NPDES permits in Minnesota
460 permits held by publicly owned wastewater treatment plants · issued by MPCA
Effective
361
Administratively continued
63
Expired
34
Total tracked
460
Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) runs the NPDES program in Minnesota under delegation from EPA Region 5, issuing and enforcing the discharge permits listed here. Klarifi tracks 460 permits held by publicly owned treatment plants in the state, with status, expiry, design flow and three-year compliance for each. Agency website →
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.
Permit renewals by year
2029: 29 permits
2030: 35 permits
2031: 22 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 | 180 | — | MNL029815 | Effective | Dec 2030 | 0 |
| Blue Lake Wastewater Treatment Plant | Shakopee | 26.54 | 42 | MN0029882 | Effective | Sep 2029 | 0 |
| Seneca Wastewater Treatment Plant | Eagan | 20.92 | 38 | MN0030007 | Effective | Nov 2028 | 6 |
| Rochester Water Reclamation Plant | Rochester | 11.33 | 23.85 | MN0024619 | Effective | Mar 2027 | 1 |
| Otsego WWTP West | Otsego | 0.48 | 23.68 | MN0066257 | Effective | Oct 2027 | 8 |
| Grand Rapids WWTP | Grand Rapids | 5.8 | 15.2 | MN0022080 | Expired | Jan 2025 | 6 |
| Albert Lea Wastewater Treatment Facility | Albert Lea | 3.06 | 12.5 | MN0041092 | Effective | Jan 2027 | 1 |
| Met Council - Empire WWTP | Farmington | 12.05 | — | MNL045845 | Effective | Dec 2030 | 0 |
| Met Council - Eagles Point WWTP | Cottage Grove | 6 | 11.9 | MN0029904 | Expired | Oct 2023 | 1 |
| Moorhead Wastewater Treatment Facility | Moorhead | 3.82 | 9 | MN0049069 | Administratively continued | Jun 2026 | 0 |
| Long Prairie WWTP | Long Prairie | 1.51 | 8.6 | MN0066079 | Administratively continued | Apr 2023 | 2 |
| Met Council - St Croix Valley WWTP | Oak Park Heights | 2.54 | 5.8 | MN0029998 | Effective | May 2027 | 0 |
| Northfield WWTP | Northfield | 2.15 | 5.2 | MN0024368 | Expired | May 2025 | 0 |
| Chisholm WWTP | Chisholm | 0.64 | 5 | MN0020117 | Effective | Jan 2027 | 10 |
| Owatonna WWTP | Owatonna | 3.16 | 5 | MN0051284 | Administratively continued | May 2026 | 9 |
| Annandale/maple Lake WWTF | Maple Lake | 0.69 | 4.98 | MN0066966 | Effective | May 2031 | 6 |
| Alexandria Lake Area Sanitary District | Alexandria | 2.95 | 4.7 | MN0040738 | Effective | Jul 2030 | 0 |
| Marshall WWTP | Marshall | 2.51 | 4.5 | MN0022179 | Effective | Feb 2029 | 16 |
| Virginia WWTP | Virginia | 0.94 | 4.3 | MN0030163 | Expired | Mar 2026 | 1 |
| Saint Peter WWTP | Saint Peter | 1.9 | 4 | MN0022535 | Effective | Mar 2027 | 15 |
| Saint Michael WWTP | Saint Michael | 0.96 | 3.17 | MN0020222 | Effective | Nov 2030 | 24 |
| Litchfield WWTP | Litchfield | 2 | 3.1 | MN0023973 | Effective | Dec 2030 | 22 |
| Montevideo WWTP | Montevideo | 1.35 | 3 | MN0020133 | Administratively continued | Apr 2019 | 27 |
| Nkasd WWTP | International Falls | 0.55 | 3 | MN0020257 | Expired | Feb 2026 | 5 |
| Thief River Falls WWTP | Thief River Falls | — | 2.99 | MN0021431 | Administratively continued | Aug 2026 | 29 |
NPDES permits in Minnesota: questions
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 September 11, 2026.