In our latest video, Joe Warner from California and Texas Compliance Environmental breaks down everything you need to know about stormwater obligations. One of the most important takeaways is that your maintenance schedule isn’t a guessing game; it is actually dictated by a formal agreement you sign with your city or county.
Depending on where you are located, this agreement might go by different names, such as:
- Water Quality Management Plan (WQMP): Most common in Southern California.
- Low Impact Development (LID) Plan: Frequently seen in Los Angeles County.
- Stormwater Management Plan: Another common regional term.
Inside these documents, you will find a detailed Operations and Maintenance (O&M) guide. This guide lists exactly what infrastructure is on your site, how often it must be cleaned, and your specific reporting and training obligations. In California specifically, any property improvement over 5,000 square feet triggers these new stormwater requirements.
Don’t wait for a city audit to find out you are behind. Watch the video to learn how to identify your system’s needs and ensure you have the reports ready to prove compliance. If you need help with a site evaluation or setting up a preventative maintenance plan, we are here to help. Click the link to watch now and get the clarity you need!
Video Transcript
0:00 Intro
0:12 Maintenance Schedules Are Key
0:26 Redeveloped Properties
0:44 Older Infrastructures
1:12 Check Your Agreement
1:51 Maintaining Stormwater Systems
0:00 Intro
Good day, Joe Warner with California Compliance Environmental and Texas Compliance Environmental. You know, we have a lot of clients, a lot of property managers and developers, and they often ask me, “How often do I have to maintain my stormwater system?”
0:12 Maintenance Schedules Are Key
The WQMP is going to dictate how often and what needs to be done. When you develop a property, you have to sign an agreement with the city or county that is going to improve the stormwater after development. We’ll get into that today.
0:26 Redeveloped Properties
Now, when you have a property like this, it’s been developed, redeveloped, so on and so forth. So, a lot of this property wasn’t under any kind of stormwater obligation, but since they continue to redevelop it, they’re going to have more and more improvements to the stormwater system.
0:44 Older Infrastructures
Now, when you have a stormwater system, you could have older infrastructure mixed with new infrastructure. In the state of California, any improvements you make over 5,000 square feet is going to require you to make improvements to your stormwater system as well. Have an older infrastructure, you’re not required to maintain the stormwater system, but if you make improvements to your stormwater system, now you are obligated to maintain your stormwater filtration system.
1:12 Check Your Agreement
All those obligations—how often you need to frequent, what needs to be done—are all going to be found in your stormwater agreement. Those go by different names depending on different regions. Water Quality Management Plan (WQMP) is most common for Southern California. Start getting up into LA County, you start seeing LID (Low Impact Development) plans. Stormwater Management Plan is also another common one.
This was an older infrastructure that didn’t have any obligations. Now, since they made some improvements to the property, the city said, “Hey, I want to see some stormwater filtration going into place,” so these stormwater filtration devices are much newer than the actual infrastructure of the property.
1:51 Maintaining Stormwater Systems
How often do I need to maintain my stormwater system? That is an agreement between the city and the developer. So, whoever owns the property is going to come into an agreement with the city or the county in which they’ve developed their property, and the WQMP will have a list: O&M (Operations and Maintenance) guide. It’ll list exactly what is on-site, what needs to be cleaned, how often it needs to be cleaned, and the reporting obligations, the training obligations for those on-site and those managing the property.
All that can be found in your WQMP. If you do have a WQMP plan, then we’ll go exactly per the agreement. So when the city does an audit, you’ll be able to have those reports to comply.
So, if you have questions about how often you need to maintain your stormwater system or you just want more details on your stormwater system, if you have compliance, if you want to set it up on a preventive maintenance plan, give us a call, click the link. We’ll be sure to get out to your site, give you a full evaluation, send pictures of current conditions, give you a site map, and a budget quote.
