South Carolina NPDES permit search
Status, expiry and violations for 120 municipal wastewater permits · issued by SCDES
In short
How do I look up an NPDES permit in South 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 SCDES Map Explorer. EPA’s ECHO database shows the monitoring results and violations of every permit. The 651 industrial permits in South Carolina are listed in Klarifi with a free account.
Links to official sources checked September 2026.
Effective
48
Administratively continued
68
Expired
3
Plants with effluent violations, 3 years
77
Where to find official South Carolina NPDES records
South Carolina Department of Environmental Services (SCDES) runs the NPDES program in South 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. SCDES website ↗
permits · applications
SCDES’s ePermitting map. Type the facility name or NPDES permit number (for example SC0020443), or open Advanced Search and choose Permit Category “WTR-NPDES-Wastewater Individual Permit” with a county.
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 are SC plus seven characters (SC0020443); general permits are SCG plus six digits and the small MS4 permit SCS400001.
- Violations and enforcement
- SCDES’s monthly enforcement reports ↗
Industrial and commercial NPDES permits in South Carolina
Most NPDES permits are not held by municipal plants. EPA’s permit database lists 651 individual permits in force for industrial and commercial facilities in South Carolina (manufacturers, food processors, mines, power plants, landfills), 117 of them major dischargers, plus 1,019 facilities covered by a general permit, mostly for stormwater. 148 of the individual permits recorded at least one effluent violation in the last three years.
| Facility | Permit | Status | Expires | Effluent violations |
|---|
Unlock 651 industrial permits in South Carolina
Search every industrial and commercial discharger in South Carolina by name or permit number, with permit status, expiry and violation history. Free with a Klarifi account.
Industrial and commercial NPDES permits in South 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 South Carolina wastewater plants
77 of the 120 municipal plants on this page recorded at least one effluent violation, a monitored value above a permit limit, in the last three years, and 83 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 42 formal cases naming South Carolina wastewater plants, 3 of them since fiscal year 2020, with $701,222 in penalties assessed. Enforcement cases in South 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.
Largest permit holders in South Carolina
| Facility | City | Avg flow (MGD) | Design (MGD) | NPDES permit | Status | Expires | Violations (3y) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Metro Wastewater Treatment Plant | Columbia | 27.08 | 60 | SC0020940 | Administratively continued | May 2023 | 7 |
| Gsw&sa Schwartz Myrtle Beach & Bucksport Reg Wwtps | Conway | 14.52 | 41.75 | SC0037753 | Effective | Jul 2030 | 7 |
| Plum Island WWTP | Charleston | 21.36 | 36 | SC0021229 | Administratively continued | Jul 2024 | 3 |
| North Charleston Sewer District WWTP Herbert Site | North Charleston | 14.5 | 32 | SC0024783 | Administratively continued | Aug 2024 | 2 |
| Wcrsa Mauldin Road Wastewater Treatment Plant | Greenville | 13.25 | 29 | SC0041211 | Administratively continued | Jun 2008 | 22 |
| Lower Berkeley Wastewater Treatment Plant | Goose Creek | 8.77 | 22.5 | SC0046060 | Administratively continued | Apr 2024 | 1 |
| Pelham WWTP | Greer | 8.57 | 22.5 | SC0033804 | Administratively continued | Dec 2023 | 1 |
| East Rich Co Psd Gills Creek | Columbia | 8.5 | 16 | SC0038865 | Expired | May 2023 | 2 |
| Rifle Range Wastewater Treatment Facility | Mount Pleasant | 6.96 | 14.3 | SC0040771 | Effective | Apr 2030 | 0 |
| City Of Florence Pee Dee River WWTP | Florence | 12.36 | — | SC0045462 | Effective | May 2031 | 5 |
South 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 · Tertiary treatment · WWTP · all terms