Erosion and Sediment Control on Construction Sites

What is erosion?

Soil erosion is the wearing away of the land surface (including detachment and movement of soil particles) by running water, wind, ice, and gravity. Henrico County’s Erosion and Sediment Control (ESC) Program primarily deals with erosion resulting from water (raindrop impact and surface runoff) and wind on un-stabilized soil during the construction process.

Erosion can occur without requiring human action. This is called geologic or natural erosion. According to the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ), natural erosion produces approximately 30 percent of the total sediment load generated in the United States. Accelerated erosion is much more rapid than normal or geologic erosion. It is primarily the result of the influence of activities of man, animals, and/or natural catastrophes that expose bare surfaces. Examples are surface mining, forestry, agriculture, construction, and fires.

Henrico County’s ESC program focuses primarily on construction activities. Erosion resulting from these activities can be 200 times greater than the amount of erosion generated from grassland and 2,000 times greater than that naturally occurring in woodlands. You can learn more about the ESC Program in Chapter 3, 5, 8, and 10 of the Henrico County Environmental Compliance Manual.  

Henrico County’s Erosion and Sediment Control Alternative Inspection Program (ESC Program) is designed to provide oversight of urban land-disturbing activities exceeding 2,500 square feet by using County staff to meet specific urbanization trends while addressing specific local environmental conditions. To protect the resources of the County effectively, Henrico will implement our alternative inspection program based on a system of priorities. This system will be based on the size of the disturbed project area, site conditions, stages of construction, and site conditions noted on previous inspections.  

What is a land disturbing activity?

A land-disturbing activity is any man-made change to the land surface that potentially changes its runoff characteristics, including, but not limited to, clearing (including mechanized removal of trees), grading, excavating, transporting, and filling of land. In Henrico County, an approved erosion and sediment control plan is required for any land-disturbing activity that exceeds 2,500 square feet of land disturbance.

However, the following land disturbance types are not considered to be regulated land disturbing activities and are therefore exempt from the requirement to submit an erosion and sediment control plan: 

1. Minor land-disturbing activities, such as home gardens and individual home landscaping, repairs, and maintenance work
2. Individual service connections
3. Installation, maintenance, or repair of any underground public utility lines when such activity occurs on an existing hard-surfaced road, street, or sidewalk, provided the land-disturbing activity is confined to the area of the road, street, or sidewalk that is hard-surfaced
4. Septic tank lines or drainage fields, unless included in an overall plan for land-disturbing activity relating to construction of the building to be served by the septic tank system
5. Permitted surface or deep mining operations and projects, or oil and gas operations and projects conducted pursuant to Title 45.1
6. Tilling, planting, or harvesting of agricultural, horticultural, or forest crops, livestock feedlot operations, or as additionally set forth by the Board in regulation, including engineering operations as follows: construction of terraces, terrace outlets, check dams, de-silting basins, dikes, ponds, ditches, strip cropping, lister furrowing, contour cultivating, contour furrowing, land drainage, and land irrigation; however, this exception shall not apply to harvesting of forest crops unless the area on which harvesting occurs is reforested artificially or naturally in accordance with the provisions of § 10.1-1100 et seq. of the Code of Virginia or is converted to bona fide agricultural or improved pasture use as described in § 10.1-1163 (B) of the Code of Virginia
7. Repair or rebuilding of tracks, right-of-ways, bridges, communication facilities and other related structures, and facilities of a railroad company
8. Agricultural engineering operations, including, but not limited to, the construction of terraces, terrace outlets, check dams, de-silting basins, dikes, ponds not required to comply with the provisions of the Dam Safety Act (§ 10.1-604 et seq. of the Code of Virginia), ditches, strip cropping, lister furrowing, contour cultivating, contour furrowing, land drainage and land irrigation
9. Disturbed land areas of less than 2,500 square feet in size
10. Installation of fence and sign posts, telephone and electric poles, and other kinds of posts or poles
11. Shoreline erosion control projects on tidal waters when all of the land-disturbing activities are within the regulatory authority of and approved by local wetlands boards, the Marine Resources Commission or the United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE); however, any associated land that is disturbed outside of this exempted area shall remain subject to this article and the regulations adopted pursuant thereto
12. Emergency work to protect life, limb or property, and emergency repairs; however, if the land-disturbing activity would have required an approved erosion and sediment control plan or if the activity were not an emergency, then the land area disturbed shall be shaped and stabilized in accordance with the requirements of the VESMP authority