Periodic inspections are necessary to ensure your facility stays in compliance with the requirements of the stormwater permit and plan. Only qualified personnel are allowed to perform stormwater inspections, as these employees (or thirdparty individuals) must be familiar with potential stormwater issues at the site and what they need to look for during inspections. Areas that must be inspected include:

• Areas where industrial materials or activities are exposed to stormwater,
• Areas identified in the site’s stormwater plan and those that are potential pollutant sources,
• Areas where spills and leaks have occurred within the past 3 years,
• Outfalls or discharge points, and
• Control measures used to comply with the effluent limits in the facility’s stormwater permit.

During an inspection, you must look for the following compliance issues:

• Industrial materials, residue, or trash that may have or that could come in contact with stormwater;
• Leaks or spills from industrial equipment, drums, tanks, and other containers;
• Off-site tracking of industrial or waste materials or sediment where vehicles enter or exit the site;
• Tracking or blowing of raw, final, or waste materials from areas of no exposure to exposed areas;
• Soil, channel, and streambank erosion around discharge points;
• Any nonauthorized, non-stormwater discharges; and
• Control measures that need replacement, maintenance, or repair.

When an inspection is being performed during a rainstorm, you need to look at discharge points and check to make sure control measures that have been implemented at the site to comply with effluent limits are functioning properly.

Inspections must be conducted at least quarterly or more often in some instances. More frequent inspections might be required for certain types of equipment, processes and stormwater control measures, and areas of the facility where there is significant exposure of industrial materials to stormwater. At least once each year, an inspection must be performed while a stormwater discharge is occurring.

Lastly, it’s crucial to document the findings of the inspections you perform. That way, your facility can keep track of any stormwater compliance issues that arise and how they are resolved. If you discover any compliance issues during an inspection that require corrective action, such as repairing a stormwater control feature at the site, carry out the corrective action as soon as possible if you are qualified, or report the problem immediately to maintenance staff so that it can be fixed.