County Confronts Soil Erosion Problem

Home to more than 813,000 residents, Macomb County is the third-largest county in Michigan. Its Public Works Office administers the state-mandated soil erosion control program in 24 out of 27 municipalities in the county.

The mission of the program is to enhance water quality by reducing polluted storm water runoff at construction sites. Last year, the department issued 3,548 permits and conducted 19,844 inspections.

To add efficiencies to the permit and inspection process, the Soil Erosion Control Division of the Office of Public Works Commissioner began looking at automation. The county chose a combination of Web-based applications provided by Accela.

Serving as the County's new Soil Erosion Management System, one of the Web-based applications provides an automated solution for tracking and managing all permitting activities including application check-in, plan reviews, fee calculation and collection, and inspections.

By providing the county with a centralized database, employees are able to share information and data easily across departments. The project kicked-off in July 2004 and the system launched in October.

The county's inspectors are also using an application that empowers the inspection teams with mobile technology to shift many daily tasks from the office to the field. Inspectors are equipped with laptops that allow them to remotely access their daily inspection schedules, input their inspection results, and update the agency database in real-time, thereby speeding up the overall process.

The software replaces the mainframe system the county previously used for permit activities," said Macomb County Public Works Commissioner Anthony V. Marrocco.

The Soil Erosion Management System was a joint project of the Office of Public Works and the Macomb County Management Information Systems Department (MIS). Public Works and MIS coordinated on the system design, while Public Works paid for the software and MIS paid for the hardware. MIS is funded by the Macomb County Board of Commissioners.

For more information about Macomb County, visit: http://macombcountymi.gov