Managing Stormwater Construction Permits

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“The Stormwater Construction General Permit (SWCGP) database provides a one-stop-shop for Virginia DEQ staff to track construction projects including stormwater management plan review and approvals, historical and active construction general permits, and compliance inspections for projects statewide. GeoDecisions was great to work with and were quick to understand our business processes. They took high-level requirements and created a system that met our needs.”
— Jaime Robb, Manager, Office of Stormwater Management, Virginia Department of Environmental Quality

CLIENT: Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ)
LOCATION: Richmond, Virginia

CHALLENGE

The Virginia DEQ is the primary agency responsible for statewide stormwater management control programs to protect water quality. As part of the Virginia Stormwater Management Program (VSMP), DEQ issues individual and general permits that control the amount of stormwater discharge from both municipal separate storm sewer systems (MS4s) and construction activities. DEQ needed an online system to more efficiently track these permits.

SOLUTION

The Stormwater Construction General Permitting (SWCGP) web application provides DEQ staff with the ability to track permits and manage the permit approval process. Previously, this was a cumbersome paper process. The new online application offers increased capacity and time savings to DEQ staff.

The public interface developed using MVC.Net allows initiators of construction activities to enter their registration statements to obtain a permit for their planned land disturbance that could result in stormwater discharge. SWCGP calculates automatic fee generation based upon the total disturbed acreage. The application processes the payment of these fees through direct integration with DEQ’s financial systems using web APIs.

Using DEQ’s API, built on the entity framework and Oracle, the SWCGP application allows staff to review registration statements faster, ensure compliance, capture the location’s coordinates via the mapping function, and check payment status all in one convenient location. Once approved, the compliance module allows staff to track inspections as well as other off-site activities that may impact the main registered site.

KEY TECHNOLOGY

  • MVC.Net

  • Web API

  • Oracle database

  • Entity framework

  • ASPOSE