Goal when building: keep soil, clean water in place
- John Lorson
- June 16, 2020
- 889
Ramble across Holmes County in any direction on any given day and you are bound to see construction activities taking place. Whether it’s an addition to a growing home-based shop, a brand-new enterprise going up in a former cornfield or a full-scale expansion of a thriving manufacturing facility, development is big business in Holmes County.
Our mission at the Holmes Soil & Water Conservation District is to keep the soil in its place and the waters clean. It is with that mission in mind that our agency needs to be involved when construction activities take place in the county.
Because construction nearly always begins with ground disturbing site preparation, it should come as no surprise that construction sites can easily contribute decades worth of topsoil as sediment into streams if precautions are not taken to avoid soil loss.
And while agriculture is often a ground-disturbing activity as well, studies have shown an unchecked construction site can contribute 10-20 times the amount of sediment runoff as agricultural activities on the same site. Huge slugs of sediment sent into otherwise healthy streams can mean death by suffocation for many of the stream’s life forms and impact the creatures up the food chain that depend upon them for food.
Small streams and the life they contain matter greatly in the big picture. The hundreds of small, clear brooks and rivulets that emanate from springs and forested drainages on the hillsides of our area are crucial contributors to the health of our larger creeks like the Killbuck and Sugar, as well as the Mohican River— not only as a source of clear, cold, oxygen-rich water, but also as prime habitat for the microorganisms, mollusks and macroinvertebrates that feed the rest of the system.
Construction activities that compromise a small stream can have a big impact further down the watershed.
Knowing the importance of construction and development in our local economy, the staff at Holmes Soil & Water stands ready to ensure these activities are done with minimal impact to the environment. People who are building a single-family home or shop and will disturb less than 1 acre of ground can benefit from an optional preconstruction site visit and discussion of their site’s soil characteristics and limitations.
We’ll also talk through a set of best management practices like construction entrance protection, silt fencing and inlet protection, topsoil stockpiling, protecting sensitive areas and planning for post-construction drainage to ensure storm water drains away from critical areas and at the same time does not create problems for neighbors.
Those involved in larger-scale development (which disturbs over 1 acre) are required by law to apply for a storm water permit from the Ohio EPA. Our office evaluates plans submitted to control erosion and sedimentation during construction and storm water controls that remain permanently. While the former has already been discussed here, the idea of controlling storm water deserves an explanation.
Large construction projects nearly always involve permanently covering surfaces like crop fields, woodlands and pastures with surfaces that are impervious to rainfall such as building roofs and paved parking lots. Rainfall that was once absorbed by the land would now be sent into the series of ditches, streams, creeks and rivers, increasing their volume and velocity with the consequence of destructive erosion if not for regulations that require detention of this “new” run-off.
Storm water detention plans calculate the run-off before development, subtract it from the run-off after development, and require the excess be detained and released slowly to match predevelopment conditions.
One of our goals at HSWCD is to ensure the plans are followed and detention systems continue to operate effectively. It’s a crucial factor in keeping soil in its place and the waters clean.
For questions call Holmes Soil & Water Conservation District at 330-674-2811 ext. 3 or email jlorson@co.holmes.oh.us. Follow on Facebook for current conservation updates and see the website at www.HolmesSWCD.com.