CA Stormwater Compliance Cost Calculator

Your situation

Active construction sites (CGP permits)

Hours per week per site, spent on compliance admin

Includes SWPPP upkeep, inspection logs, BMP docs, SMARTS submissions.

Burdened staff rate ($ / hour)

Wage plus benefits and overhead. Typical construction superintendent burdened rate: $55-80.

External QSD / consultant ($ / month / site)

Typical CA QSD retainers run $600-1,500 per active site per month.

Violations in the last 12 months

Any violation recorded in SMARTS, including late reports.

Results

Estimated annual savings with Slate Point

Compared to your current compliance spend.

Your current annual spend

Staff admin time $0

Consultant / QSD $0

Fine exposure $0

Total $0

With Slate Point

Staff admin time (-50%) $0

Consultant / QSD (-40%) $0

Fine exposure (-60%) $0

Slate Point ($99/site/mo) $0

Total $0

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How these numbers are calculated

Defaults and benchmarks are pulled from the California State Water Resources Control Board's SMARTS dataset, refreshed weekly on data.ca.gov. Statistics below are for active Construction General Permits (CGPs), 2023-2026.

Fine exposure per violation: ~$1,100 statewide average. Calculated from 19,827 enforcement actions totaling $19.6M over 36 months. Only 3.3% result in a dollar penalty, but when they do the median is $12,000.

Admin time savings assumption (-50%): based on industry benchmarks for CGP automation tools replacing spreadsheet and email workflows. Most time saved: SMARTS submissions, inspection-log compilation, and weekly rain-event tracking.

Consultant cost reduction (-40%): assumes you keep your QSD for site-specific SWPPP consulting and Risk Level 2/3 work, but offload routine reporting and documentation to the platform.

Violation reduction (-60%): targeted at the categories the software directly addresses: Late Report (38% of all CA violations), Deficient Report, Failure to meet NEC criteria, and SWPPP documentation gaps.

Slate Point price: $99 per active CGP site per month. Pilot pricing (first 90 days): free. Pricing subject to change.

These are estimates based on statewide averages. Actual savings will vary by firm size, current process maturity, and site risk levels. The calculator is designed to anchor a conversation, not replace one.