Whatcom County Public Works Assessment

Client: Whatcom County Public Works

Location: Whatcom County, WA

Whatcom County Public Works Department is responsible for maintaining the stormwater system in the Birch Bay Watershed and Aquatic Resources Management District. To fund this stormwater system, a fee is levied against properties within the district.

At the request of Whatcom County, our team conducted a comprehensive peer review of the existing system used to generate the yearly stormwater fee roll for the Birch Bay area.

The purpose of the peer review was to identify and asses any potential areas of improvement. Additionally, we set out to uncover any barriers to scaling the fee roll process up to a larger area.

We assessed:

• Personnel Resources
• General Process Methodology
• Data Management and Processing Tasks
• Documentation and Automation
• Quality Control and Accuracy Assessment Steps

All of these aspects were investigated to determine where improvements could reasonably be made. They were also used to determine if there were existing conditions that would affect scaling the project up to a larger area.

With the goal of optimization and improved defensibility, our team made a number of recommendations. These recommendations were packaged into tiers of work and developed into a clear road map, making it easy for Whatcom County to identify the best possible return on investment.