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Questions or Comments: wqap@tceq.texas.gov

Water Quality Individual Permit for Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations

Determine if you are required to obtain an individual permit to operate a concentrated animal feeding operation (CAFO) in Texas. Links to the permit, the application form, and instructions.

If any of the following statements are true, you must obtain coverage under this individual permit.

  • Your CAFO is within one mile of coastal natural resource areas.
  • Your CAFO is a dairy CAFO and in Segment 1226 or 1255 of the Bosque River watershed (which are a major sole-source impairment zone).
  • Your CAFO is, or will be, in the protection zone of a sole-source surface drinking water supplyAdobe Acrobat PDF Document .
  • Your CAFO is in an impaired watershed where the total maximum daily load (TMDL) plan requires water quality protection measures more stringent than those required by this general permit.
  • Your CAFO is required by our executive director to obtain and operate under an individual permit.
  • Your CAFO has a compliance history rating of “poor.” (See About Compliance Histories.)

If none of those statements are true, see the CAFO Water Quality General Permit page.

Application Instructions

If you qualify for this individual permit, include these items in your application package:

Submit one original and one copy of the application package to the Water Quality Applications Team at the address on the application.

Submit one copy of the application package to the TCEQ regional office in the region where the facility is to be built.

After the Application Has Been Submitted

After the application is declared administratively complete, publish, in a local newspaper, a notice of your intent to obtain a water quality permit. You may need to translate the Notice of Receipt and Intent to Obtain a Permit into Spanish. (Spanish language templates).

After the application is declared technically complete, and if the TCEQ executive director is considering approving the permit:

  • Publish a second notice indicating the preliminary decision to issue the permit.

  • Provide a complete copy of the application package and all correspondence for inspection by the public at your place of business and at a public place located within the county.

Public meetings and hearings may also be required.

For more information on the requirements for CAFOs please refer to Title 30, Texas Administrative Code, Chapter 321, Subchapter B (HTML).

If you have questions, please see our Contact Page or e-mail us at CAFO@tceq.texas.gov.