Newletters, helpful advice and other pearls of wisdom from Earthworks' staff.
The intensity of a storm can have a significant impact on soils, causing sediment laden runoff. The greater the intensity, the more sediment that is displaced and carried away in runoff in a shorter amount of time. A longer rain event with the same amount of water will not cause the same displacement as the shorter storm. This is due to several factors. Two of these factors are raindrop to soil impact and inability to infiltrate causing more runoff. With a more intense storm the raindrops...
by Rick Jackson // 2020-08-04
Read MoreBMPs such as silt fence, straw wattles, bio logs, erosion control blanket and rip rap are effective ways to control sediment on your construction site, though only if they are installed and maintained properly. For example, when BMP crews install erosion control blankets (ECB) the ECB must match the manufactures specification. This is not just because the ECB works most effective when installed properly, but also to stay in compliance. Often the “easy” way to install a BMP is not the corr...
by Matthew Trygg // 2020-08-04
Read MoreThe Llano river flooding. Credit: Jonathan Cutrer Over the past few years Texas has experienced unpredictable weather ranging from storms that produce severe flooding to extended periods of drought. Stormwater banking is the idea to first capture floodwater in order to help mitigate its impacts to then store it in aquifers and utilize it during dry seasons when little rainfall is occurring. The University of Texas at Austin “quantified the amount of water flowing in major Texas riv...
by Haley Daily // 2020-08-04
Read MoreSoils get classified as cohesive or cohesionless. A cohesive soil has an attraction between particles of the same type, origin, and nature. Therefore, cohesive soils are a type of soil that stick to each other. Cohesive soils are the silts and clays, or fine-grained soils. A cohesionless coil (non-cohesive) soil are soils that do not adhere to each other and rely on friction. These soils are the sands and gravels, or coarse-grained soils. The soil type is particularly relevant when it com...
by Rick Jackson // 2020-08-04
Read MoreAs many homebuilders have noticed, there has been an increase in NPDES regulatory inspections across the state of Florida. Whether the regulatory inspections are completed by state, county or municipality, it can be very stressful for site supervisors and others involved with NPDES compliance. In most instances, a regulatory inspector will notify the responsible authority of an upcoming inspection. The advanced notice should be used to ensure that all BMPs onsite, as well as the SWPPP, ar...
by Johnathan Clayton // 2020-08-04
Read MoreChoosing the right Best Management Practice (BMP) for a site is very crucial and can be costly if chosen incorrectly. When deciding what stormwater BMP will work, the field conditions that must be considered includes the following: how much water flow will need to be filtered/slowed/redirected, how long the BMP will be in place for, how much pollutant the BMP could potentially receive and are there any items preventing proper installation. Builders must use their best judgement and gather...
by Brooks Morse // 2020-08-04
Read MoreThe Maricopa County Air Quality Department has the following purpose statement “Working to improve the air of Maricopa County so customers, residents, and visitors can live, work, and play in a healthy environment”. One way to accomplish this is to enforce a strict set of rules that govern specific types pollution and pollution producing activities. One specific pollutant that plagues arid desert areas is particulate matter. So, how much particulate matter, or PM for short is too much and...
by Mark Hubbard // 2020-08-04
Read MoreAs urbanization and development activities continue the number of impervious surfaces increases, leading to a rise in volume and rate of stormwater runoff. With higher amounts of runoff, pollutants are more likely to contaminate water if not properly treated. In the early 1970s, two-thirds of the nation’s lakes, rivers, and coastal waters were unsafe for fishing or swimming, and untreated sewage was dumped into open water (Reilly, 2011). Due to this contamination the 1948 Federal Water Po...
by Haley Daily // 2020-08-04
Read MoreA Storm Water Pollution Prevention Plan (SWPPP) must be developed prior to the start of construction and prior to applying for any National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit in order to receive a NPDES Permit. A well-developed SWPPP is the first line of defense for sediment and erosion control. The first purpose is to “identify potential sources of stormwater pollution on a construction, industrial and/or municipal site.” 1 In order to prevent illicit discharges, yo...
by Matthew Trygg // 2020-08-04
Read MoreSeveral challenges arise when building in an area that has Karst topography. These areas prominently occur in areas where the bedrock has carbonate-rich rocks like Limestone, Dolomite, and Gypsum. These rocks under the right circumstance will dissolve and leave voids beneath the ground surface. A sinkhole occurs when the soils above the void can no longer support their weight. Sinkholes can happen slowly or rapidly. Before constructing in these locations, subsurface soil investigations a...
by Rick Jackson // 2020-08-03
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