5 Ways Stormwater Management Software Can Help You Adhere To Stormwater Pollution Prevention Plans
As a Builder, you’re responsible for creating and managing a Stormwater Pollution Prevention Plan (SPPP). As stormwater runoff moves across construction site surfaces, it picks up various pollutants, including sediment, solid and sanitary waste products, oil and grease, phosphorus, nitrogen, pesticides, construction chemicals/debris and concrete truck washout1. Stormwater pollution is a serious environmental issue that can be detrimental to aquatic life, wildlife, habitats and human health. Runoff from unstabilized construction sites can result in the loss of an estimated 35–45 tons of sediment per acre each year. While erosion and sedimentation are natural processes, land disturbed by construction activities can result in 200 times the amount of surface erosion on sites formerly under pasture, and up to 2,000 times on formerly forested sites2.
Developing a robust SWPPP is essential to protecting clean water in communities where you’re building and adjacent neighborhoods. Stormwater management software can facilitate the process of staying compliant with federal laws, including the Clean Water Act (CWA), thereby saving Builders significant time and money. The Storm Water Inspection Management (SWIM) application is a module within the BuildPro suite of complementary products. Here are five ways the SWIM module can help you stay compliant with U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) statutes and regulations, while protecting your new Homebuyers and the immediate and surrounding environment.
Avoid Costly Mistakes
On December 23, 2020, EPA finalized its penalty rule that increased the maximum civil penalties per violation of an environmental statute or agency regulation. Civil penalties for resolving alleged violations of the CWA can cost a company as much as $48,762 to $56,460 per day3. Some companies have paid restitution of a million dollars to resolve alleged CWA violations. Digitizing inspections ensures accuracy and eliminates worrying about employees making costly manual paperwork errors. During inspections, BuildPro users can easily create corrective action tasks inside the SWIM module.
Provide Documentation Efficiently
A CWA permit is required for stormwater discharges from any earth-disturbing construction activities such as clearing, grading and excavating land and other construction-related activities that may generate pollutants. SWPPP requirements apply to sites of one acre or more of land, or less than one acre that is part of a common plan of development or sale that will ultimately disturb one or more acres of land.1 Imagine EPA personnel showing up at your construction site and frantically hunting down paper reports? Electronic storage enables stress-free and prompt retrieval of documents. With SWIM, it’s quick and simple to create, change, retrieve and share documents whenever you need them.
24/7 Access to SPPPs
As a cloud-based digital product, you can access and utilize SWIM to manage your SPPP, anytime and anywhere. If you’re on site, you won’t have to return to the office or have an employee deliver it to you, which saves time and money.
User-Friendly Interface and Simple Configuration
The SWIM module is an integrated component in BuildPro, making it especially intuitive if you’re a current BuildPro or SupplyPro user since you’re already familiar with the interface. The easy-to-use Knowledge Base provides quick and simple configuration to reduce configuration downtime.
Streamlined Inspections
From detection and documentation to corrective action, BuildPro's SWIM can be added on to make it simpler than ever to adhere to SWPPPs. The interface allows you to easily assign security roles to different users. This enables specific users to:
- Add and assign inspections
- Record document inspection results
- Report and share available inspection details
- Assign, complete and document corrective actions
- Closely monitor all stormwater issues
Hyphen’s SWIM Enables Builders to Easily Manage SWPPs and Stay Compliant
The SWIM module is an exceptional tool developed to help Home Builders comply with federal laws without sacrificing speed. BuildPro is the largest Builder supply chain management software in North America and also the most powerful and comprehensive, which likely explains why 21 out of the top 26 Home Builders rely on it every day. Schedule a demo to learn more about how SWIM provides stress-free stormwater inspection compliance.
1Source: https://www.epa.gov/npdes/stormwater-discharges-construction-activities
2Source: https://www.epa.gov/sites/default/files/2015-10/documents/sw_swppp_guide.pdf
3Source: https://www.agc.org/news/2021/01/28/new-us-epa-civil-penalty-amounts-effect
