In these tough economic times for the development industry, not one week goes by that you do not hear about furloughs, layoffs, complete closing of offices of developers and/or engineering firms or even worse bankruptcies. The new requirement for the public viewing of the SWPPP at a publicly accessible location and an individual to accompany the SWPPP to address any questions or concerns for no less than twice a month is just another financial burden on the engineer, developer or contractor. The developer would like to add this additional cost to the sale of their property. However, due to the economic situation they will not be able to do that in order to keep their cost competitive with other developers whose projects were constructed before the new regulations are in place.
Furthermore, if citizen groups are concerned about the impacts of the construction in regards to sediment on their properties or in the streams, the erosion and sediment control plans, which are part of the approved plans, are available at the localities for public viewing.