Owners of stormwater management facilities have several choices. Our goal is to help owners be aware of their choices and to be a resource that allows them to stay in control of their money.

Choice #1 - Be in Control of Your Money
Spend a little money each year on knowledgeable inspection and routine maintenance. This type of expense is planned and budgeted for. If you need unusual repairs, they can be planned over the years ahead and budgeted for accordingly. No one is slapping you with cease and desist orders or strong-arming you to do repairs. You are advised of what needs to be done, provided a recommended schedule, made aware of the risks of delays, and you stay in control of your money. You can use Stormwater Maintenance, another firm with similar expertise, or your in-house staff if knowledgeable about stormwater management and embankment regulations, inspections, and maintenance.


Choice #2a - Save Money Now, Spend More Later
In other words, wait until you are a "victim" of the government when they happen to inspect your facility. Let's be clear - this may not happen to you like it has to others. But it has happened to many. We could give many examples, but here is one that is simple and obvious:

Example 1
Your stormwater management facility is mowed and looks good. After all, your grounds crew is proud of their work - and it shows. Years go by, and the county inspects it. You learn that the area to be mowed should have been much larger, some landscaping you recently had done and paid for must be removed, and that water should not be in the pond all the time. Your grounds crew shrugs - no one told them and they did what made sense and looked good. The water in the pond looked good - an amenity that they groomed around. The landscaping company shrugs again - no one told them the trees and shrubs they planted were on an embankment.

The County issues a work order requiring you to clear trees and shrubs - and your new landscaping - from a large area, fix the riser to drain the water, and clean out mud from the pond bottom. A contractor tells you that you need an engineer to do a sediment control plan, more trees will have to come down for an access road, and that it is expensive to dispose of pond muck. The next contractor agrees. You waste days dealing with the situation and spend $35,000 with a contractor. All this happened just because your grounds crew was not made aware of what they needed to do. The inspector says you have to do it - you have no control of your money.

Choice 2b - Save Money now, Increase Your Liability
Stormwater management facilities impound water and represent a potential hazard to the general public if they fail. It does not matter that the County made you build it when you just wanted to construct a building - it is your liability. If you maintain it, your liability is limited to Strict Liability.

From the Maryland Dam Safety Manual: "The theory of strict liability essentially imposes liability as a risk of doing business and is derived from the old English case of Rylands v. Fletcher."

If you do not inspect and maintain the facility as required, you could be exposing yourself to Negligence Liability.

Again, from the Maryland Dam Safety Manual: "Negligence is generally defined in terms of failure to exercise the standard of care of a reasonable person under similar circumstances." and "....Thus, negligence can consist of a failure to act, or the failure to act in a reasonable manner."

Here is an example, albeit worst-case, of what could occur:

Example 2
A small sinkhole forms over several months near the outfall pipe of your stormwater management facility. It is small, near some riprap (rock protection), so it is not readily discernable to the untrained eye. Time passes, and no one is aware that it is getting bigger and that water flows from the sinkhole in large storms. After all, maintenance crews don't venture out in downpours - or look inside pipes. Then, following a typically intense thunderstorm one summer evening, you receive a call that there is a problem - the facility is failing.

Property owners downstream of it are getting flooded, those wetlands you could not disturb when you developed are now layered with YOUR mud. In the morning, no one is happy. Every other word from the neighbors is lawsuit. The insurance agent needs to get back to you with a decision of your coverage. The environmental folks want to know what you will do about remediating the mud in the wetlands and streams. You have no control of the situation, much less your money!