Case Study: Boulder County, Colorado achieves streamlined septic permitting and eliminates work-arounds with Accela

Trading Work-Arounds for Workflows in Septic Permitting

Boulder County Public Health’s Environmental Health Division, which manages onsite wastewater treatment systems (OWTS) across a diverse and growing county, faced mounting challenges with a legacy system (EnvisionConnect) that only allowed one record per parcel. That limitation forced staff into tedious work-arounds to track multiple septic systems, fragmented customer and permit history, required manual permit writing, and made it difficult to adapt to new regulatory requirements.

The county replaced EnvisionConnect with the Accela Civic Platform, implementing the OWTS program in six months. Accela consolidated historical permit and customer data, enabled multiple permits and parent–child relationships per parcel, automated notifications (reducing manual mailings and permit-writing), and improved property-owner responsiveness. The change removed workaround processes, boosted staff efficiency and owner satisfaction, and set the division up for future GIS and field-inspection enhancements.

Boulder County

Erin Dodge

Program Coordinator for the Water Quality Program