Siltation Control design/inspection

It is important to protect wetlands, rivers, lakes, and other environmentally sensitive areas during construction.  If contaminants enter a wet area not only is it harmful to the creatures and plant life found in those areas, it is also likely to enter human water supplies.  For this reason Towns and Cities have begun to require more regulations for protecting these areas for new construction.  Also, sites with potential pollutant loading areas such as gas stations, require additional long term controls to handle possible fuel spills.

Typically when work is proposed near to and uphill from a wetland a temporary erosion control barrier is proposed.  Often a row of staked hay bales is used to slow and filter the flow of water.  A staked silt fence embedded in the ground offers additional filtration.  Many towns and cities are now requiring weekly inspections of these barriers by the design engineer.

Some large disturbance sites will require a settling basin or a dewatering pit depending on the amount of space.  Both are methods of trapping sediments before entering a wetland.  A dewatering pit is used more for sites with limited space and a pump is used as needed to keep the water level down.

Ground cover is required to keep all the disturbed land stable for the foreseeable future.  Typically loam and seed is sufficient cover for stabilization.   Occasionally, mulch and plantings are a better option on slopes not easily mowed.  For even steeper surfaces geogrids(geocells) and/or hydroseeding covered in hay, or terraced walls, or gabions, or large rock slopes are all options.  For channel type areas with large designed flows, where erosion is a concern, more must be done.  For these types of areas large stone rip raps, check damns, sluice ways, and drop inlets are some of the options available.

Erosion control is an important part of the construction process and the completed site.  At Land Planning, Inc we provide you with designs that take into account all the above described methods and more.  We give step by step directions, and easy to understand details, so the construction sites we design will not have a negative effect on wetland either during construction or after.