A Section 404 permit is the Clean Water Act approval you need before discharging dredged or fill material into waters of the United States, including many wetlands. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers runs the program. EPA sets the 404(b)(1) guidelines the Corps uses to decide whether a fill is allowable.
On the Gulf Coast that usually means piers, bulkheads, living shorelines, dredging, culverts, and site fill that touches a wetland or tidal water. If the work is only upland, you may not need 404. If it is not, skipping the permit is the expensive mistake.
What the permit actually covers
Section 404 regulates the discharge of dredged or fill material — not every activity near water. Excavation that results in a discharge, placing fill for a pad or road, and many shoreline structures fall in. The Corps also often pairs 404 with Rivers and Harbors Act Section 10 when the work is in a navigable water.
A 404 permit is not a water-quality certification. That is Section 401, issued by the state (or a tribe). Most individual 404 applications need a 401 certification or waiver before the Corps can issue.
Nationwide vs individual
Lower-impact work may fit a Nationwide Permit if it meets the national terms and any Mobile, Vicksburg, or New Orleans District regional conditions. Larger fills, more sensitive resources, or work that fails the NWP thresholds go individual. Individual permits take longer, require a public notice, and get a harder look at alternatives and mitigation.
What the Corps looks at
- Avoidance first: can the project miss the wetland or cut the fill?
- Minimization: footprint, construction method, timing.
- Compensatory mitigation if residual impacts remain (on-site, bank credits, or in-lieu fee where those exist).
- Public-interest review and the 404(b)(1) guidelines.
- Listed species, cultural resources, and essential fish habitat where they apply.
How we usually start
At Cypress Environment & Infrastructure, the useful first step is a delineation and a straight answer on jurisdiction — not a permit application written on hope. We work Mobile, Vicksburg, and New Orleans Districts from offices in Biloxi, Mobile, and Pensacola.
Questions about how this applies to a Gulf Coast site? Cypress Environment & Infrastructure works from Biloxi, Mobile, and Pensacola. Office hours are Monday–Friday, 9 a.m.–5 p.m.
Start at Contact us or Services.