TPDES discharge permit applications in Texas

What a TPDES permit covers

TPDES is the Texas Pollutant Discharge Elimination System. A TPDES permit lets one treatment plant discharge treated wastewater into water in the state. It caps the flow and sets effluent limits that TCEQ writes to protect the stream that receives it. A permit runs five years at most.

It is one of three TCEQ paths for a plant. A plant that land-applies its effluent needs a Texas Land Application Permit (TLAP) instead. A site with an eligible industrial wastewater stream may qualify for a 210E reuse authorization.

When you need one

• Your site cannot reach a public sewer, and the flow is too large for a septic system.
• The treated water has nowhere to go but a stream, and reuse or land application does not fit.
• Your city or district plant needs a renewal, or an amendment for more flow.

What we do

1. Compare the paths. Before design, we check a sewer connection, septic, TLAP and 210E against your flow, your land and your schedule.
2. Settle the questions that stall applications. Who holds the service area (CCN), whether a compliant discharge point exists, whether the outfall route crosses someone else's land, and a scope frozen in writing. In our review of nine Texas permitting projects, three were rejected before TCEQ's engineering review began, each for an issue decided before filing.
3. Build the basis of design. Flows from your actual program, phase by phase, and a receiving stream evaluation built on low-flow data.
4. Prepare and file the application on TCEQ's current forms.
5. Carry it through review. We answer deficiency notices and technical questions through public notice.
6. Design the plant. We prepare the preliminary engineering report, the TCEQ design submittal and the construction documents.

What you get

• A written comparison of the paths before you commit to a discharge.
• The TPDES application, with flows by phase and the discharge route.
• Responses to TCEQ's review, then the plant's design submittal.

What affects time and cost

A new permit goes through public participation: two published notices, a comment period, public meetings on request and the right of an affected person to ask for a contested case hearing. TCEQ asks for a new domestic application at least 330 days before discharge begins. That is a planning floor, not a forecast. In our experience, a new domestic permit takes 18 to 36 months from filing.

The receiving stream sets the limits, and the limits drive the plant's cost. A change in scope after filing sends an application back to the start of review. We make a first submittal within 6 weeks of scope authorization and answer comments within 24 hours. TCEQ decides every application, so we never promise a permit date.