Stormwater Inspection Described

A stormwater inspection’s primary focus is to determine if the stormwater infrastructure is working as designed. However, most property owners want to know more than current functionality. Stormwater professionals who view themselves as a valuable team member to the property managers, go one step further; they tell provide the property manager with items to watch. Often, watch items provide the management with the opportunity to budget and make decisions with the property. Sometimes, the stormwater professional may indicate that an issue is not limiting functionality, but is cheaper and easier to repair now rather than waiting for infrastructure failure.

To fully understand the inspection, be familiar with what stormwater infrastructure is designed to do. The stormwater infrastructure is designed to simply control the quantity and quality of stormwater entering into the watershed. In other words, the stormwater system handles rain water in such a way that it holds back run off after a rain event in order to limit the amount of water entering our streams and water ways. Using stormwater ponds, which are engineered to hold specific capacity, the stormwater infrastructure prevents flooding during rain events. Furthermore, the water that enters the watershed does not get mechanical treatment to purify contaminants. As rain water flows over the roof it gathers grit, it then goes trough grassy areas and parking lots where it gathers pet waste, oils, and other pollutants and debris. As the water conveys through the infrastructure, various filters, seperators, and holding basins are used to filter out pollutants.

Stormwater inspections assess your property’s ability to handle large amounts of water and filter out pollutants before discharging into your community’s watershed.

Stormwater Inspection Checklist

Your stormwater professional enters the property with a checklist. To be able to provide an official inspection, one must be trained and certified to provide these inspections. However, as the property manager, you should be able to see major signals that something is going on. We provide a downloadable checklist that can be used by property managers during routine walk throughs.

Stormwater Inspection Frequency

In South Carolina, the local municipality is required to inspect your stormwater infrastructure once during every general permit cycle. The permit is a large document that lays out the state’s regulations. About every five years, the state must update these regulations to coincide with federal regulations and the changing ecosystem. These changes are implemented by the SC Department of Environmental Services. While the local municipality may tighten regulations in their own jurisdiction, they must make sure that the state’s standards are met and enforce these regulations.

While the local municipality’s inspections are every five years, or so. There is a document referred to as the Permanent Maintenance Agreement (PMA), which is signed during every new construction. This document states that the owner is responsible for the maintenance and inspections of stormwater infrastructure. According to the PMA, the vegetation in designated stormwater areas must be mowed routinely and inspected annually. Regulators often want to see proof that this is being completed and many municipalities require that both be completed by a stormwater professional. “Routine mowing” is very broad and open to interpretation. Most inspectors interpret this as more than once per year as long as the vegetation stands at a controllable height. You need to ask your stormwater professional to provide a signed document of the inspection each year, or in many cases a video is acceptable.

Example of Stormwater Problems