DEP’s draft reissuance of the PAG-01 general permit is out for public comment, and comments close Monday, September 21. If you work on construction sites between 1 and 5 acres in Pennsylvania, a single house on a large lot or a three-lot subdivision, it is worth 15 minutes.
PAG-01 has been available since 2022 as the small-site version of the NPDES construction permit. The problem has never been what it requires once you qualify, it is that very few projects can qualify, so a 1.5-acre house ends up in the same PAG-02 process as a 50-acre subdivision.
The best thing in the new draft is a third stormwater path. Under Alternative 3, the township engineer reviews and approves the post-construction stormwater plan under the municipal ordinance, and DEP accepts it. One design, one review, both agencies satisfied. That is how it should work, because the other two paths never relieved you of the township ordinance anyway. Most townships in our area already require volume, rate and water quality analysis that tracks DEP’s, so the “simplified” paths meant designing twice, often to conflicting standards. They also assume nearly flat ground, filter strips at 2 percent or less, which is not a common site in Central Pennsylvania.
The problem is the gate DEP put on Alternative 3. Under the NOI Instructions it is only available where the municipality holds an MS4 permit, or has adopted an ordinance from a county Act 167 plan that DEP approved within the last five years. The ordinance also has to be at least as stringent as DEP’s standards, which is the right test. Most county plans are 10 to 15 years old and have not been updated since Act 167 planning grants dried up. Dauphin County’s dates to 2010. So a township running DEP’s own 2022 model stormwater ordinance can still be shut out.
The odd part: the permit itself does not contain the MS4 or five-year test. Its eligibility language says only that the municipality must have “a stormwater management ordinance that is at least as stringent as 25 Pa. Code § 102.8.” The extra hurdles live in the NOI Instructions, Fact Sheet and municipal sign-off form.
The fix is simple: let the ordinance stand on its own, which is what the permit already says. If a municipal stormwater ordinance meets 25 Pa. Code 102.8(g)(2) and (3), Alternative 3 should be available regardless of MS4 status or when the county plan was last approved.
Also worth knowing, the administrative load is unchanged or heavier: a mandatory pre-application meeting, a deed covenant recorded before the pre-construction meeting, weekly and post-storm inspections by a qualified inspector, and an annual report every February. For a homeowner building one house, that is the part that feels like the full process.
Comments are due Monday, September 21 through DEP’s eComment system (ahs.dep.pa.gov/eComment) or by email to [email protected], and need to include your name and address. R.J. Fisher & Associates is submitting comments and is happy to compare notes.
Source: the Pennsylvania Bulletin notice of the draft PAG-01 reissuance, 56 Pa.B. 5629, published August 22, 2026. The draft package is on DEP’s eLibrary under Permit and Authorization Packages, Clean Water, PAG-01.