems |
Whether you've met PAG-03 conditions, including plans and reports DEP required |
25 Pa. Code § 92a.54(e)(2) and (3) |
| Site-specific concerns |
Whether the discharge could cause or contribute to a water quality problem that general conditions won't solve |
25 Pa. Code § 92a.54(e)(1), (6), and (8) |
DEP can raise the issue at several points. It can happen when DEP reviews a PAG-03 application or renewal, since the permit lets DEP deny coverage based on the NOI or other relevant information, including your monitoring data. It can follow a run of high benchmark results. And it can come up when something changes about your stream or your own operations. Being moved to an individual permit isn't a penalty in itself. It's DEP saying the general permit isn't the right fit for this discharge, although it can follow compliance problems.
How Do Repeated PAG-03 Benchmark Exceedances Lead to an Individual Permit?
Benchmark values are the target numbers in your PAG-03 sector appendix. They aren't effluent limits, and one high result isn't a permit violation. They're DEP's way of testing whether your site's BMPs are working, so the permit builds in a ladder of responses when the same pollutant keeps coming back high at the same outfall. Our article on benchmark values versus effluent limits explains the difference in more detail.
| Consecutive exceedances (same pollutant, same outfall) |
What PAG-03 requires |
| One |
No plan required, since benchmarks aren't effluent limits. This is the time to investigate. |
| Two or more |
A corrective action plan submitted to DEP within 90 days of the end of the monitoring period that triggered it, then carried out right away or on the schedule in the plan |
| Four or more |
A new corrective action plan plus DEP's Stormwater BMPs Checklist certifying that the applicable additional controls are in place, again within 90 days |
| Continued exceedances |
DEP may, at its discretion, notify you in writing that you must apply for an individual permit |
Two things stand out about that ladder. First, the plans have teeth. Failing to submit and carry out a corrective action plan, or the BMPs checklist at the four-exceedance stage, counts as non-compliance on its own, and non-compliance is another reason DEP can point to when requiring an individual permit. Second, the permit gives you ways to make your case with evidence. You don't have to add a control if you can show, with documentation, that the exceedances come solely from natural background sources or run-on from off site, that further reductions aren't technologically available and economically practicable in light of best industry practice, or that they aren't needed to protect water quality. For the checklist, infeasibility for your facility is also a valid reason.
By the time DEP is talking about an individual permit over benchmarks, it's usually looking at a facility that has had a chance to fix the problem, filed plans saying it would, and still sees the same numbers. If you're seeing high results now, what to do when your stormwater sampling results are high is a good place to start, and acting before a second consecutive exceedance is the best way to stay off this ladder.
How Do Sensitive or Impaired Receiving Waters Affect PAG-03 Eligibility?
Where your stormwater ends up matters as much as what's in it. PAG-03 doesn't authorize stormwater discharged directly to surface waters classified as High Quality (HQ) or Exceptional Value (EV) under 25 Pa. Code Chapter 93. Those are the designations Pennsylvania gives its most protected streams, and a facility discharging directly to one generally needs an individual permit. DEP's own industrial stormwater page names HQ and EV watersheds as a common reason a facility isn't eligible for PAG-03.
Impaired waters work differently. An impaired water is a stream that isn't meeting its designated uses and is listed in Categories 4 and 5 of Pennsylvania's Integrated Water Quality Monitoring and Assessment Report. PAG-03 doesn't automatically bar discharges to those streams. It excludes stormwater discharges to impaired waters when the discharge contains, or is expected to contain, pollutants at concentrations that could cause or contribute to the impairment. It also excludes discharges that are subject to a wasteload allocation in a total maximum daily load, or TMDL. A TMDL is a pollution budget for a waterbody, and the wasteload allocation is the share assigned to permitted sources like your outfall. A facility sending sediment to a stream impaired by sediment is in a very different spot than one sending it to a stream impaired by something unrelated.
Designations aren't permanent. Streams get redesignated, new impairments get listed, and TMDLs get written, and any of those can change whether PAG-03 still fits your outfall. DEP can also deny coverage when a discharge has the potential to cause or contribute to a violation of water quality standards, or when it would adversely affect a listed threatened or endangered species or its critical habitat. The designations and impaired-waters listings are public, and DEP regional staff can confirm how your receiving stream is classified. Our article on TMDLs, 303(d) impaired waters, and NPDES stormwater permits goes deeper on the impaired-water side.
Which Discharges and Activities Does PAG-03 Not Cover?
PAG-03 covers stormwater associated with industrial activity, plus a short list of non-stormwater discharges, including emergency firefighting water, potable water line flushing, air conditioner condensate, irrigation drainage, and certain pavement and building wash water when no detergents or hazardous cleaners are used. Anything outside that list isn't covered unless DEP specifically authorizes it in writing. If your site discharges process wastewater or washes equipment into a storm drain, that's often where the general permit stops fitting. Our article on stormwater versus process water explains where the line sits.
Each sector appendix adds its own exclusions that call for an individual permit. Chemical and allied products facilities, for example, can't use PAG-03 for wash water from material handling and processing areas or from rinsing drums, tanks, and containers. Air transportation facilities can't use it for aircraft, ground vehicle, runway, or equipment wash water, or for dry weather discharges containing deicing chemicals. Read your own appendix's discharge prohibitions line by line.
A few other situations push a facility out of PAG-03. A facility that already has, or is required to get, an individual permit for non-stormwater discharges can't use PAG-03 for its stormwater, because the stormwater gets folded into the individual permit. Stormwater discharges at facilities with cooling water intake structures aren't authorized. And DEP can deny coverage to an applicant who has failed to comply with DEP regulations, permits, or orders at other activities it regulates.
Facilities also drift out of PAG-03 over time. A site that was a clean fit when it filed its NOI can add a wash bay, a new outfall, or a new process, and the permit expects you to tell DEP. It requires an NOI amendment when you add an outfall or change your industrial activity in a way that alters your appendix requirements, and it requires notice no later than 30 days before physical changes that could increase pollutants or cause non-compliance.
Finally, DEP doesn't need a specific exclusion to act. Both the regulation and the permit let DEP require an individual permit when it determines one is necessary to ensure compliance with the Clean Water Act, the Clean Streams Law, or its regulations. In practice, that's how DEP gets to site-specific limits: it looks at your discharge and your stream and decides general conditions won't do the job.
What Changes If DEP Requires an Individual NPDES Permit for My Facility?
It starts with a written notice. DEP's notice gives a brief statement of its reasons, includes the individual permit application form, sets a deadline, and tells you that missing the deadline ends your authorization to discharge under PAG-03. Under 25 Pa. Code § 92a.54, a complete application is due within 90 days of receiving the notice, unless you already hold a valid individual permit. If you submit a timely, complete application, your PAG-03 coverage continues until DEP takes final action on it, and coverage ends automatically when the individual permit takes effect.
Expect a more detailed application than the NOI you filed for PAG-03. DEP uses its Individual NPDES Permit Application for Industrial Stormwater, and it wants to understand your operations, drainage, outfalls, pollutants, and receiving stream well enough to write terms for your site.
The biggest procedural change is public notice. Your NOI for PAG-03 coverage doesn't go through a public comment period, but an individual permit does. DEP publishes notice of the application and of the draft permit in the Pennsylvania Bulletin, and you post the notice near the entrance to your premises, and at the discharge location if it's remote. Anyone can comment during the 30-day comment period, which DEP can extend once by 15 days, and DEP holds a public hearing when there's significant public interest. DEP also sends the fact sheet for a draft permit to anyone who asks. For a facility used to working only with DEP, that's a noticeable shift.
The permit itself is written for your facility. DEP can set effluent limits, including numeric limits tied to water quality standards, along with monitoring, BMP, and special conditions, and the public notice for the draft permit describes the proposed effluent limits and any compliance schedule. Some individual stormwater permits carry over PAG-03-style benchmarks, and others set firm limits, so read your draft closely. An exceedance of a benchmark isn't a permit violation, while an exceedance of an effluent limit is. Here's how the two options compare on the main points.
| |
PAG-03 general permit |
Individual NPDES permit |
| Who writes the terms |
DEP, once, for the whole sector |
DEP, for your facility |
| How you apply |
Notice of Intent |
Full individual application for industrial stormwater |
| Public input |
No public comment period on NOIs |
Pennsylvania Bulletin notice, 30-day comment period, possible hearing |
| Limits and monitoring |
Sector appendix benchmarks and BMPs |
Whatever DEP writes into your permit, which can include numeric effluent limits |
| Fees under 25 Pa. Code Chapter 92a |
$500 annual NOI installment |
$3,000 application fee for a new permit and a $1,500 annual fee |
| Term |
Tied to the PAG-03 permit term, which currently runs through March 23, 2028 |
Generally five years, with a renewal application due at least 180 days before expiration |
Agency fees are the small part of the cost. The bigger expense is the site evaluation, drainage and outfall work, sampling, and the application itself, and that runs higher than for PAG-03 because the application is more involved. Our PAG-03 cost breakdown shows what goes into the general permit side, which gives you a baseline for comparison.
What Can a Facility Do Early to Address DEP's Concerns About PAG-03 Coverage?
Start with your own data. Pull the lab reports and field records for the outfall DEP is focused on and check the basics: whether grab samples were taken in the first 30 minutes of the discharge, whether the outfall represents its drainage area, and whether the lab results match what you'd expect from the site. Sampling mistakes can push a result over a benchmark on their own, and our list of the top reasons stormwater samples come back bad is a quick way to rule them out.
Then fix the source. Look for exposed materials, sediment tracking, dust, failing BMPs, and spill areas, and tighten up sweeping, covers, berms, and housekeeping where the data points. Update your PPC Plan when anything changes, since PAG-03 requires an annual review and an update when your operations change, and it requires training for your team at least once a year. Our comparison of SWPPPs and PPC Plans under PAG-03 explains what DEP expects in the plan, and our online training library covers the training side. If a recurring result traces to run-on from a neighbor or to natural background, document it, because the permit lets you make that case in a corrective action plan.
Know your stream, and speak up if eligibility is in doubt. PAG-03 expects permittees to act promptly when something makes a discharge ineligible: take steps to restore eligibility, tell DEP in writing, and, if eligibility can't be restored, submit an individual permit application. Telling DEP yourself, with a plan in hand, is a stronger starting point than waiting for a letter.
Keep every deadline and stay in touch with your DEP regional office. A corrective action plan that arrives on time, with real BMP changes and a schedule, gives DEP evidence that you're acting on the problem. Our article on what happens during a PA DEP stormwater inspection helps you prepare if DEP visits. And sometimes an individual permit simply fits your operation better, and any PAG-03 permittee can request one.
How Can RMA Help If DEP Is Considering an Individual NPDES Permit?
We work with Pennsylvania facilities all the time on PAG-03 coverage, PPC Plans, sampling programs, and individual NPDES permits. If you've received a letter from DEP, or you're looking at a run of benchmark exceedances, we can go through your sampling history and DEP's correspondence, work out which trigger is in play, and tell you plainly whether the problem can be fixed inside PAG-03 or whether an individual permit is the better path. If it's the second, we can prepare the application, help you work through DEP's review, and help you run the permit once you have it. You can see how we handle Pennsylvania stormwater on our Pennsylvania NPDES and stormwater services page.
Not every situation needs a consultant. If your results are only slightly above a benchmark and you already have a corrective action plan underway, you may be able to handle it in house, and we'll tell you if that's our read. If DEP's notice comes alongside a notice of violation, or you want to contest DEP's decision, an environmental attorney can advise you on your options. If you'd like to talk it through, you can call, email, or fill out the form on our website, and you can contact RMA with no obligation.
