Glossary

Construction stormwater permit

Also: NOI, notice of intent, construction general permit, CGP

The permit a site needs before it disturbs the ground; the notice filed for it often names the builder and dates the start of work.

Under the Clean Water Act, a construction site that disturbs an acre or more needs coverage under a construction stormwater permit before ground work starts. In most states the site's operator gets it by filing a notice of intent (NOI) with the state environmental agency, or with the EPA in the states it covers, under a general permit, and keeps a stormwater pollution prevention plan on site.

For anyone selling into a site, the NOI is the most useful record there is. It is filed weeks before clearing and grading, it gives the disturbed acreage and the expected start and end of work, and the operator who files it is often the general contractor or the EPC itself. When it names one, that is the builder on record.

Groundtrace reads the stormwater registries of the states that publish them and the EPA's, matches each filing to its project, and takes the filing's date as the construction start when one is on file.