© 2002 Wendy Dager

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When The Clean Water Act was passed by Congress in 1972, its primary objective was to restore and maintain the integrity of the nation's waters. That same year, the video game Pong bounced onto the scene, paving the way for technological advancements in American recreation.

Some might say Pong has had greater influence on society than The Clean Water Act, which, despite the success of its pollution control programs, has a long way to go in getting every developer to adhere to its requirements.
(See constructionsitepollution.htm.)

"The Clean Water act was passed thirty years ago and now, as construction and other industries have had to pay attention to water quality, it has huge impact on California," said Bruce Berlin, S&S Seeds manager of Erosion Control Products and Product Testing. "People have to pay attention to keeping the soil on the hills. There's no excuse for not being proactive about it. But what happens nowadays is people who aren't staying ahead of erosion are getting fined or sued. If they spend a little money up front as a preventive measure, they can save a lot of money down the road from either ending up in court or paying a huge fine."
(See http://www.albrightseed.com/topsoil.htm.)

Levying fines has become commonplace, as is evident in recent news stories, such as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency slapping a $60,000 penalty on Colrich Communities, Inc. for stormwater pollution violations at the Redhawk development, an 80-acre subdivision near Temecula, California. The EPA also sought $60,000 from Jaxon Enterprises, Inc. and Creative Living for poor erosion and sediment control at the Stanford Hills and River Knolls, a 74-acre subdivision near Redding, California.

"The penalty could have been avoided if both effective erosion and sediment control had been implemented and maintained on these sites," said Alexis Strauss, director of the EPA's Pacific Southwest Water Division. "Landowners, developers and their contractors have a longstanding legal obligation to maintain management practices for both erosion control-the primary means of keeping soil in place-and sediment control, a secondary means to ensure that sediment in stormwater does not pollute waterways during the build-out process."

What some developers don't take into consideration is the fact that the fines handed out by the EPA and other government entities are separate from expenditures to correct site problems, which may cause job shutdown and further costs. Ultimately, the entire cost of cleanup could be as much as forty times the amount the developer should have spent on preventive measures.

 "I have tracked projects for five years and I have some projects that have been ongoing during that entire time," said Eric Woodhouse, President of Landscape Development Inc.'s Earth Services Division. "Grading projects that have relied solely on sediment control structures have spent 30 to 40 percent more with us than similar projects that have spent money to stabilize the disturbed soil with a cover of either Hydromulch seed with binder, BFM or the rolled erosion control products."

According to Woodhouse, Landscape Development Inc. staffers believe early prevention is key to long-term erosion control. Successful methods include site stabilization, finish grading and adequate drainage implementation.

"We service projects from single residences to many acres, with millions of feet of stabilization of both slopes and pads. Sometimes more than just sandbagging needs to be done," said Woodhouse. "In a project that's ongoing, the performance is always better with source stabilization-turning each lot into its own retention structure. In the long run, when the job's done well before the storm season, the customer might save $60,000 or $70,000."

Bob Weiland, branch manager of Gothic Landscape's San Marcos office, has a similar view.

"Builders who take early preventive measures [not only protect their investments, but] show government agencies they're making an attempt to take care of the situation, but there are a lot of builders and developers who ignore the regulations," said Weiland. "Then they have a stormwater problem and all the erosion that comes with it, and it can cost up to 40 times more, depending on how much damage there is and what their fines are. The builders who do preventive maintenance up front don't have those problems."

It's up to builders to work with landscape contractors to investigate erosion control alternatives prior to beginning a job.

"We use a lot of bonded fiber matrices and other types of tackifiers to hold the soil together," said Bob. "But one of the best things is to get silt fences at the bottoms of the slopes where there's loose soil."

Erosion control measures are increasingly necessary given the fact that housing developments are now cutting into hillsides-often the only open space left to build homes. Along with these sloping properties comes an even greater chance of stormwater runoff, which heads straight for sewers, eventually polluting the ocean. There are, however, ways to successfully deal with this possibility.

"One thing people don't realize is that if they sheepsfoot a slope-where they take a big steel roller that pokes holes in the slope so that it creates more surface area on the slope-it'll reduce their erosion 50 percent," said Bob. "Sheepsfooting also allows for easier germination."

Besides implementing proper erosion control techniques, says Bob, the most important thing for a client to do is make sure he employs a state licensed contractor.

"If an unlicensed contractor is hired to do erosion control work and it's done incorrectly, these developers don't have anybody to go back to to get it corrected," he said.

Of course, rather than be forced to fix problems, it's best to implement erosion control early and avoid problems altogether.

However, for The Clean Water Act of 1972 to truly be effective today, definitive standards need to exist in order for developers to take proper action at their job sites. In June 2002, The EPA proposed Effluent Guidelines for the Construction & Development Category. The rule may be downloaded from the EPA website at http://www.epa.gov/waterscience/guide/construction/. This proposed rule would set standards for storm water discharges from construction sites, through National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permits issued by the EPA. In addition, an economic analysis of erosion control costs will be available soon at http://www.epa.gov/waterscience/guide/construction/.

And that's the real bottom line for motivating certain developers-their pocketbook. -For information on bonded fiber matrices, tackifiers, and other erosion control products, call S&S Seeds at (805) 684-0436 or visit our Web site at http://www.ssseeds.com. For more information about stormwater compliance, visit http://www.stormwater-resources.com.

E-mail your erosion control stories
and comments to info@ssseeds.com.

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GREENFIX When only the best protection for your slopes will do Get access to the only rice straw erosion control blankets made in California. Fewer weeds/ Less freight. Download specifications and installation guides from one website. Call to combine orders of seed, fiber, BFMs, fiber rolls and a complete line of top quality erosion control blankets. Next day delivery to most locations within Southern California.         Call S&S Seeds at (805) 684-0436.

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