Maintenance Inspection Checklists, Notifications and Reminders

To ensure high-quality, long-term performance, Stormwater Treatment Practices (STPs) need to be inspected on a regular basis by community stakeholders and stormwater management professionals. STP maintenance inspections are intended to do the following:

• Ensure the facilities are generally safe
• Maintain the proper stormwater management capacity and cost-effectiveness
• Comply with reporting to regulatory agencies
• Provide STP tracking data
• Follow Standard Engineering practice

The STP Inspection Process

STP inspection includes four major steps:

1. Notification of Inspection
2. Pre-Inspection Preparation
3. Conducting the Inspection Using Checklists
4. Inspection Follow-up and Maintenance Notification
   
   

Links to several downloadable items are provided in this section. Documents in .pdf format require the Adobe Acrobat reader, which you can download for free here.

Who Should Conduct STP Inspections?

Inspections should be conducted by community stakeholders and stormwater management professionals. Community stakeholders are people who live or work close to the site and might include homeowners, homeowners' associations and/or commercial property owners. Stormwater management professionals are contractors or government staff that carry out the STP inspection. Both the community stakeholders and stormwater management professional play significant, yet different, roles in the proper maintenance of STPs. It is important to understand each group's strengths and limitations in order to maximize their contribution to STP maintenance.

Community stakeholders have the advantage of location. Homeowners and business owners may feel some ownership of the STP since it is in "their" neighborhood. This connection can be further fostered through watershed education (see STP Maintenance Educational Materials) to help them understand their role in how maintaining "their" STP is ultimately protecting their watershed, homes and livelihood. Once they have a vested interest in the STP they will be more willing to help monitor and maintain it. And since they are close to the site, general inspections can be made more frequently than the local government staff. Routine homeowner inspection is the best way to catch potential problems before they become a liability.

Checklists are an easy tool to help citizens maintain their STP. Checklists should give explicit directions calling for basic observations to be made. Minimizing the gathering of subjective data is important since evaluators bring different backgrounds and experiences to the task. A sample of a Homeowner Pond Inspection Checklist is included in this section.

The stormwater management professional has the advantage of having more detailed knowledge and information about the structure, allowing them to more easily identify less obvious problems and determine the appropriate steps to be taken to correct the situation.

Notification of Inspection

All correspondence should provide detailed information about what the STP manager/owner can expect. This will allow the STP manager/owner to better understand and be prepared for the role he/she or the community plays during the entire process. Effective communication can eliminate unnecessary concerns and confusion on the part of the STP owner and provide a base for legal action for the enforcing agency. The greater the clarity, the smoother the process will be for all involved.

All correspondence should include the same basic information:

• Facility address and STP owner's address are both essential because it possible that the owner is in charge of multiple sites.
• Facility identification number provides an internal reference for the inspecting unit and for STP owners that may have more than one STP at the same address.
• STP owner name and title Since homeowners, homeowner associations, and property managers can change without notice it is critical to include both the name and title, such as "John Doe or Current Property Manager/Owner," to ensure the letter reaches the appropriate person.
• Description of Authority tells the manager by which regulation/code the local government gains authority to inspect the site and require repairs.
• Deadline by which a response or repair should be made.
• Consequences if response or repairs are not made.
• Contact information for the person to whom the manager can speak for assistance.

Prior to inspection, a Notification of Inspection Letter should be sent to the STP manager/owner. This letter serves several purposes:

1. Informs the manager that he/she should expect someone to be on their property
2. Encourages routine maintenance to be performed
3. Notifies the manager of any special pre-inspection actions that must be completed
4. Secures the name of the person who oversees the maintenance of the STP

A Notification of Inspection Letter should include the basic information listed above, along with all of the following information:

• Date of Future Inspection. This could either be a specific day or a period, such as a week, that the STP manager/owner would expect a local government inspector to be on the property.


• Request for current maintenance manager contact information. Finding this information ahead of time will save time later when trying to ensure the repairs are completed.


• Special Instructions. For example, the STP manager/owner may be responsible for pumping out and pressure washing underground facilities prior to inspection.


• Outline of Inspection Process. Provide as much detail as possible, such as, "The inspection will be sometime in the morning during the second week in August by Inspector. Within 14 days of inspection, you will be notified of any repairs that are required. You will then have 30 days to fix any deficiencies..."

Here are two samples of facility inspection notification letters:

• Facility Inspection Notification, Howard County, MD is a letter of intent to inspect a facility in the near future.


• Facility Inspection Notification Requiring Pre-Inspection Actions, Howard County, MD is a letter of intent to inspect a facility in the near future that requires pre-inspection actions on part of the facility owner.

Pre-Inspection Preparation

Prior to STP inspection, the inspector(s) will have to gather a number of materials and equipment that fall under three categories:

• Public Communications Materials. General educational materials as well as jurisdiction program and contact information may be used to help address questions or comments raised by inquisitive residential or commercial property owners encountered during the inspection.


• STP Background Information. Historic information on each STP to be inspected will ease the inspection process and help to ensure that past maintenance or structural problems have been addressed.


• Inspection Equipment. A range of equipment is necessary to perform a comprehensive, safe inspection of a facility.

A list of the materials and equipment that should accompany any inspector is presented below:

Conducting the Inspection Using Checklists

Professional inspection checklists should outline the minimum elements to be examined during inspection, but should be detailed enough and formatted in such a way that information output is maximized. The checklists should have the following characteristics:

• Be able to be integrated well with a database of maintenance problems
• Be quantitative, so that maintenance can easily be prioritized (Refer to our "0-4" system)
• Be very specific about possible problems to reduce subjectivity
• Limit the use of text, particularly if integrated with a database
• Link problems to specific actions
• Gather data on the design features of STPs for future use
• Where possible, track the function of the STP over time for future research (e.g., wetland vegetation).

Professional checklist samples provided in this section are divided by specific STP type. An Oil/Grit Separator Maintenance Inspection Form is also included, although they are considered hydrodynamic structures and are not generally accepted as stand-alone STPs. Please remember each site has unique characteristics that may require modification to the checklist to best manage your site.

For suggested frequency of maintenance and inspection refer to the Maintenance Frequency section (coming soon).

Checklists are provided for the following stormwater treatment practices:

• Ponds/Wetland
  • Micropool Extended Detention Ponds
  • Wet Ponds
  • Wet Extended Detention Ponds
  • Multiple Pond Systems
  • Pocket Ponds
  • Shallow Wetlands
  • Shallow Extended Detention Wetlands
  • Pocket Wetlands
• Infiltration Practices:
  • Trenches
  • Basins
• Surface Filtering Systems:
• Surface Sand Filters
• Organic Filters
  
• Underground/Perimeter Sand Filters
• Bioretention
• Open Channels:
• Dry Swales
• Wet Swales
• Grass Channels


• Oil/Grit Separators  (not considered stand-alone STPs)

 

Inspection Follow-up and Maintenance Notification

Once the STP has been professionally inspected the STP manager/owner should be informed of the STP status and any repairs that need to be made through a letter. There are many names for such a letter, including Maintenance Notification Letter, Facility Inspection Results, or Notice of Deficiencies. This letter should include the basic information, plus:

• List of repairs that should be detailed enough so it cannot be misinterpreted. For example, avoid ambiguous phrases such as "clear the bank." Instead, the list should specify "clear the bank of trees."



• Outline of the repair process. This can expedite the repairs, particularly if the STP manager/owner does not have previous experience with STPs. In most cases it is worthwhile to suggest the use of a contractor to dissuade unqualified persons from performing the repairs. For example, "You will have 30 days to complete the repairs. The first step is to get bids from contractors. Next, your contractor should contact our inspectors to discuss repairs. . ."



• Facility inspection report should be attached for the STP manager's/owner's records.



• Educational material (see STP Maintenance Educational Materials for examples) should also be attached to reinforce why properly maintaining STPs is important not only for environmental reasons but also how good stormwater management serves their best interests.




Here are three examples of maintenance notification letters:

• Correspondence in Response to Request for Inspection Information, James City County, VA includes inspections results and educational materials.


• Maintenance Notification Letter, Howard County, MD lists repairs that must be made by the site manager.


• Maintenance Notification Letter, Montgomery County, MD lists repairs that must be made by a contractor.




In situations when a STP manager/owner fails to comply with a Maintenance Notification Letter and/or other requests for compliance, a letter using strong language should be sent. These notices are typically more formal than Maintenance Notification Letters and have a strong emphasis on the consequences if the manger/owner does not remedy the situation. Notices of Violation should include the basic information, plus:



• Reference to previous correspondence which can provide a paper trail in cases when disagreement of roles arises.


• List of repairs that should be detailed enough so it cannot be misinterpreted


• List of violations the STP manager/owner has accrued, including actions such as failing to comply with previous notices.


• Copies of this letter may be sent to other agencies affected, such as those responsible for dam safety, etc.




Here is an example notice of violation:

• Notice of Violation, Montgomery County, MD states that the owners failed to maintain facility despite previous written and verbal notices.




By creating a correspondence template specific to your agency, the maintenance inspection and notification process can be simplified by avoiding "reinventing the wheel" every time a letter needs to be sent. In addition, if a STP maintenance database is being used, it may be easy to link the inspection information directly with the notification forms to further speed the process (see Tracking Systems).