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What is Storm Water Mitigation?
The major issue with the entire build out was a part of the planning that we didn't understand. It
came back to bite us hard about eighteen (18) months into the project.
Any construction project in the State of NY must take into consideration storm water pollution. If the amount
of disturbed dirt is greater than one (1) acre, a Notice Of Intent (NOI) must be filed with the New York State Department
of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC). Part of the NOI is to file a Storm Water Pollution Prevention Plan (SWPPP) with
the County Storm Water Director.
We did none of this. I had no idea there were permits beyond a building permit. The contractor doing major
excavation claims they didn't know of the regulation, and the building inspector approved the building permit when the
total area of disturbed soil was less than one (1) acre. (More on this later)
The SWPPP has to explain how water flow will work on the property during construction, and how it will work
post construction. Temporary measures, temporary structures, a maintentance schedule, and permanent structures all have to
be documented in the SWPPP. All of this is to prevent silt from not only leaving the property, but from causing pollution
on the property. Any time silt moves to a place by accident and not on purpose, it is considered silt pollution.
The SWPPP is the vehicle by which you will explain how you will mitigate storm water pollution.
| New Road |
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| Cut Into Bank |
How Did it Become Such a Problem?
It all started with moving the road. The original plan was going to make use of the existing road. The County DOT/DPW
refused to put a sluice pipe in on the existing road insisted that the road be moved ~150' further to the south to get it
off of the corner and provide better visability for oncoming traffic. Nobody has been able to explain why this was required.
In fact the County bureaucrat hasn't even has the common courtesy to contact me or any of the folks who have worked on the
property. I guess, once you become a bureaucrat, you just suckle from the trough of public funds and forget who pays your
salary.
Moving the road added a section of roadway 150' x 35' (5250 sq. ft.) pushing the project from just under one (1) acre to
just over one (1) acre. It also required that another 100 trees be removed, and forced us to cut deeply into the embankment.
The building code enforcement officer didn't require a new engineering drawing, and didn't notice the size had gone over one
(1) acre. Hence no additional permits were filed.
That's the How, but Why?
Wether or not you need an NOI or a SWPPP you still need to prevent silt pollution during construction. The contractor,
Hargraves Mini-Excavation, was responsible for putting the road in. They didn't take care of storm water during construction.
The silt coming off of the road made a bad silt condition worse. The new road location moved silt flow from my property,
to a sluice pipe going under the road that had a silt problem for some time. My additional silt was the tipping point.
The straw that broke the camel's back was the complete failure of the wall put in only six (6) months prior.
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| Wall Collapsed After 6 Months |
The collapsed wall caused the existing drainage system to fill with silt, which flowed into the Seuben County storm water
system. This clogged the system, and made the existing problem with the sluice pipe under the roadway much worse.
The county showed up to "fix" the existing problem. The bureaucrat, pried out of his chair with the promise of a donut,
took a look and declared, with use of his xray glasses and time machine, that the previous problem was caused by my subsequent construction
and filed a formal complaint with the NYSDEC.
So, after a visit from the NYSDEC and the Director of Steuben County Storm Water Management, I was given the opportunity
to correct the mess rather than face formal reprimand processing.
Following four days of intense reading to become knowledgable about civil engineering and storm water mitigation, filing
an environmental permit, and delveoping a full Storm Water Pollution Protection Plan (SWPPP), complete with structural drawings,
we got back in business. It forced us to redirect resources into storm water mitigation from sewer installation
and wall repair.
How Did We Correct It?
We used several mechanisms, including two (2) permanent silt basins, vegetative cover, stone driveway
underlayment, one engineered riprap wall, and one stacked riprap wall. We produced and files a SWPPP and NOI with the sate
in less than a week after the non-compliance meeting. Both the county and state officals were very kind to us during this
time.
Constructing the Silt Basin
The Steuben County Director of Storm Water Pollution really went out of his way to help and pointed out the relevant
parts of the regualtions and how we could mitigate them. This really came in handy as it allowed me to skip over hundreds
of pages of learning and concentrate on only those items necessary to bring us into compliance. The silt basin is a dam of
#6 light fill stone with a pea stone silt trap on the leeward side of the water flow.
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| Silt Basin Drawing |
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| Silt Basin Installed |
Additional Mitigation Work
In addition to the silt basin and retention wall, several other items will need to be in place to completely implement
storm water mitigation. Wood chips and seed over all disturbed areas, complete drainage ditches lining the roadway, and complete
stone coverage of the lower driveway.
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| Bank Seeding and Ditch |
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| Lower Bank Seeding |
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| No. 3 Stone On Drive |
Where Are We?
Most of the SWPP elements are completed at this point. There are some cosmetic issues to be corrected and some regrading
to be done, but all of the major elements have been addressed.
The wall reconstruction project is moving right along, all of the stone work has been completed. All that remains is the soil cap and vegetative growth.
Here's a set of pictures from Clumbus Day 2009.
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| Vegetation Below Barn |
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| Vegetation on Driveway |
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| Vegetation and Riprap |
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| Stone Retention Wall |
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| Stone Wall Cap Base |
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| Upper Driveway |
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