A permit from Austin Water’s Pretreatment Program is required to discharge any industrial wastewater into the City's wastewater collection system. Different permits are issued based on the nature of the business and the volume and characteristics of the wastewater to be discharged.

Discharging industrial wastewater without a valid permit is a violation of Chapter 15-10 of the Austin City Code. Refer to the List of Active Wastewater Discharge Permits to verify that your business is properly permitted.

If you do not have a required permit, please fill out an application and contact the Pretreatment Program office as soon as possible. Each separately permitted source is considered to be an industrial user. The process for obtaining a discharge permit and the type of permit application required vary for different industrial users:

Permit fees are assessed based on the class of industrial user and applicable analytical requirements. Fee collection is now being conducted via the standard billing system for all City utility services.

All General Industrial User (GIU) Wastewater Discharge Permits are renewed automatically annually in December for the next calendar year (January-December) when the customer is still active at the end of the year.

The annual Industrial Wastewater Discharge Permit is billed monthly through the City of Austin’s utility bill. This fee is located on the line item “Monthly Discharge Permit Fee” under the section titled “Wastewater Service” of the utility bill.

To print your new Wastewater Discharge Permit, after the beginning of the new year, simply:

  1. Click this General Industrial User Wastewater Discharge Permit link.
     
  2. Where prompted (indicated by the red box in the example below), enter the permit number for your business. This can be found from any of the below resources:

Example:

image of discharge permit report

  1. Click the green “Submit” box to and the Wastewater Discharge Permit will appear underneath with the option to “Print this Permit”.

You may only print one Wastewater Discharge Permit at a time. If your business has multiple permits, repeat the steps above for each permit.

If you are unable to access or print your permit, the Pretreatment staff will be happy to assist you with the process or provide 
you with a printed copy through fax or regular mail.

 

If you have already obtained a General Industrial User permit, follow this link to print your current permit.

For more information, contact the Pretreatment staff by email at IndustrialWaste@austintexas.gov or by phone at 512-972-1060.

Other Political Subdivisions

By definition, a political subdivision can set its own rules within its jurisdiction. Given the importance of the Austin City Code as the enforcement authority behind our Pretreatment Program, a political subdivision in the Austin Water Utility service area discharging wastewater to the City presents a special concern. These concerns are compounded if the political subdivision receives any industrial sources of wastewater within its jurisdiction.

Typically, a political subdivision with no sources of industrial wastewater would not be required to have a Wastewater Discharge Permit. Special circumstances unique to a political subdivision, however, may trigger the need for such a permit. One notable example would be a requirement to perform sulfide monitoring. The combined discharge from a political subdivision to the City is subject to pretreatment standards, and compliance with all discharge limitations is required whether the political subdivision is required to have a permit or not.

Conversely, every political subdivision with any internal source of industrial waste must obtain a Wastewater Discharge Permit prior to any discharge into the City of Austin. The control of internal sources of industrial waste within a political subdivision is not possible unless it adopts rules of its own. Therefore, as a prerequisite for the permit, the political subdivision would be required create its own pretreatment authority to enforce standards at least as stringent as Chapter 15-10 of the Austin City Code. To meet these requirements, each political subdivision must either:

  1. Enter into an inter-local agreement with the City of Austin for pretreatment program services.
  2. Enforce its own industrial waste rules.
  3. Hire a third party contractor to enforce its rules.