California NPDES permit search
Status, expiry and violations for 193 municipal wastewater permits · issued by SWRCB
In short
How do I look up an NPDES permit in California?
Search this page by permit number or plant name for a municipal plant’s permit status, expiry date and violations. For the official file, search CIWQS or the CIWQS self-monitoring reports. EPA’s ECHO database shows the monitoring results and violations of every permit. The 343 industrial permits in California are listed in Klarifi with a free account.
Links to official sources checked September 2026.
Effective
102
Administratively continued
8
Expired
82
Plants with effluent violations, 3 years
160
Where to find official California NPDES records
California State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB) runs the NPDES program in California under authorization from EPA Region 9. It issues and enforces the permits and keeps the official file: applications, permits, fact sheets and monitoring reports. The nine Regional Water Boards issue most permits, as orders that also serve as waste discharge requirements (WDRs). EPA Region 9 issues the permits on tribal lands and for discharges to federal ocean waters. SWRCB website ↗
permits · inspections · violations · enforcement
The Water Boards’ California Integrated Water Quality System. Its Facility At-A-Glance report shows owner, violations, inspections and orders on one screen: search by facility name, WDID, city or county. For the permit itself, note the order number and open the Regional Board’s adopted orders.
DMRs
Enter the NPDES permit number, WDID or order number and a year to list the self-monitoring reports a discharger filed, with the data. Reports for November 2025 to June 2026 were not required after a data-transfer problem, so those months may be missing.
permits · DMRs · inspections · violations · enforcement
EPA’s Enforcement and Compliance History Online. Search water facilities by permit number, name or city; the Detailed Facility Report lists inspections, violations and enforcement actions, and Effluent Charts plot monitoring results against the permit limits.
- Permit numbers
- Permits are adopted as numbered orders (R2-2020-0022 for a Regional Board, DWQ for the State Board), each with its NPDES number (CA0037851); CIWQS also tracks facilities by WDID.
- Discharge monitoring reports
- Through the eSMR module of CIWQS, which passes the data on to EPA.
- Violations and enforcement
- the CIWQS violation reports ↗ and the CIWQS enforcement orders ↗
Industrial and commercial NPDES permits in California
Most NPDES permits are not held by municipal plants. EPA’s permit database lists 343 individual permits in force for industrial and commercial facilities in California (manufacturers, food processors, mines, power plants, landfills), 72 of them major dischargers, plus 168 facilities covered by a general permit, mostly for stormwater. 35 of the individual permits recorded at least one effluent violation in the last three years.
| Facility | Permit | Status | Expires | Effluent violations |
|---|
Unlock 343 industrial permits in California
Search every industrial and commercial discharger in California by name or permit number, with permit status, expiry and violation history. Free with a Klarifi account.
Industrial and commercial NPDES permits in California: permits in force (effective or administratively continued) held by facilities EPA does not class as publicly owned treatment works or federal facilities. Source: EPA ICIS-NPDES via Klarifi, October 2026.
Violations at California wastewater plants
160 of the 193 municipal plants on this page recorded at least one effluent violation, a monitored value above a permit limit, in the last three years, and 173 had a violation of any kind, including late or missing monitoring reports. Each plant’s page shows its own count. EPA’s enforcement records list 38 formal cases naming California wastewater plants, 6 of them since fiscal year 2020, with $2.4 million in penalties assessed. Enforcement cases in California →
Permit renewals by year
An NPDES permit runs for five years. To keep discharging, a plant must apply for renewal at least 180 days before the expiry date, and the renewed permit usually arrives with tighter effluent limits, new monitoring requirements or a compliance schedule. That is why the year a permit expires is the year a plant starts budgeting for upgrades: nutrient removal, disinfection, capacity or controls.
2029: 19 permits
2030: 19 permits
2031: 12 permits
Largest permit holders in California
| Facility | City | Avg flow (MGD) | Design (MGD) | NPDES permit | Status | Expires | Violations (3y) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hyperion Treatment Plant | Playa Del Rey | 222.56 | 450 | CA0109991 | Effective | Apr 2028 | 42 |
| Ccsf- Southeast Water Pollution Control Plant | San Francisco | 72.75 | 400 | CA0037664 | Expired | Sep 2018 | 10 |
| Joint Water Pollution Control Plant | Carson | 154.69 | 400 | CA0053813 | Effective | Jun 2028 | 19 |
| Combined Wastewater Treatment Plant | Sacramento | 16.24 | 380 | CA0079111 | Expired | Sep 2025 | 4 |
| Orange County Sanitation District Plant 1 | Fountain Valley | 99.43 | 332 | CA0110604 | Administratively continued | Jul 2026 | 0 |
| Point Loma Wastewater Treatment Plant | San Diego | 140.8 | 240 | CA0107409 | Effective | Apr 2031 | 1689 |
| Sacramento County Wastewater Treatment Plant | Elk Grove | — | 181 | CA0077682 | Effective | Jul 2031 | 6 |
| East Bay Mud Main WWTP | Oakland | — | 120 | CA0037702 | Effective | Mar 2031 | 22 |
| San Jose Creek Water Reclamation Plant | Whittier | 33.58 | 100 | CA0053911 | Effective | Nov 2026 | 28 |
| Chino | Chino | 10.94 | 85 | CA8000409 | Effective | Jul 2027 | 519 |
California NPDES permits: questions
NPDES permit search in other states
Sources and methodology
Flow, permit and violation figures come from the EPA's ICIS-NPDES discharge monitoring records. Population served comes from the Clean Watersheds Needs Survey 2022. Treatment structures are identified by Klarifi's review of aerial imagery, and capital improvement projects are extracted from published municipal budget documents. Violations are counted over the last three years of monitoring reports.
Data refreshed October 12, 2026.
Wastewater terms: NPDES permit · POTW · Significant industrial user · MGD · Anaerobic digester · Lift station · all terms