If you are disturbing an acre or more of land anywhere in Texas, you are almost certainly operating under TXR150000 — the TPDES Construction General Permit — whether or not anyone on your project has said that number out loud. It is the single most common environmental permit touching site-civil work in the state, and it is also the one most often handled sloppily, because teams treat it as paperwork rather than as an enforceable permit with its own inspection trail.
This guide covers what TXR150000 actually is, who is required to obtain coverage, how the small-vs-large construction thresholds work, what the SWPPP has to contain, how you obtain and terminate coverage, and where projects most often get themselves into trouble. If you're also coordinating a floodplain development permit or a TxDOT access permit on the same site, this is usually the first environmental approval in the sequence — it needs to be resolved before you break ground, not after.
What is TXR150000?
TXR150000 is the Texas Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (TPDES) Construction General Permit, issued and administered by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ). It authorizes the discharge of stormwater associated with construction activity to waters in the state, and it is Texas's delegated version of the federal NPDES Construction General Permit under the Clean Water Act. Because TCEQ is an EPA-delegated authority for TPDES, Texas projects apply to TCEQ directly rather than to EPA.
The permit is not optional paperwork layered on top of your site plan — it is a standalone environmental authorization. Coverage must be in place, and a site-specific SWPPP must be complete, before soil disturbance begins. Discharging without coverage, or disturbing soil before your SWPPP is finished, is a permit violation independent of anything happening on the land-use or grading-permit side of the project.
Does my project need TXR150000 coverage?
Coverage is required for construction activity that will disturb one acre or more of land, including projects that disturb less than an acre but are part of a larger common plan of development or sale — the classic example being a single lot inside a multi-lot subdivision that collectively disturbs an acre or more. If your site is under an acre and is genuinely a stand-alone project with no larger common plan, TPDES construction coverage generally is not triggered, though local grading and drainage rules may still apply.
What's the difference between small and large construction under TXR150000?
TXR150000 splits projects into two tiers based on total disturbed acreage, and the tier affects the level of documentation and, in some cases, notice obligations:
| Tier | Disturbed acreage | Practical implication |
|---|---|---|
| Small construction | 1 acre to less than 5 acres | SWPPP and coverage required; may qualify for the low-erosivity waiver in eligible periods/locations |
| Large construction | 5 acres or more (including phased common plans that reach 5+ acres cumulatively) | SWPPP and coverage required; waiver generally not available at this scale |
Both tiers require a SWPPP and permit coverage before disturbance — the tier distinction mainly matters for waiver eligibility and for how TCEQ and inspectors scale their expectations for the plan's complexity. A 60-acre master-planned development and a 1.2-acre infill pad are both under TXR150000, but no one expects the same SWPPP.
How do you obtain TXR150000 coverage?
Coverage is obtained by submitting a Notice of Intent (NOI) to TCEQ through the state's electronic reporting system, STEERS (State of Texas Environmental Electronic Reporting System), via TCEQ's ePermits process. The operator — generally the party with control over the plans and specifications, or the party with day-to-day operational control of the site — is responsible for filing. On projects with more than one operator (owner and general contractor, for example), TCEQ recognizes that both parties can hold independent permit obligations, and it is common for both to obtain coverage.
The sequence that keeps projects out of trouble:
- Complete the SWPPP before submitting the NOI — TCEQ expects the plan to exist and be implementable on day one of coverage, not drafted after the fact.
- Submit the NOI through STEERS and wait for the required notice period established by the permit before disturbing soil (small sites below the waiver threshold may have a shorter or different pathway — confirm current requirements on TCEQ's site before relying on any specific waiting period).
- Post the required site notice/signage once coverage is obtained.
- Keep the SWPPP and inspection records on site and available to the operator, contractor, and any TCEQ inspector.
What does the SWPPP have to include?
The SWPPP (Stormwater Pollution Prevention Plan) is the working document that makes TXR150000 coverage real on the ground. At minimum it needs to identify every potential pollutant source on the site and the specific control measure addressing it. Core elements include:
- Site description and map — total site area, disturbed area, existing drainage patterns, discharge points, and receiving waters.
- Erosion and sediment controls — silt fence, sediment basins/traps, check dams, stabilized construction entrances, inlet protection, and sequencing tied to construction phasing.
- Stabilization practices and schedule — temporary and final stabilization triggers and timeframes.
- Good housekeeping measures — concrete washout, fuel/chemical storage, spill prevention and response, solid waste management.
- Inspection schedule — routine inspection frequency, qualifications of the inspector, and a documented corrective-action process when a BMP fails.
- Contractor/subcontractor certifications — each party implementing part of the SWPPP typically signs on to their portion of it.
The SWPPP is a living document — it needs to be updated as the site changes phases, as new areas are opened for disturbance, and as inspections reveal that a planned BMP isn't performing.
Who is responsible once coverage is obtained?
The operator named on the NOI carries the compliance obligation — inspections, SWPPP maintenance, BMP upkeep, and recordkeeping. On most site-civil projects that responsibility sits with the general contractor once construction starts, but the owner/developer who filed the original NOI does not automatically walk away from the obligation just because a contractor is on site; operator status should be assigned deliberately and documented, especially at the ownership handoff between land development and vertical construction.
What is the low-erosivity waiver?
Small construction sites (under 5 acres) in certain locations and during certain low-rainfall-erosivity periods of the year may qualify for a waiver from full permit coverage, based on the erosivity factor for the site's location and construction window. This is a narrow exception, not a default assumption — it depends on the specific erosivity calculation for the site's timing and geography, and it does not apply to large construction. Don't build a schedule around a waiver until it's been checked against the current TCEQ waiver criteria for the actual disturbance window.
How do you close out coverage — what is a Notice of Termination?
Coverage ends when the operator files a Notice of Termination (NOT) with TCEQ. An NOT is appropriate once the site has reached final stabilization — meaning disturbed areas are permanently stabilized (vegetative cover established or an equivalent permanent stabilization measure in place) and temporary erosion/sediment controls have been removed, or once a different operator has assumed responsibility for remaining work and filed their own NOI. Filing the NOT too early, before final stabilization is actually achieved, leaves the site — and the operator — exposed if an inspection finds it still disturbed.
What mistakes trigger enforcement most often?
The recurring failure patterns on TXR150000 sites are rarely exotic — they're procedural:
- Disturbing soil before the NOI/coverage is effective. Mobilization gets ahead of paperwork on tight schedules.
- Treating the SWPPP as a one-time document instead of updating it as phasing changes or a BMP is added or removed.
- Skipping or under-documenting routine inspections, especially after qualifying rain events.
- Letting operator status go undefined during the transition from developer to general contractor to individual builders on a subdivision.
- Filing the NOT before final stabilization is genuinely complete.
Every one of these is avoidable with a clear operator designation, a SWPPP that gets revised as the site does, and an inspection log that's actually kept current — not reconstructed the week before a TCEQ site visit.
How does TXR150000 relate to local grading and drainage review?
TXR150000 is a state environmental permit; it runs in parallel with, not instead of, your local grading permit, subdivision/site-plan approval, and drainage review. Houston, Dallas, and Austin each layer their own stormwater and drainage criteria on top of the state permit — see our Texas site-civil permitting guide for how the full permit stack fits together on a typical Texas land-development project.