Case Study: North Carolina Division of Water Resources achieves faster, paperless permitting and improved compliance with Laserfiche

How the NC Department of Environmental Quality Leverages Laserfiche to Improve Compliance

The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality’s Division of Water Resources, which issues permits and enforces regulations to protect waterways and wetlands, faced a growing burden from a statewide construction boom. Its paper-based pre‑construction notification process required a complex 13‑page form, handled roughly 1,300 applications per year, suffered lost or duplicated documents, long processing delays, and limited tracking—creating risks to timeliness and regulatory compliance.

By implementing Laserfiche Forms and Workflow the division moved to a single, dynamic online application that routes submissions simultaneously to state and federal reviewers, manages payments, collects supplemental materials, sends automated reminders, and powers a public portal for document access. The result: submissions are processed weeks faster, applications aren’t misplaced, compliance and transparency have improved, security and reporting capabilities have increased, and the public and staff can track permit status in real time.

North Carolina Division of Water Resources

Beverly Strickland

Laserfiche Administrator