Army Corps Phasing Out Regional General Permits in New England

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ New England District is phasing out regional general permits (RGPs) and replacing them with standardized nationwide permits (NWPs). 

RGPs are issued on a state-by-state basis by a division or district engineer and are used currently in all New England states. The NWPs are consistent across all states and are issued by Corps headquarters. 

The NWPs, available here, were recently renewed and will take effect on March 15, 2026. Like RGPs, they are intended to streamline the process of obtaining permits under the Clean Water Act and River and Harbors Act of 1899 for work in streams, wetlands, and other waters of the United States. 

The Corps expects that the use of NWPs will provide greater consistency throughout the New England district and nationwide and save valuable staff time spent periodically revising the individual RGPs. Because the RGPs were modeled after the NWPs, the Corps expects that there will be only limited substantive differences. Key changes include:

• RGPs all have a self-verification form, whereas the NWPs rely instead on a pre-screening tool, available here.
• RGPs regulate up to one acre of permanent, temporary, and secondary impacts, whereas the NWPs regulate up to 0.5 acres of “loss of waters,” which does not include temporary impacts.

Importantly, the Corps is not revoking any of the existing RGPs and thus existing approvals will remain valid as the Corps transitions to using the NWPs. 

The Corps has announced outreach sessions in February, as follows:

• Vermont – February 5
• Connecticut – February 9
• Rhode Island – February 10
• New Hampshire – February 11
• Massachusetts – February 12
• Maine – February 13

For more information on how the new NWPs may affect your next project, contact Brian Rayback or Michelle O’Brien.