About Us
"Serving The Environment And Each Other"We Build Our Business One Customer At A Time.
How? By thinking of our customers as individuals, having a unique set of circumstances requiring a unique solution specific to those needs. Additionally, we strive to provide solutions that are cost effective as well as sustainable, requiring less maintenance and repair wherever possible. Our customers have come to appreciate this attention to detail and in fact demand it. We don’t mind because this expectation falls squarely in line with the golden rule “Treat people as you would have them treat you” which is part of our company DNA. So for us it is a pleasure (and a satisfaction) to come up with creative, cost effective solutions for our clients. Let us know how we can help with your specific needs by contacting us for a no cost site visit or call us just to answer any questions you might have about your permit, feature, or Stormwater Quality Management Plan.
Our Management Team
Mark Wharton
President | Owner
Mark has spent the last 15+ years helping property owners, general contractors, and civil engineers with creative solutions to erosion control issues as well as providing stormwater quality design and maintenance solutions. A man of many hats, Mark has amassed experience as a SWPPP inspector, SWPPP Project Manager, Business Development Manager, and Market Director in the stormwater industry. This knowledge and experience allow him to provide cost effective solutions for his customers with realistic expectations, enabling him to maintain a strong base of loyal customers. While not at the office, Mark spends much of his free time fishing for anything from Largemouth Bass in Texas to his passion, fly fishing for giant Tarpon in Costa Rica.
Ryon Wharton
General Manager
Ryon joined Stormwater Professionals Group in 2018 when the company was still in its infancy. Being part of a small company means you have to be flexible and learn new skills outside of your comfort zone. Over the course of the past six years, Ryon has tirelessly dedicated himself to earn his place as a fundamental asset within the company. He immersed himself in mastering the intricacies of the stormwater industry while concurrently pursuing his psychology degree.
Ryon’s innate desire to aid others perfectly aligns with Stormwater Professionals Group’s mission: Serving the environment and each other.
Ryon has navigated every aspect of SWPGRP’s business and services. He leads by example with an open-door policy and an empathetic ear, and is not afraid to get in there and mix it up with his co-workers, either in the field or outside of work at the gym.
Ryon brings fresh energy and ideas to the challenge of overseeing the expansion and integrity of our “family” business. You may have noticed that Ryon shares the same surname as our president, Mark. That is not, however, why this is a “family” business. Ryon treats every individual within the company with the same care and consideration as family members, demonstrating genuine concern and empathy for their well-being, both within and beyond the workplace.
Similarly, Ryon extends this level of care to our customers, consistently making himself available to address their needs—even during those rare instances when their lift station requires urgent attention on a Friday night!
Nicholas Schultz
Vice President |Business Development
Nicholas has been in the stormwater industry since 2012. Having always enjoyed adventures in the great outdoors, showing a concern for animals and wildlife, as well as having a natural desire to help others, Nicholas found working in the stormwater quality industry a great fit for his lifestyle and career goals. To that end Nicholas would find his way helping customers, owners, engineers and developers navigate through stormwater quality.
Nicholas began his career in the stormwater quality industry as a SWQ Inspector, before gaining additional skills and knowledge as a SWQ Documentation Service Manager and Business Development Manager. His experience and fondness for assisting customers has led to his current position as Managing Partner at Stormwater Professionals Group, where he, along with his team, provide each customer with realistic and modern solutions that fit their needs and expectations.
Nicholas specializes in helping customers with stormwater quality permitting as well as troubleshooting issues with detention ponds, erosion, lift stations and stormwater quality features. Nicholas brings a plethora of creative solutions to his customers to ensure compliance with permitting while always considering cost and ongoing regulations, which has led to a loyal customer following and respect amongst his peers.
Our Values
INTEGRITY – Do what’s right…even when nobody’s looking.
We take this seriously at Stormwater Professionals Group because we understand that most of the time nobody is looking. Most of our customers know very little about stormwater quality and rely on us to do what we say we’re doing. But we understand that trust takes time and is only developed through several interactions. We can say we have integrity, but the only way to prove it is through actions. So in the spirit of transparency we photo document all of our inspections, re-permits, and repairs to show our customers that we are accountable. And when we fail (everybody does!) we promptly make it right.
FOCUS – Know who we are. Do what we do best.
We get calls constantly asking if we provide services that are out of our range. And while it may be tempting to take on these potential revenue streams, it would most certainly dilute our knowledge base and laser focus on providing the best in class stormwater services. We don’t pretend to be who we aren’t but we have great relationships with others in the industry. So if a project is beyond our scope, we have no apprehension about pointing our customers in the right place.
HONESTY – Tell people who we are. Non-fiction.
Mark Twain said it best “If you tell the truth then you don’t have to remember anything”. We believe that being honest with our customers, vendors, and each other is the only way to establish relationships. And since we are a service-based company, we live and die by our relationships. Being dishonest just undermines our efforts and creates animosity. We have nothing to hide and are always willing to tell the truth…even when it hurts.
CREATIVITY – Think outside the box.
We encourage our employees to come up with creative solutions wherever appropriate. This is mandatory as Stormwater Quality is part science, part art, and a lot of experience. This means we need to know when the “standard” solution just won’t work. That’s when experience allows us to come up with sustainable solutions that save our customers not just money, but future issues that often arise from inexperience.
RESPECT – For ourselves, each other, our customers, our vendors and our profession.
For us, respect means respecting each others’ (customers, vendors, fellow team members) time, money, and opinions. And in this day and age, it’s not that hard to do. We answer the phone when it rings, return messages promptly, and show up when we say we will. Pretty simple but it’s surprising how many times we take a call and are told that our competitors aren’t answering phones or calling customers back. We understand the frustration this brings as well as the loss of your valuable time. So we go the extra mile to meet our customers where they are and explain what, how, and why we do what we do.
FLEXIBILITY – Work-Life balance. You do you.
Our team members come from all walks of life with differing family situations and personal lives. We understand that things happen and we need to attend to those needs. Unfortunately, things don’t just happen on the weekend. So we provide flexibility to our team members, giving them comfort in knowing that their job isn’t in jeopardy if they have to stay home with a sick kid or pick one up early from school.
EMPATHY – Understanding how others feel. Life happens to all of us.
We understand that if you own or manage a property (or are designing or developing one) there are always problems that need to be resolved. Our goal at Stormwater Professionals Group is to help mitigate the minutia so that you can get on with solving the more important tasks. We too deal with vendors, suppliers, and contractors and understand the issues that come with managing a team. We take your time seriously and do everything in our power to manage our part without wasting your valuable time and resources.
LEADERSHIP – Flat organizational structure.
Our belief is that leadership is all about empowerment. But in order to empower people you have to allow them to try and fail. While this might be difficult for some businesses it is the cornerstone of our management style. And since this approach has no power ladder, there is no power struggle. Our team works more like a family whereby everybody has a voice and is encouraged to use it. And when one of us fails, the rest of the team is quick to offer advice and encouragement instead of blame and shame so that we can all learn from the experience to become better stewards to each other, our customers, and our vendors.
GO THE EXTRA MILE – always over deliver.
We’ve all heard the adage “under-promise and over-deliver”. For us, that’s just not good enough. Why would you under-promise? To us, that is just selling ourselves short. And with our experience and knowledge base, we prefer to “promise and then over-deliver”. For us, this means knowing our business well enough to be honest not just with our customers, but with ourselves as well. To that end, we always try to go above and beyond our customers’ expectations.