NPDES permits in North Carolina
85 permits held by publicly owned wastewater treatment plants · issued by NCDEQ
Effective
60
Administratively continued
23
Expired
1
Total tracked
85
North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality (NCDEQ) runs the NPDES program in North Carolina under delegation from EPA Region 4, issuing and enforcing the discharge permits listed here. Klarifi tracks 85 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
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 | 47.06 | 75 | NC0029033 | Administratively continued | Feb 2025 | 1 |
| Irwin Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant | Charlotte | 10.99 | 15 | NC0024945 | Effective | Oct 2028 | 0 |
| Mason Farm WWTP | Chapel Hill | 4.48 | 14.5 | NC0025241 | Effective | Jul 2030 | 0 |
| Goldsboro WRF | Goldsboro | 5.69 | 14.2 | NC0023949 | Effective | Jan 2029 | 3 |
| Town Of Cary - South Cary WWTP | Apex | 5.1 | 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 | 5.91 | 12 | NC0048879 | Effective | Feb 2028 | 0 |
| Triangle WWTP | Durham | 4.35 | 12 | NC0026051 | Effective | Apr 2027 | 3 |
| Johnnie Mosley Regional WRF | Kinston | 3.46 | 11.85 | NC0024236 | Effective | Jan 2029 | 32 |
| City Of High Point | Thomasville | 3.05 | 10 | NC0024228 | Administratively continued | Feb 2026 | 0 |
| Moore County WPCF | Aberdeen | — | 10 | NC0037508 | Effective | Oct 2027 | 3 |
| Central Johnston County WWTP | Smithfield | 1.5 | 9.5 | NC0030716 | Administratively continued | Mar 2026 | 2 |
| Reidsville WWTP | Reidsville | — | 7.5 | NC0024881 | Administratively continued | Apr 2016 | 13 |
| Town Of Mooresville | Mooresville | — | 7.5 | NC0046728 | Effective | Mar 2029 | 31 |
| New Bern Waste Water Treatment Plant | New Bern | 4.91 | 7 | NC0025348 | Effective | Jun 2027 | 0 |
| City Of Lexington | Lexington | 2.11 | 6.5 | NC0055786 | Effective | Apr 2030 | 3 |
| Cherokee WWTP | Cherokee | 1.25 | 6 | NC0052469 | Effective | Apr 2030 | 10 |
| Holly Springs WWTP | Holly Springs | — | 6 | NC0063096 | Effective | Jul 2028 | 1 |
| Lincolnton WWTP | Lincolnton | — | 6 | NC0025496 | Administratively continued | Jul 2026 | 3 |
| Twelve Mile Creek WWTP | Waxhaw | — | 6 | NC0085359 | Administratively continued | Dec 2025 | 1 |
| Sgwasa WWTP | Butner | 1.36 | 5.5 | NC0026824 | Effective | Oct 2030 | 0 |
| Norman H. Larkins WPCF | Clinton | — | 5 | NC0020117 | Effective | Jan 2029 | 2 |
| Tarboro WWTP | Tarboro | 1.35 | 5 | NC0020605 | Effective | Sep 2029 | 0 |
| Northeast Brunswick Regional WWTP | Navassa | — | 4.98 | NC0086819 | Administratively continued | Sep 2024 | 18 |
| Eagle Road WWTP | Cramerton | 0.53 | 4 | NC0006033 | Effective | Jan 2027 | 0 |
All 85 plants in North Carolina →
NPDES permits in North Carolina: 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.