Minnesota NPDES permit search
Status, expiry and violations for 470 municipal wastewater permits · issued by MPCA as NPDES/SDS permits
In short
How do I look up an NPDES permit in Minnesota?
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 MPCA’s What’s in My Neighborhood or MPCA’s wastewater data browser. EPA’s ECHO database shows the monitoring results and violations of every permit. The 605 industrial permits in Minnesota are listed in Klarifi with a free account.
Links to official sources checked September 2026.
Effective
369
Administratively continued
60
Expired
39
Plants with effluent violations, 3 years
311
Where to find official Minnesota NPDES records
Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) runs the NPDES program in Minnesota under authorization from EPA Region 5. It issues and enforces the permits, which it calls NPDES/SDS permits, and keeps the official file: applications, permits, fact sheets and monitoring reports. MPCA website ↗
permits · permit documents · inspections · enforcement
Choose Advanced search, set Activity type to Wastewater and enter the site name, owner or ID, then open the site: “More Detail” shows permit coverage, inspections and enforcement, and the Documents tab lists what is online.
DMRs
MPCA’s browser for wastewater facility and discharge monitoring report data.
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.
- Discharge monitoring reports
- Through MPCA e-Services, MPCA’s own online reporting, by the 21st of the following month.
- Violations and enforcement
- MPCA’s enforcement reports and penalty data ↗
Industrial and commercial NPDES permits in Minnesota
Most NPDES permits are not held by municipal plants. EPA’s permit database lists 605 individual permits in force for industrial and commercial facilities in Minnesota (manufacturers, food processors, mines, power plants, landfills), 56 of them major dischargers, plus 907 facilities covered by a general permit, mostly for stormwater. 72 of the individual permits recorded at least one effluent violation in the last three years.
| Facility | Permit | Status | Expires | Effluent violations |
|---|
Unlock 605 industrial permits in Minnesota
Search every industrial and commercial discharger in Minnesota by name or permit number, with permit status, expiry and violation history. Free with a Klarifi account.
Industrial and commercial NPDES permits in Minnesota: 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 Minnesota wastewater plants
311 of the 470 municipal plants on this page recorded at least one effluent violation, a monitored value above a permit limit, in the last three years, and 366 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 16 formal cases naming Minnesota wastewater plants, 7 of them since fiscal year 2020, with $2.8 million in penalties assessed. Enforcement cases in Minnesota →
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: 28 permits
2030: 37 permits
2031: 25 permits
Largest permit holders in Minnesota
| Facility | City | Avg flow (MGD) | Design (MGD) | NPDES permit | Status | Expires | Violations (3y) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Met Council Metropolitan WWTP | Saint Paul | 164.27 | — | MNL029815 | Effective | Dec 2030 | 0 |
| Blue Lake Wastewater Treatment Plant | Shakopee | 25.9 | 42 | MN0029882 | Effective | Sep 2029 | 0 |
| Seneca Wastewater Treatment Plant | Eagan | 20.44 | 38 | MN0030007 | Effective | Nov 2028 | 6 |
| Rochester Water Reclamation Plant | Rochester | 11.39 | 23.85 | MN0024619 | Effective | Mar 2027 | 1 |
| Grand Rapids WWTP | Grand Rapids | 5.92 | 15.2 | MN0022080 | Expired | Jan 2025 | 7 |
| Albert Lea Wastewater Treatment Facility | Albert Lea | — | 12.5 | MN0041092 | Effective | Jan 2027 | 0 |
| Met Council - Eagles Point WWTP | Cottage Grove | 5.99 | 11.9 | MN0029904 | Expired | Oct 2023 | 0 |
| Met Council - Empire WWTP | Farmington | 11.65 | — | MNL045845 | Effective | Dec 2030 | 0 |
| Hutchinson WWTP | Hutchinson | 1.93 | 10.86 | MN0055832 | Effective | Oct 2026 | 8 |
| Moorhead Wastewater Treatment Facility | Moorhead | 3.8 | 9 | MN0049069 | Expired | Jun 2026 | 0 |
Minnesota 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 · Inflow and infiltration · Sludge dewatering · all terms