Stop Neglecting Your Stormwater System: Why Proactive Maintenance is Key
Have you ever wondered what might happen if you simply let your property’s stormwater system sit without regular upkeep? It is a common question, and Joe Warner, president of Texas Compliance Environmental and California Compliance Environmental, has some vital answers that every property owner should hear.
Neglecting your system can lead to immediate legal and financial headaches. For newer properties or those under specific stormwater agreements, a lack of maintenance can result in hefty fines, penalties, and notices of violation from the city. Without regular service, you won’t have the records required during a city audit, leading to mandatory corrective actions.
Beyond compliance, the physical risks are significant. A clogged system can cause flooding or damage to lateral lines and grates, directly impacting your tenants or customers. Keeping the system clear ensures water flows off-site as intended, protecting your investment.
Finally, there is the cost of neglect. Catching debris early allows for simple pumpouts. However, ignoring your vaults can lead to up to ten feet of sediment buildup, making cleaning incredibly expensive. Furthermore, failing to maintain filter sacks—which might only cost $75 to $100 to clean—can result in thousands of dollars in replacement costs if they are damaged.
Don’t wait for a costly emergency to take action. Watch our latest video to learn how a proactive maintenance plan can save you money and keep your property in top shape. We are ready to evaluate your system and provide a custom quote to ensure you stay compliant and protected.
Video Transcript
0:00 Intro
0:08 Non-Maintenance: Fines & Penalties
0:33 Flooding Probability
0:56 Prevent Costly Repairs
1:24 Filter Damage
0:00 Intro
Joe Warner, president at Texas Compliance Environmental and California Compliance Environmental. Our customers ask us, “What if I don’t maintain my stormwater system?”
0:08 Non-Maintenance: Fines & Penalties
There are a few things. So, if it’s a compliance-driven site, if it’s a newer property within a stormwater agreement, if you don’t maintain your stormwater system, you can see fines and penalties; a notice violation minimum. The city will audit that property eventually and you’ll have to show records. So if you don’t maintain it, you won’t have the records to show and then you’ll have issues with the city, corrective actions, etc.
0:33 Flooding Probability
Now second, if you don’t maintain your stormwater system and there aren’t agreements, you run the risk of possibly flooding or damage, impact to the lateral lines, impact to the grates where it’s going to actually impact the tenants or the customers that occupy that building. So, we want to keep the stormwater system open and clear, letting the water flow off-site, and we can do that with our preventive maintenance plans.
0:56 Prevent Costly Repairs
Another reason you want to monitor and maintain your stormwater system is to prevent from costly change orders, corrective actions. If you monitor a vault and you’re noticing that it’s accumulating trash and debris, you can pump that out when there’s not excessive sediment present. But if you go on without inspecting those, neglect will lead to excessive sediment. You can get five, seven, ten feet of materials built up in a vault and those pumpouts can be very, very costly.
1:24 Filter Damage
Also, damage to the filters. If you install filters or if filters are designed into your property and you don’t maintain those filter sacks, rather than just cleaning those out for $75 to $100 per service, it can cost you thousands of dollars to replace all those filters.
So, if you’ve been wondering what happens if you don’t maintain your stormwater system and you want to be proactive, give us a call. We can go out there and take a look at your system, evaluate everything you have going on, the current conditions, number of storm drains, number of vaults, if you have any vaults, and then we can get you set up on a maintenance plan, at least get you a quote for consideration.
