Scaling Up Construction Services: SWCA Mobilizes in Aftermath of 100-Year Rain Event

It wasn’t just a 100-year rain event. It was a 100-year rain event that followed a hurricane and a tropical storm within a four-month period that created dire erosion issues for a large, confidential renewable energy infrastructure project in the southeastern United States. Standard erosion control measures were no match for this series of events. As a result, the site was hit with multiple non-compliance citations.

So, when the client called SWCA Environmental Consultants for help bringing their 2,000+ acre project back into compliance with its Stormwater Pollution Prevention Plan (SWPPP), the situation was urgent.

Mobilizing on a Challenging Site

“They wanted as many engineers and environmental inspectors as we could put on the site as soon as possible,” recalls SWCA Engineering Director Matt Pierce. “Our role was to help the client document and prioritize site issues and understand their options, though, ultimately, their engineering team had to decide what to do.”

An initial four-member team—an engineer, two biologists, and a seasoned environmental inspector—started working onsite within a week. But it quickly became apparent that more support was needed, so, the team scaled up. From mid-February through May 2025, SWCA had 9-12 inspectors in the field at any given time, doing 2–3-week rotations. In June and July, the team was able to start drawing down.

Onboarding and cross training new team members while supporting the project’s compliance needs was difficult, but the team rose to the challenge.

The site itself was also challenging. It was enormous, remote, and hot. “It was not unusual for staff to walk seven miles of perimeter fence a day through mud to document compliance issues,” Principal Client Services Lead, Janet Herrick observes, “and that was often in muggy, 100-degree heat.”

Ongoing rain made for a muddy site.

From Six Weeks to Eight Months: Building Trust and Untangling Problems

“Long story short,” Herrick says, “our initial scope of work was for six weeks but with all of the site challenges, SWCA’s team stayed for almost eight months, but we assisted with the site to the point where it was stabilized.”

It didn’t help that it kept raining. Early efforts to fix erosion issues along the perimeter of the site, where compliance issues were most acute were often undone by subsequent storms. Fortunately, SWCA helped the client understand that they had a wider range of erosion control methods available than they were initially using. A more robust toolkit of stormwater mitigation efforts ultimately helped the client tackle erosion issues at their source.

“To overcome stabilization challenges on the site, we used a combination of hydroseed, erosion control blankets, and surface controls,” says Jesse Boudreaux, SWCA field team lead.

A gully created by channelized stormwater runoff

Better Communication and Streamlined Stormwater Compliance Documentation

Beyond the challenge of erosion itself, SWCA’s field team helped the client implement major process improvements.

“We delivered innovative solutions,” Pierce says. “It wasn’t in our scope, but we connected their team to a GIS database and to Wi-Fi.” It was not that the client didn’t have that capacity, but the site had terrible connectivity, and the system was chronically bogged down. Seeing this problem, SWCA brought in a Starlink satellite connection that provided the whole team with Wi-Fi access. After seeing the effectiveness of the Starlink connection, the client ordered their own.

This helped streamline compliance documentation on the project.

Within the first two weeks, SWCA’s field staff helped develop an ArcGIS Field Maps system for the client. Then SWCA’s GIS team connected to the client’s GIS team to streamline reporting and to make it easier to relay field information to contracting crews.

Initiated by SWCA’s field team and supported by the wider organization, these kinds of improvements made life easier for the client while improving communication and trust across the whole project team. With approximately 20 crews and 600 people on site, these improvements played a critical role in keeping the team aligned.

Erosion control blankets help stabilize site near a water retention pond.

Several Thousand Corrective Actions Later…

Given the scale and condition of the site, it was rewarding to see its improvement.

“We left before they were fully back in compliance,” says Kory States, SWCA field team co-lead, “but we probably got to see several thousand corrective actions taken off the corrective action log. And our solutions were beginning to hold up to the bigger storm events, so it was nice to see that we had improved the site and earned the client’s trust.”

By the project’s end, 26 employees from 12 offices had rotated through the site with support from countless SWCA experts beyond the field.

Despite the challenges with the site, logistics, and erosion, the team was able to help get the renewable energy project back on track.

A hillside and perimeter berm with adjacent diversion swale fully covered in erosion control blanket.