RainCheQ™ is a web-based program which assists individual(s) in charge of NPDES compliance on a construction site or industrial facility. The Environmental or NPDES Manager, Water Pollution Control Manager (WPCM), Qualified SWPPP Practitioners (QSP), or others in direct charge of and/or responsible for inspecting and implementing BMPs before during and after rain events and taking storm water samples will benefit by employing the services of RainCheQ™.

RainCheQ™ utilizes the forecast information from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to retrieve and store forecast information on a daily basis. Every morning (yes, even on Saturdays, Sundays and holidays), RainCheQ™ retrieves forecast information for up to five days.

Whenever the Probability of Precipitation (POP) for a selected postal zip code equals or exceeds 50% within the above described time period, an email alert will be sent to pertinent individuals as selected by you.

RainCheQ™ will alert up to three individuals at any one time, but only when the attention of the individuals need to be directed to the concerns of weather on their construction site or industrial facility. For those sites or facilities which require sampling, the weather alert will allow you to prepare for the precipitation and ensure that samples are collected as required.

On construction sites, these weather alerts help you react accordingly by notifying you when you may need to conduct a Pre-Qualifying Rain/Precipitation Event (Pre-QRE/QPE) Inspection.

For industrial facilities these alerts notify you when potential sampling operations and/or when potential visual observations of storm water runoff must be conducted.

RainCheQ™ has partnered with a Weather Data Hub company. This company uses several governmental and public rain gauges and computer programming to generate hourly rainfall totals for any specific GPS-point. RainCheQ™ retrieves the hourly information for each rain event and sends Rainfall Alerts to selected individuals. This information is also recorded for a real-time examination of the rain event, and as a summary for later retrieval.

On construction sites, these Rainfall/Forecast Alerts help you react accordingly by notifying when you may need to conduct During Extended Storm Event/QPE and/or a Post-QRE/QPE Inspections.

In addition to helping you conduct required inspections and observations, collect samples, etc, this daily weather information is imperative during the development of the Annual Report. You will have all the data necessary to accurately answer questions about whether or not inspections and observations were conducted or samples collected as required. Make sure that you record any reasons why required inspections or observations were not conducted.

The Story Behind RainCheQ™

RainCheQ™ was developed by a professional in the storm water business that has assisted contractors at construction sites and operators at industrial facilities comply with General NPDES Permit requirements since the mid-1990s. As permit requirements have became increasingly more prescriptive, inspections, storm water sampling, and annual reporting have become increasingly more detailed which requires more of the permitee’s attention to the weather. Well, knowing the construction contractors and facility operators don’t make any money predicting precipitation or chasing raindrops, the idea for RainCheQ™ was born. Now these contractors and operators can perform their day-to-day activities which make them money, and only worry about the weather when alerted.

RainCheQ™ information can be a huge time saver when you complete the yearly annual reports. Many questions on the annual report are something like ”Did you conduct all the Pre-QRE Visual Observations required for your project for the entire year?” The follow up to the first question is “Give reasons for a “No” response." Wow, one question for a whole year. Did you do them all? How do you know? What do you do now? Of course, just answer “Yes.” Warning, Warning, Warning!!! The Legally Responsible Person and/or the Approved Signatory or the Facility Operator must certify the answers under penalty of the keel-haul, so it’s sort of an important question to answer accurately.

Let RainCheQ™ help you with this task. All of the weather and precipitation alerts are available for your review at your convenience (with your emails). As a storm water professional, the developer of RainCheQ™ has been painstakingly performing the work of this program by hand for many years now. Every day, 24/7 like Denny’s, he has faithfully recorded weather information to better serve his clients. You could do this too. But I think you’re as smart as the developer, and you would employ the services of RainCheQ™. I’d bet that you’re smarter. You wouldn’t wait five years to start the services of RainCheQ™.

Sample Alerts

An example of a Forecast Alert email is presented below (click to enlarge):

On Risk Level 2 and 3 construction projects only.

An example of the REAP Forecast Alert email is presented below (click to enlarge):

An example of the Rainfall Alert email is presented below (click to enlarge):

An example of the Daily Rainfall Alert is presented below (click to enlarge):

Sample Records

An example of the 35-Day Record of forecast information and rainfall data (click to enlarge):

An example of the Annual Reporting Year Record of forecast information and rainfall data (click to enlarge).:

Potential Users

Construction Site Storm Water Managers, Water Pollution Control Managers, Qualified SWPPP Practitioners (QSPs) – Any person who has direct management of Construction General Permit (CGP) requirements on one or more construction sites.

Industrial facility Storm Water Managers, QISPs, etc. – Any person who has direct management of Industrial General Permit (IGP) requirements on one or more industrial facilities.

Specific construction site inspectors and samplers – Any person delegated to conducted the requirements of the CGP or IGP.

Environmental Managers – Any person that is responsible for ensuring compliance of the CGP or IGP for the construction site or industrial facility.

Public Works or Construction Management staff – Any person that oversees the implementation of CGP requirements in the name of a Public Agency.

Storm Water Consultants – Any person assisting the construction contractor or facility operator with the requirements of the CGP or IGP.

Regional Water Quality Control Board staff – Any person responsible for regulating construction sites and industrial facilities.

Non-Governmental Organizations – Any person wishing to ensure that construction sites and facility operators are implementing the requirements of the NPDES permits.

What information will you need to provide to enjoy the services of RainCheQ™?

First of all we will need information to create a RainCheQ™ service account. That includes the following:

User Email Address	The email address can be a personal email address or a company email address. But remember all service communication from RainCheQ™ to the Account User will go to this email address.
User Password	To secure your User Account.
User Cellular Phone Number	To contact User via text if email link fails. No calls of any kind.

After an account is established, one can add as many projects and/or facilities as desired. Project/Facility information needed includes the following:

Permit Type: Construction / Industrial	You don’t really need to provide a permit type. Heck, we’ll provide the service for a farmer, but the folks usually interested in the services of RainCheQ™ are those interested in permit (construction and/or industrial) compliance. Some alerts are permit type dependent.
Project / Facility Name	This is essential information. It is the construction site or industrial facility identifier so you and other folks that may receive emails, or retrieve weather data for any particular location will recognize the location.
Zip Code	Again essential information. The project’s or facility’s zip code is used to gather forecast information from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) for the project or facility.
Latitude and Longitude	This is the official point of your construction site or facility from which rainfall data is generated.
Risk Level	For construction projects only. This information dictates whether certain individuals are notified for rain event action plan (REAP) purposes. For Risk Level 2 and 3 projects only.
Email Addresses for 1 to 3 people	Not essential I guess, but nobody will get any email alerts unless you enter at least one email address. Alerts and data retrieval for up to three folks are available with each project or facility signed up for the service.
Storm Water Manger, BMP Provider, and Sample Email Addresses	For construction projects labeled with a Risk Level 2 or 3 moniker, the Qualified SWPPP Practitioner (QSP) for the project is required to notify certain individuals if a rain event is likely for the project’s zip code area. If you enter in the correct email addresses RainCheQ™ does this automatically. So the QSP needn’t worry. Not essential, but an enhanced service provided by RainCheQ™.

That’s about all the information that we need to know for RainCheQ™ to help you comply with the forecast and rainfall requirements of the NPDES permits.