Section 401 Water Quality Certification: Tribal or EPA

  • Permitting agency:
    • The tribes included on this list with Water Quality Standards authorization, when located on tribal land.
    • Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), when located on other tribal land: R10-401-Certs@epa.gov
      • More information is available here.
  • Typical Document Requirements:
    • Documentation of a Pre-Filing Meeting Request
      • Contact EPA for their form.
    • Permit application
      • Contact EPA for their form.
    • JARPA
    • JARPA Drawings
    • Water Quality Monitoring Plan
    • Farming Best Management Practices
  • Typical process:
    • Submit a Federal Permit Package
    • Fill out a Pre-Filing Meeting Request to the permitting agency; Add a “Cc:” to the email being sent to EPA (if applicable) with the Corps’ email address, NWS-PermitApp@usace.army.mil. 
    • Attend pre-filing meeting with certifying authority, if they say that they want to meet; otherwise, wait 30 days before filing certification request.
    • Submit permit package through the website or authority identified above.
    • Public notice and comment period (15-30 days).
    • Certifying authority issues a decision.
    • Refer to this flow chart of the process. Note that this is from the Department of Ecology but is similar to the EPA process.
  • Track Section 401 WQC: Contact EPA for their decisions.