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Watershed Permit Assistance Program
WVRC’s Watershed Permit Assistance Program is dedicated to achieving clean water by improving public participation in water permitting processes, and by helping dischargers achieve better permit compliance. We support watershed organizations and the public by answering questions and helping permit reviews.

OUR FOCUS
Since its inception in 2000, the Permit Program has focused on water pollution control discharge permits (called NPDES or National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permits) that are required for municipal, industrial, mining, and other discharges into the state’s rivers and lakes. These permits restrict the amount of pollutants that facilities can discharge.

The program also offers services related to mining, quarry, and Clean Water Act Section 404 permits.

Mining permits are required for coal mining operations. Among other things, these permits affect the intensity of floods downstream from surface mines and the likelihood of damage to downstream ecosystems from failed slurry impoundments.

Section 404 permits allow the use of heavy machinery directly in streams to remove debris and to reconfigure the banks. These permits are also the legal means by which hundreds of miles of West Virginia streams have been buried through mountaintop removal coal mining operations.

SUPPORT FOR WATERSHED ORGANIZATIONS AND THE PUBLIC

We answer questions:
Call or e-mail with questions related to specific permits or federal or state laws, regulations, or policies related to permits.

We offer online information:
Online permit assistance reports and our report Helping Solve Local Wastwater Problems are available to to anyone with permit questions.