SWPPP inspection reports, written up from the inspector's notes for the permittee's signatory to sign.

An inspection leaves a checklist, photos of controls and discharge points, notes on what needs fixing, and the rainfall that set it off. Back at the office someone turns that into the report the permit asks for, in the client's form or the permit's own, lists the maintenance and corrective items, and sends it to the operator's signatory.

For the test, AI reads copies of finished inspections and drafts each report in the format of the permit that covers the site: date and inspectors, the trigger and its reading, every area and control with the inspector's observation, and each item the inspector wrote down, with the date it falls due. Nothing is signed, certified or sent. Your reviewer compares each draft with the signed report.

The trigger decides what the report has to carry. Under EPA's 2022 Construction General Permit, a site is inspected at least every 7 calendar days, or every 14 days and within 24 hours of a storm that drops 0.25 inches of rain in 24 hours or a snowmelt from 3.25 inches of snow, a figure EPA bases on NOAA's average of 13 inches of snow to an inch of rain. The 24 hours run continuously, not in business hours, and stretch to the end of the next business day only when they fall wholly outside working hours. A storm of 0.30, 0.25 and 0.10 inches over three days calls for two inspections, not three. Sites draining to sediment or nutrient-impaired waters, or to Tier 2, 2.5 or 3 waters, need both the weekly and the storm visits. A storm inspection's report must include the rain gauge or weather station reading that triggered it.

Dewatering and reduced schedules add records of their own. On each day a site discharges dewatering water, the permit wants a separate inspection that records when the discharge started and stopped, an estimate in gallons per day, any plume, sheen or foam, and photos of the water before and after treatment, the controls and the discharge point. Stabilized areas can drop to twice in the first month and then monthly, and frozen or seasonally dry periods have their own schedules, each with start and end dates written into the SWPPP. For projects covered on or after February 17, 2023, the inspector must have passed EPA's construction inspection course exam or hold a current certification that covers the permit's topics. The draft checks each visit against the schedule the SWPPP says the site is on and lists any missing photo, reading or date.

States set different numbers and words. Texas's TPDES permit, TXR150000, calls the plan a SWP3, sets inspections every 14 days and within 24 hours of the end of a storm of 0.5 inches, or every 7 days, and lets a site change schedules no more than once a calendar month, in its first five business days. The report must locate erosion, controls that need maintenance or failed, and controls still needed, and a report that finds no noncompliance must carry a certification that the site complies with the SWP3 and the permit. Inspectors there need not hold signatory authority; the report is signed under 30 TAC 305.128. The draft follows the permit your reviewer names for each site and leaves every compliance certification to the signatory.

Corrective actions run on the clock of discovery. Under EPA's construction permit, a problem that needs no new control or significant repair is fixed by the close of the next business day; one that does needs the new control working within 7 calendar days, or a written reason and a schedule. The corrective action log needs an entry within 24 hours of finding the condition and another within 24 hours of finishing the work, each signed. Whether a note is routine maintenance or a corrective action is the inspector's call. The draft carries the inspector's own label, works out the dates that follow from it, and flags any note that gives none.

Industrial yards are inspected another way. Under the 2021 MSGP, a hired inspector must be joined by at least one member of the facility's stormwater team, inspections come at least quarterly with one a year during a discharge, and the report records the date and time, the inspectors and their signatures, the weather, any discharges seen, control measures needing work, and any incidents of noncompliance. The quarterly visual assessment uses a sample taken in the first 30 minutes of a discharge at least 72 hours after the last one, examined in a clean, colorless container in a well-lit area for color, odor, clarity, solids, foam and oil sheen. Neither record goes to EPA unless asked; both feed the annual report. Your reviewer will check triggers, readings, dates, deadlines and every listed item against the report the signatory signed.

After your reviewer says yes, new inspections get the same write-up for about 30 days.

Each report waits for your inspector to correct it and the permittee's signatory to sign it, and your team delivers it the way it does now. Corrective actions stay with the people the permit names.

The comparison runs through the whole month, and a second job starts only if you choose one.