North Carolina NPDES permit search
Status, expiry and violations for 83 municipal wastewater permits · issued by NCDEQ
In short
How do I look up an NPDES permit in North Carolina?
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 DEQ’s Environmental Application Tracker or DEQ’s list of NPDES permits. EPA’s ECHO database shows the monitoring results and violations of every permit. The 1,628 industrial permits in North Carolina are listed in Klarifi with a free account.
Links to official sources checked September 2026.
Effective
61
Administratively continued
21
Expired
1
Plants with effluent violations, 3 years
56
Where to find official North Carolina NPDES records
North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality (NCDEQ) runs the NPDES program in North Carolina under authorization from EPA Region 4. It issues and enforces the permits and keeps the official file: applications, permits, fact sheets and monitoring reports. NCDEQ website ↗
applications · permits
Type the facility name or NPDES permit number in the “Find Name/Permit #/Appl #” box for the permit or application status and its review steps. Water quality data is updated every business day.
permits
Download the Excel list of active and expired individual permits and filter by permit number, owner, facility or county for status, dates and receiving stream.
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
- Individual permits start NC (NC0089966), general permits NCG and stormwater permits NCS00.
- Discharge monitoring reports
- Through the Division of Water Resources’ own eDMR application.
- Violations and enforcement
- DWR’s monthly civil penalty reports ↗
Industrial and commercial NPDES permits in North Carolina
Most NPDES permits are not held by municipal plants. EPA’s permit database lists 1,628 individual permits in force for industrial and commercial facilities in North Carolina (manufacturers, food processors, mines, power plants, landfills), 102 of them major dischargers, plus 2,472 facilities covered by a general permit, mostly for stormwater. 429 of the individual permits recorded at least one effluent violation in the last three years.
| Facility | Permit | Status | Expires | Effluent violations |
|---|
Unlock 1,628 industrial permits in North Carolina
Search every industrial and commercial discharger in North Carolina by name or permit number, with permit status, expiry and violation history. Free with a Klarifi account.
Industrial and commercial NPDES permits in North Carolina: 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 North Carolina wastewater plants
56 of the 83 municipal plants on this page recorded at least one effluent violation, a monitored value above a permit limit, in the last three years, and 58 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 10 formal cases naming North Carolina wastewater plants, 0 of them since fiscal year 2020, with $7,700 in penalties assessed. Enforcement cases in North Carolina →
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: 17 permits
2030: 19 permits
2031: 1 permits
Largest permit holders in North Carolina
| Facility | City | Avg flow (MGD) | Design (MGD) | NPDES permit | Status | Expires | Violations (3y) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Neuse River Resource Recovery Facility | Raleigh | 47.05 | 75 | NC0029033 | Administratively continued | Feb 2025 | 1 |
| North Durham WRF | Durham | 8.9 | 20 | NC0023841 | Effective | Jan 2029 | 4 |
| Irwin Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant | Charlotte | 10.55 | 15 | NC0024945 | Effective | Oct 2028 | 0 |
| Mason Farm WWTP | Chapel Hill | 4.86 | 14.5 | NC0025241 | Effective | Jul 2030 | 0 |
| Goldsboro WRF | Goldsboro | 6.55 | 14.2 | NC0023949 | Effective | Jan 2029 | 3 |
| Town Of Cary - South Cary WWTP | Apex | 5.96 | 12.8 | NC0065102 | Effective | Apr 2028 | 0 |
| M'Kean Maffitt Wastewater Treatment Plant | Wilmington | — | 12 | NC0023973 | Effective | Nov 2026 | 0 |
| Town Of Cary - North Cary WWTP | Cary | 6.11 | 12 | NC0048879 | Effective | Feb 2028 | 0 |
| Triangle WWTP | Durham | 4.53 | 12 | NC0026051 | Effective | Apr 2027 | 3 |
| Johnnie Mosley Regional WRF | Kinston | 3.42 | 11.85 | NC0024236 | Effective | Jan 2029 | 32 |
North Carolina 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 · FOG · Equalization tank · all terms