Regulatory Permit Types

Individual Permits (IP)

Standard Permit

• An individual permit that involves a full public interest review of an individual application for a Department of the Army permit. A public notice is distributed to all known interested persons. After evaluating all comments and information received, an environmental assessment is prepared and a final decision on the application is made.
• The Public Notice is prepared by the project manager and is distributed to post offices, adjacent property owners, appropriate local governmental officials, including federal and state resource agencies, congressional representatives, local press, the applicant, and other interested persons. The comment period is usually 30 days. The permit decision is generally based on the outcome of a public interest balancing process where the benefits of the project are balanced against the detriments. A permit will be granted unless the proposal is found to be contrary to the public interest.
• Processing time usually takes 90 to 120 days unless a public hearing is required, or an environmental impact statement must be prepared.

Letter of Permission (LOP)

• An abbreviated permit review used to cover activities which slightly¹ exceed nationwide permits or regional permits criteria.
• LOPs are issued after a 15-day coordination period with federal and state resource agencies, adjacent property owners, and a public interest evaluation.
• LOP procedures can be used for minor noncontroversial Section 10 projects and certain categories of Section 404 activities established through appropriate regulatory procedure

¹Based on best professional judgment of the project manager.

General Permits

Nationwide Permits

A permit that authorizes a category of activities throughout the nation. These permits are valid only if the conditions applicable to the permits are met. If the conditions cannot be met, then a regional or individual permit will be required.

Regional Permits 

Regional permits are issued by the district engineer for a general category of activities having minor impacts that do not fall under the existing nationwide permit authorization. Regional permits were developed to help expedite the processing to specific types of applications.