Erosion and Sediment Control Best Practices

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Foreign and welcome or welcome back to those  of you who are here last week to today's second   of two erosion and sediment control workshops  which is being hosted by Kawartha conservation   in partnership with City of Kawartha Lakes and  the Sustainable Technologies Evaluation program   also known as Steph my name is Sarah finnemore  and I will be assisting with today's course on   behalf of step and today's course will be  instructed by Lisa Rocha from the Toronto   and region conservation Authority and she is  a long-standing project manager with Steph so   before we get started I would just like to mention  that while audio is available we ask that you save   your questions until the question period or type  your question in the chat at any point during the   workshop and I will either read your question  out or call on you to turn on your mic during   The Question period today's session is being  recorded and I will now pass it over to Lisa   thank you Sarah oh hi everyone welcome to for  joining to welcome and thank you for joining us   um for this Workshop today as Sarah mentioned  I'm Lisa Rosa I'm a project manager with the   sustainable Technologies evaluation program at  trca uh over the course of my time at trca my   work has been focused largely on stormwater  and erosion sediment control research and   guideline development and most recently I  led the development of the updated erosion   and sediment control guide for urban  construction which we released in 2019   conservation reach out to me to organize this  Workshop as they really are interested in   raising the bar on erosion sediment control in  the region and definitely feel that Education   and Training is an important integral part of  that goal so during today's Workshop I'm going   to be focusing today on providing the latest  guidance on ese best practices and it's going   to be drawing largely from information in the  2019 erosion sediment control guide as well as   some curriculum from other ese courses  that Steph has offered over the years I don't want to talk too much about this because I  think a lot of people here are attended also last   week but um the program I'm with at trca is the  sustainable Technologies evaluation program it's   a conservation authority-led right now the members  are like some go region conservation Credit Valley   and trca and we are really focused on just  supporting broader broader implementation of   sustainable water Technologies through research  monitoring um and evaluating those Technologies   then we look at strategies to overcome any  potential implementation barriers like whether   it be cost or a lack of understanding of how they  work will tackle those strategies those kind of   barriers by either doing research or advocacy  or training we also developing tools we have   a treatment train tool for low impact development  we also have like online tools like the wiki which   is a Wiki resource online guide for low impact  development all aspects of low impact development   design and maintenance everything you can need  to know about low impact development and we also   develop guidelines and policies to support broader  uptake and things like today one of the primary   things we do is education training knowledge  transfer so events like today is one of the   primary focuses of the program and mobilizing the  knowledge that we have gained through our research   okay so today I'm going to be covering um  these key topics um maybe focusing more   on application of erosion sediment controls and  specific topics like uh dewatering protocols and   winter preparedness we'll also be discussing  legislation that's relevant and uh you need   to know if you're involved in erosion sediment  control or construction you know at all really   when designing ESC plans for construction projects  we're also um if you're interested in in more   detail on the ese fundamentals like an overview  of the es erosion methods and sediment control   methods and best practices I also encourage you to  check out the workshop that took place last week   um I know kortha CA will be posting it online  soon so I can keep you posted on that and and   send out a notification when it is posted but  there's a full video so if you need any of that   background information that you didn't attend  that session I would encourage you to try that   one as well I will be stopping for questions and  maybe a five minute break at one point so feel   free to put your questions at any time in the  chat and I can address them when they come up   when we get to the discussion period okay so just  a um again I mentioned the ESC guide in my intro   but I wanted to just focus um just kind of give an  overview of what it is so it's to me new but still   really new-ish uh all because it's 2019 so it is  has been several years since it came out now but   um it's a significant update to the 2006 guide  that was uh the greater Golden Horseshoe area   conservation authorities erosion sediment control  guide at the time many uh conservation authorities   municipalities did uh adopt those practices  this is a significant update and some of the   main things I think are new and and interesting  about this one is the qualitative erosion risk   assessment methodology so it's a way of looking  not just at your soil types but like asking people   to look at different things that affect your  erosion potential and do a qualitative assessment   to understand where those risk areas are and how  you can best take advantage of and invest your   money in your bmps like and putting them in their  right location and reinforcing the highest risk   areas we also tried to clarify the AC approvals  process with flow charts and checklists we heard   a lot of the time that proponents and Consultants  putting in applications were sometimes confused   by processes approval process so we tried to  make that a little bit more clear we updated   information on best management practices so that  we would no longer use the proprietary names   um like you know filtrex silt docs  with an X everything's generic uh so   um there's no um you know need to keep updating  every time there's a new product on the market um   it's just like a general product category that is  used to name everything we also have more guidance   for end water isolation VMP we did we included  a sizing calculation for in-water isolation   barriers which is interesting like a very simple  calculation based on the amount of risk you're   willing to tolerate and how long the Coffer down  for example is going to be in place so that's a   really interesting one that we included this time  around we also included description of risks to   low impact development features like bioretens  whales infiltration trenches and Chambers all   these infiltration based on the ground green  technologies that are becoming more and more   common can be very clogged and compacted during  the construction process if they're not protected   and so we included some pretty detailed guidance  on how to protect those we also include guidance   on ESC Effectiveness monitoring tribility Target  for the first time we always have heard from the   industry like we nobody understands what really  the goal is like what should my water quality   what should my turbidity be Downstream like what  was the maximum tolerable increase from my site   and there's not a lot of concrete data out there  not concrete data concrete guidance policy rules   out there that very clearly states what those  should be and so they included some guidance   that we think is make sense and if you wanted to  look at the guide in more detail and just peruse   it yourself and keep it it's um available at  sustainabletechnologies.ta slash ESC Dash guide   okay so getting right in we're going to dive into  some information on pumping and dewatering best   practices for construction projects I think  the important thing is just having dewatering   protocols and plans in place will allow you to  deal with your plan dewatering and any unforeseen   dewatering activities that have to be conducted so  that you can just you know always have a plan to   mitigate sediment releases during those activities  the ESC plan should definitely include dewatering   protocols that direct staff on how to handle  active and passive pumping discharges some of the   common activities where you can anticipate you're  going to end up needing pumping or dewatering   would be sediment control upon dewatering to  clean it out facilitate any like re-grading   or maintenance dredging of your sediment control  ponds like on a a multi-year construction project   you should definitely have to clean out your  sediment control ponds at some point it's not   going to be okay to leave the sediment control  Pond without being cleaned for four years or   whatever pumping out storm water that accumulates  in an excavated or low-lying areas following a   large event so that you can continue your work  after I'm using a sump pump to remove groundwater   and excavations that extendable the water table  and repairing or replacing any underground   services so some of those are the most common  activities we're going to need to do this work   um there's a lot of important considerations  really to think about when you're trying to   decide on your protocol and make your plan one  of the things you want to think about is your   allowable water movement rates that are specified  in your permits so um for example in a permit you   take water or EAS are environmental activity  and sex or registry either registration you   could be required when you're taking they might  those might be required when taking more than 50   000 liters of water in a day from a surface or  groundwater system but pumped water is being   discharged to a municipal sewer for example  discharge permits are also typically required   and while specific permits are going to vary like  you're not going to have the same requirements for   municipality to municipality they do typically  include like a maximum allowable discharge rate   also you want to consider the receiving  water system and the standards of that   system so water that's discharged directly  into a municipal sewer for example either a   storm or sanitary is usually subject to  the municipalities a lot of them local   locally would be the sewer use bylaw here I'm  in the GTA um and there's the sewer use bylaw   specifies specific contaminant limits some of  them are actually quite strict so when you're   dewatering you have to abide by those limits so  that's what you have to understand before you're   going to be pumping water whether you're meeting  those criteria for the discharge to the Sewer   um then if you are actually discharging directly  to a natural water feature my recommendation would   be to consult with the turbidity targets  that have been provided in chapter 10 of   the erosion sediment control guide those would  be the ones that would be the most applicable   um and you know advisable to adhere to there's  also temperature standards to consider for   discharge natural features when you release  water natural features they should fall within   the appropriate temperature range that's based  on the organisms supported by that habitat so   for example groundwater can actually be  significantly cooler than the receiving   water system so you might want to make sure you  allow for bringing a gradual initial release   um to allow aquatic organisms to adapt to  the temperature differential also where   you're discharging much warmer water  I'm in a cool water fishery or cold   water fishery you want to ensure that you're  not exceeding the threshold which with mnrf   typically recommends for example for cold water  endangered species like the red side days and   um which is found in gtha areas the upper reaches  you don't want to be exceeding 24 degrees Celsius   um also you want to look at how close you are to  groundwater if you're doing groundwater dewatering   how close you are to Natural surface features  when groundwater is being dewatered near a surface   water feature the water level in the future could  be impacted by that dewatering and so depending   on the zone and influence and the amount of water  that's being pumped out you have to consider those   factors it's important to know the groundwater  condition in the area in advance of doing your   dewatering plan so if a natural surface water  feature is located within the anticipated zone of   influence the local conservation Authority should  be consulted to provide advice and help establish   strategies that you can use to prevent impacts  to the hydrology of that surface water feature   when you're looking at also erodability at  discharge locations you want to make sure you're   preventing erosion at the outlet of a dewatering  system because that's just as important as   ensuring you you treated the water in the system  because what's the point of treating water and   dewatering treatment system if you're just going  to mobilize sediment again along the flow path   between the discharge point and the receiver so  what you want to do is make sure it's stabilized   with stone geotextile vegetation roll erosion  control products or whatever is appropriate   for the flow rates and area in question and  you want to you know you want to consider   what those flow rates might be and whether the  ground is going to be capable stable enough to   to support those flows in that area and always  consider flow dispersion and energy dissipation   um and yeah especially if you have a concentrated  or high flow rates that are coming out there you   want to consider whether you can disperse  those flows and make the erosivity less   um you also want to consider whether there's  any requirements for Quality under quantity   monitoring so for example permits issued  for dewatering activities permacy take   water conservation Authority permits Ministry of  environment permits or authorizations Under The   Endangered Species Act all even sewer discharge  permits they include requirements for periodic or   continuous monitoring of the quality and amount of  water that's being moved so you have to consider   do you have to you know do monitoring of this and  how am I going to monitor this discharge and with   my monitoring plan I'm going to be for this and  lastly really important is contingency planning   an effective contingency plan can be implemented  like on short notice so it means that materials   are available or a vendor that you need to hire  quickly is available and accessible so like for   example a really proactive approach would be  a potential to have if you have a potential   water quality issue is to have a plan to get a  dewatering tank like a wee or fractionation tank   or active treatment system on site and installed  quickly if needed so having that information   on hand having materials on hand to replace  when something's wrong all these are really   important part of your contingency plan because  it's pretty odd A lot of times something will go   wrong that's on construction projects it's pretty  common and just having the contingency in place   demonstrates your due diligence  and mitigating sediment releases um so some of the most common like and this goes  from like pretty basic to like pretty complicated   and expensive um best practices for pumping and  dewatering so just pumping water out and treating   the water before it's released and also dispersing  it one of the main things you see a lot of times   are sediment Bank geotextile fabric bag that's  the one in the top picture there it provides   energy energy dissipation and filtration so what  happens is you're kind of like blowing water down   by going through the bag and sediment will fall  out there's some filtration effect but in general   it's actually the fact that you're just slowing  the water down you're also dispersing the flow   over like a much larger area not having like a  concentrated pump um Outlet anymore so that's   really beneficial there another option that's  the middle picture you can incorporate polymer   flocculants they cause particles in the sediment  to bind to one another so they become larger   and heavier and more likely to settle out or be  filtered out of suspension so you can incorporate   them in something like a ditch configuration  which is pretty popular because it's like passive   passive meaning once you've discharge it from your  your pump hose it just flows through the Stitch   into its eventual destination um and so that's one  common way to apply polymers if you want to speed   up how quickly water is going to be clarified  another way is just another level of kind of   expense this would definitely be because a lot of  times you have to bring in a vendor to do this A   supplier would be dewatering Weir fractionation  tanks coming in various sizes they can be pretty   easily shoehorned in like you know maybe there's  a project where you want some detention but you   didn't build a pond or don't have space for that  these are you know commonly used where there's not   a big footprint it provides just an opportunity  for settling the Weirs help dissipate the energy   and you can optimize the sizing of the the wear  tank based on your targets and your particle   size distribution of sediment and like what pump  rate you need to really achieve on your site so   manufacture not manufacturer but supplier of those  products that are going to bring those services to   you would help you do all that and then lastly um  that's the bottom picture on the right there is   active treatment system that's more like what they  were talking about in the video um and that's when   you want to do more intensive water treatment  depending on how many different components you   have in a system like that it's like putting a  water treatment facility on your on your site   really it's suitable where there's less intensive  less intensive options are providing insufficient   treatment and you have very specific contaminants  of concern and very you know strict discharge   requirements that you can't otherwise meet it may  be the only option you have in those cases and so   um they they are used they exist they're  out there and there's a lot of projects   where they may be needed so something to  consider it usually includes something   like a polymer phase or something like that  like a flocculent type of thing and then they   may have polishing a polishing container so you  would pass through something like a sand filter   um I mean I think you can get as many bells and  whistles as you want to make the water as clear   as possible at the end of the system but yeah  uh there's different as you can see there's   different um containers that house different parts  of the treatment treatment train and like as you   can see down below and then you can even check the  water at some of these at the end and just kind of   see it pouring out and see how clean it isn't and  test it even so that's something that's available   going into a little bit more about sediment  dewatering bags these are composed of geotextile   material they remove sediment suspended from  terrific constructions like discharges It's   always important to put on a flat stabilized area  grass if you can but you know grass that stable   grass not brand new grass and stone lined is also  a good option I've seen some examples where it   would still have to be a stable surface underneath  but sometimes we'll put like a pallet of some wood   pallet just to make it easier to lift off after  and just give it ability to like drain below so   it's not sitting flat on the ground at least 30  meters away from the receiving water system it's   always better in a treatment train approach sorry  do water and treatment train approach so that's   where you would include more like barriers around  it and ideally a concealed sock barrier around it   and just provide like multi-levels of treatment  around the bag so that you are getting the maximum   amount of treatment um the water would be pumped  into the center into the bag and then blow out   around the bag to all all around the perimeter  of it to like a silt sock and then beyond so you   always want to make sure it's securely clamped to  the inlet hose and is inspected regularly replaced   when full so that's really important inspecting  those is important because um if that goes wrong   and it can't go wrong then it's a big problem and  a lot of sediment releases can happen that way   okay so this is um these this Duty watering  treatment train I was trying to describe earlier   you're waiting I'm going to try to look at this  a little bit Yeah so let's better closer look   for me so um just this is just to illustrate that  you can apply something like this in normal and   Frozen conditions um so if you want to use in  a normal condition you can use the the sediment   bag anti-watering bag in the center you want to  Overlay the area with Filter Fabric so as you   can see there's Filter Fabric underneath the  geotextile bag but over top of the staked in   filters filter socks and see you could see there  that they've placed it on a wood pallet skid just   to make it easier for water to drain and also for  it to be taken away after and this just provides   like they also secure the geotextile fabric  with these sandbags and just gives you like a   multi-level it's really the multi-barrier approach  but you're just enhancing the treatment as much as   you can with measures that are relatively simple  to put on site if you do not if you have Frozen   conditions you can just pump the water directly  into the center of this area instead of having   it into a bag and then just oops put a second  layer put a second layer not layer but perimeter   of silt socks to enhance the amount of treatment  and settling you're going to get from the water   that's being pumped in there so that's a winter  option which sometimes there's not a lot of winter   options so you always want to take advantage of  the ones you have okay speaking of winter options   um we're going to talk a little bit now just about  winter preparedness which I know is a topic that   can be really challenging um so when you talk  about construction sites during the winter   um there's really not a high potential for  erosion when it's frozen but when there's an   intense there's a thought event and then an  intense rainfall um and when you have those   unstable ground conditions caused by snow melt  or melting Frost that's when you have the highest   potential for erosion spring after this when after  when there's a thaw and after a lot of that snow   melts is when you see the highest incidences of  sediment releases and and Spills and things like   that from construction projects so um when you  have mild winter temperatures and rains because   the ground's not stable and the challenges there's  many challenges with installing sediment and   erosion controls when you're trying to put them in  in the winter so that just exacerbates the problem   um and so there needs to be kind of  a different approach to Solutions   so here kind of just illustrates what  happens with the soil and so the Frozen   grounds generally erosion resistant of course  but when but the soils that have high moisture   content are subject to heaving and freezing  action and they're easily eroded upon dying so   um alternating when you alternate the freezing  and thawing cycle it creates pressure which   lifts the soil up out of the ground and then the  downward pressure damages the soil by compacting   it while the upward pressure creates that Frost  heave and damages the soil structure breaks down   soil bonds and it makes reduces aeration it just  creates poor drainage condition in the soil um and   so that Frost tube cycle occurs mostly in early  spring sometimes late fall and it's when you'll   have like cold temperatures and abundant soil  moisture are present and that's when you can see   that kind of start to happen the frost heave and  heaves can happen in any type of soil but soils   that retain a lot of moisture like silt loam clay  are their most the most prone to heaving really so I mean this is the problem here I mean we're  kind of focusing on the problem and we're going   to start talking about Solutions but um your ESC  toolbox is diminished in the winter because of the   conditions that you're faced with so when you're  talking about implementing something for like   during the winter season when ground's frozen um  these are some of the challenges with vegetative   ground cover you can't establish it outside of  the growing season and it's automatically the   most effective Version Control is not available  hydroseeding is challenging because stabilizers   are not as effective in cold conditions and  you're going to have poor growth over the   winter when you're talking about diversion  structures like cut off swales it's not as   easy to try to build anything like that when the  ground that is frozen also sediment basins are   hard to install in frozen ground and they can also  be overwhelmed by Spring melt even if you have one   in place already so you can't just rely solely  on that as your only BMP and not expect that it   may be overwhelmed by the Spring Mount flows that  you're going to experience um still fenced again   because it's trenched in it's hard to install  and can't install really in frozen ground and   um it can often fail during spring melt if it's  not reinforced well or not bolstered well and not   maybe had multiple berries in place with erosion  blankets um you can't really install it that well   on frozen ground and improper installations that  are not eaten will slip away in those melt flows   with grassline swales again insula insulation  on like a frozen ground is difficult   and then even for Paving um I think Paving can be  possible in cold conditions but it's not as easy   it's challenging so a lot of these things are  not as readily available like some of the tools   that you would use to stabilize your site and and  prevent sediment mobilization and so if you think   about it like how do you prepare for winter and  like I think in the case of the fact that there   is less in your toolbox what it means is you can't  respond in the moment as much and just address   things there you have to be way more proactive and  think before winter and make plans before winter   so you have to before you know anything you have  to do a pre-winter inspection and assess you know   the current site conditions and ESC practices  and you have to determine if any maintenance   is required and what you're going to have to put  in place to bolster existing ones so you're going   to be ready for any kind of melt events and all  that so you want to ensure your basins and traps   have adequate storage capacity you don't want to  go in to the winter season having sediment Basin   that's full of sediment you should be they should  all be cleaned out long-term stabilization should   be established anywhere you can so on exposed  slopes or stockpiles and buy methods that are   appropriate for that slope steepness and length  examples like soil cover tracking rolled erosion   control products or even sod you want to inspect  the erosion controls to ensure they're securely   installed and in good in good working order you  don't want to have them just not functioning at   that point in time you want to remove storm Inlet  sediment controls at locations that can cause   safety concerns so you may have like ponded water  and ice you want to replace those prior to snow   and increase inspection to ensure those flows  are not being impeded there from that control   you want to stabilize the bottoms and the side  slopes of ditches and diversion channels and   just look over your site anticipate areas of  potential runoff like where are you going to   have a lot of runoff inflows from Spring Mount  or any major in the middle of the winter melts   and determine if you need more escs than  if you need multiple barriers in place so when you want to stock your go back  and start stocking your toolbox again   and rethinking about okay like I can't  do that but what can I do that's the key   thing you want to start by preparing  detailed site winterization plan so   you want to look at what strategies will work  for you and you prepare a site winterization   plan that's going to be implemented during winter  construction works and in the plan you want to   give a special consideration to how each control  or practice will be maintained so that's going   to have to happen throughout the winter it's not  just like you go and leave it if you're not doing   active construction and remembering your best  defense is always on multiple lines of defense   or also the mods also known as a multi-barrier  approach where you have multiple controls in   sequence and if one fails there's always a  backup so you have that redundancy in place um so when you consider stalking your  ESC toolbox all ESC measures that can   be installed should be installed  um and so still fences and other   practices requiring Earth disturbance  must be installed prior to Frozen Ground   um there you want to maintain adequate buffer  width from Perimeter controls and large access   points have a snow management plan that shows snow  pile locations Downstream of exposed soil areas   and notes that EST measures should be cleared in  in prep for your inspections and maintenance and   drainage structures should be kept free of snow  and ice dam so a lot of things to consider when   you're just restocking then when you consider  there's a few more options so you want to also   limit the exposed area to those that can be in  which works gonna occur within 15 days and or   that and that can be mulched in one day prior  to any snow event so multiplied and consider   that multiplied for um stabilization should  be applied at Double the standard rate when   you're talking about applying it in the winter  if you delay if if a delay is anticipated in   finishing slopes and all the exposed errors should  be covered in mulch like a rolled erosion control   product like a blanket and then combinations of  these depending on slope length and gradient you   could also break up the slope by using like flow  interrupter like cell talks cell phones choir logs   along the slope to just interrupt the flow and  and take that away some of that erosivity and   also consider slope drains again multiple lines of  Defense are always the best way to go in this case   if the slopes are finished then you can cover  them with an erosion control blanket that can   be seated through the spring assuming that you  cannot establish permanent stabilization at that   time but the best ESC measure known and available  is spinal stabilization or permanent stabilization   you also want to consider choosing more  effective winter specific erosion controls   but not like the typical measures that we  always see talked about so for example you   might want to do something like a mulch  Burma map parameter rather than a silt   fence because the berm can be constructed  on top of frozen ground without compromising   its Effectiveness whereas you can install  the silt fence in frozen ground or if you   do do a winter installation of cell fence  it's not as resilient as trenched insulin   uh so we want to also ensure all exposed  subgrades get graveled or tracked to create   like a rough surface that helps slow all your flow  velocities and lastly you just want to make sure   you regularly schedule winter ESC inspections um  regularly schedule them and not like necessarily   less than you would in the other season if  you are continuing work during the winter um this is just a little example it's that's from  Maine and it's a winterization plan so this is   something that would be included in your ESC plan  all these kinds of notes the dates are going to   vary from place to place based on like the growing  seasons and and all that but it's very specific   and detailed and um it's specifically just focused  on stabilization before winter and provides dates   um very specifically directing people  working on the site as to when they should   be achieving these specific stabilization  milestones and so I think something like   this would be really important as part of your  winterization plan to include with your ESC plan   okay so we're going to move on to inspections  and monitoring I feel like we've had quite a   bit of time so I'm just going to ask now  Sarah if you have any questions that have   come up in the chat I think I would probably  see them but if anybody has any questions they   also can you know just say them out loud I  will have another like spot for questions   soon but I just wanted to give a chance  now after we've covered all that content I have no questions in the chat yet   um if anyone has any questions just yeah  put them in the chat or raise your hand   we can get to get to them at any point so I think  for now we can keep going sounds good Okay so the   next few slides we're going to consider um the  best practices for inspections and monitoring so you can have a great ESC plan but unless you  inspect your site and do some sort of monitoring   of the effectiveness of Eurovision sediment  controls and of course after you've done that   work of identifying those things maintain  your controls based on the outcomes of what   your inspection and monitoring has discovered the  EOC plan could be the best thing in the world but   it won't matter because you're not following  up as like as to what's really happening day   in and day out on your site so it's crucial  crucial to having a say that is effective   um the inspection is just like your walkthrough  of the site Carry Out by Adelia qualified person   to qualify to do inspections and we'll talk about  what that is um for monitoring you want to just   on an ongoing or periodic basis assess like  the quality of your site discharge and other   monitoring parameters depending on your site you  may have to look at temperature you may have to   look at certain contaminants just TSS you may have  to look at flows but you want to consider doing   some sort of monitoring Me Maybe pretty basic  or or very involved if it's required of you but   um monitoring is important because it's really  the point where you see okay erosion sentiment   control doesn't look like it's working the  cell fence is down it's not looking good   you don't really know like what that translates  into at your site discharge points in terms   of an impact um an impairment of that water  quality unless you do some sort of monitoring   um so something to consider and maintenance is  just mostly a lot of sediment removal repairing   esc's adding upgrading replacing as needed to make  sure that continues to be the level of protection   you designed for ASC inspections the goal is to  regularly assess the effectiveness of individual   escs and your overall ESC plan you want to also in  your inspection identify the need for maintenance   so example sediment removal and repairs you want  to identify areas where ESC should be replaced or   augmented due to the fact that you see repeated  failures um I think also like one thing you'll   see on inspection reports and one thing I've seen  that's been really good in the past is um you know   just how many weeks this has not been functioning  properly so like you know it's been three weeks   this still hasn't been fixed identifying that  you've you've said this before this is the third   week I'm identifying this problem that's something  important to track pictures locations of where   these impaired areas are are all important to  including your inspection report um and Beyond the   condition and functionality of the controls you  want to um in an event in an effective inspection   um you want to do ongoing assessment of the  adjacent natural features and you want to actually   look and see like if you're having an impact in  what the feature looks like and kind of track over   time whether it looks like you're having some sort  of negative impact on the feature and so not just   stopping at your site perimeter but where your  discharge points are into other private properties   or receiving area receiving natural spaces you  want to look at those areas too and track that   and as part of your inspection so inspection is  only half the story so the effectiveness of the   construction site inspection is depend dependent  on the frequency and immediacy and robustness of   the actions that are going to be taken to address  those deficiencies so you can do inspections   every single day and just identify everything  perfectly and if something's not done proact   like quickly to address that and and like really  take that seriously on the site Personnel the   contractors are not uh taking that seriously and  and mobilizing efforts to fix those things because   they just see it as a formality just inspecting  for the sake of inspecting then it's meaningless   to have an inspection it's important that it  be carried out by a qualified ESC inspector   someone like cysic so certified inspector  of sediment and erosion control another   designation in the Canadian standards Association  inspection and maintenance guide uh it's actually   modern guides sorry I remember the name exactly of  that standard but it came out around 2019 as well   they identify um skills and not like knowledge and  education for somebody that would be considered a   qualified erosion and sediment control inspector  q-e-s-c-i and it's not it's not dissimilar to   seismic it might be slightly more onerous and  there's also q-e-s-c-i-it in training that they   um acknowledge as well and just remember the  ESD plan should evolve as necessary to ensure   that the features are protected so the efficacy  of the inspection program is contingent on like   applying the information collected during  inspections adapting the AC plan to study   conditions and making the repairs and maintenance  doing the maintenance that's identified as being   needed in those inspections so how often  should you inspect the site you want to   do a pre-construction inspection to verify the  original setting controls are installed based   on the approved plan and then once construction  Begins the inspection should occur on a weekly   basis during active construction you want to do  it before and after significant rainfall events   um you want to do it after significant snowmelt  events after any extreme weather like for example   like a windstorm that could have damaged some  of your controls like particularly silt fence   you want to do it daily during an extended  rainy or snow melt period and monthly if the   site's inactive so if it's greater than  30 days you just go on a monthly basis   um if none of those other conditions are present  if there's a spill event you want to go during or   immediately following that occasionally during an  event if it becomes necessary to see how water is   moving through your site that's a very smart thing  to do if you have the capacity and you know the   budget to do that just to visit the site during  an event just to see how water is moving and   not just the aftermath where you see something's  been damaged but I don't know how this happened   and where the water flowed to get here and how  how it all happened so during an event if it's   safe to do so and within budget and possible you  want to inspect before winter shutdown to ensure   the site is ready for freezing conditions  and thaws and at the end of construction   to confirm that you've achieved at least 80  percent effective stabilization on your site so um for BSC performance monitoring this is the  monitoring of site discharges and or Downstream   water quality which can help you understand  whether the controls are working to actually   mitigate environmental impact turbidity is a  parameter that's often measured on construction   sites to assess ese Effectiveness and it's used  to serve as a proxy for total suspended solids   so turbidity is an optical property it's the  cloudiness of the water so it's not exactly like   just sediment it can be cloudy for other reasons  but in practice the water turbidity is often   measured and used as a proxy for TSS which is the  total amount of actual suspended solids since the   turbidity can be measured on site in real time  with something handheld or like a station that's   permanently in place in like something like a  YSI meter and for this reason because duration   of exposure to elevated turbidity is also an  important factor um when you consider like   whether that's going to have a negative impact  on ecosystems you want to be able to address   and get a number right on site and so they're  receiving water and effluent targets that we   put in the erosion sediment control guide are  turbidity targets for that reason because you   can't measure TSS on site and so you can't get  that kind of um as easily duration of exposure   and on-site real time um kind of information  through that process you have to send it to a lab   and you're going to have monitoring your  monitoring approaches are definitely going   to vary based on your site details where you  can monitor what the project needs are based   on what you're actually doing what kind of  contaminants could be present what are your   regulatory requirements sensitive areas nearby  there's so many things to consider so here are   some of the site specific considerations you want  to look at erosion risk and where you have like   a high potential for erosion you want to do more  intensive monitoring for high risk erosion sites   when you look at your receiving water system for  example are you going to a natural feature or   the sewer system and what are the thresholds that  you're required to meet in either those instances   also is the low water level deep enough to even  keep a turbidimeter submerged if you had like an   online station so that's something you may not be  able to do if you don't have enough water is the   receiver accessible even is it too far from the  construction site is it going to be physically   possible and safe for you to do that what is  those is there a presence of any species at   risk or protected species that are Downstream of  your site is are you subject to any of those kind   of approvals permissions regulatory requirements  that are tied to those types of species you might   need more intensive continuous monitoring  on-site straining to species at risk habitat   and it's really usually determined by the  regulatory body administering the legislation   you also want to consider the type  and location of discharge points so   is it easy to get to the equipment to install  and to download and you have to look at safety   considerations also cost consideration so if you  if you were to monitor Pond duffel and if you   chose that that was the way you wanted to go like  I'm going to look at affluent from my sediment   control ponds because a lot of my flows are going  through ponds that's just how my site is set up   how many pawns do you have um is it going to  be expensive how are you going to set that up   at all these different ponds or do you just have  one Pond and that's not too big of an investment   so a lot of considerations when you're when you're  putting together your monitoring approach and it's   very site-specific for sure okay um I did see a  few questions so before I get into this kind of   um part of the um presentation that's kind of just  going through some like examples of problematic   um if things that happen on erosion inside  on construction sites uh ESC failures I'd   like to maybe answer the two questions I think  that came in yes uh so the first is actually   not technically a question but if there  are species at risk inspections may need   to be conducted daily during Wildlife active  Seasons if it's required by mnrf or macp and   so the second are you going to be speaking  about the fines and penalties that you know   of that are being applied to situations where  ESC plans have failed or have not been followed um there there is some more information  I'm not specifically speaking about fines   and penalties in a specific way  like this is exactly the total Max   um amount that um can be levied for each uh  like um violation under those different acts   I think I put that stuff in the ESC  guide where it specifically tells you   like I think the maximum penalties may be um  that can be levied for different violations   um and I don't necessarily have a lot of  information that I have specifically even though   I've spoken to like our enforcement here and there  it would be local to where we are in terms of   um I only have like one example in my mind where  there was a really significant fine levied and   I don't even know it was in the media so if you  wanted to look into this but it was specifically   related to like a solar farm and repeated  instances of exceedances like really poor erosion   control um and they were fined heavily and if you  if you guys want I can kind of find that example   and send it out after but the details are kind of  escaping me right now but that was one of the most   recent oh solar farm in Hamilton Township okay so  thank you I think that was Gary Gary yes thanks   for letting us know yeah so there is that's in the  media that's one of the big stories I've heard but   other than that a lot of things are I mean  locally there's job work orders sometimes   um and then you know there can be penalties  where it's more just like you have to   rehabilitate this and it's expensive um  but in terms of specific fines in our area   um I would have to ask our I could  ask our enforcement officer if there's   been something recently but not I don't think  necessarily it's as common as it may have been   and I want to say like back when I think DFO maybe  had more um kind of enforcement and control over   these things where there was more oversight  in maybe a few decades back even where it was   a little bit more serious where there was like  kind of that serious tone taken at least in our   jurisdiction to those types of exceedances  and fines levied but it's just been I think   progressively less over the past few decades so at  least where we are but I would love to hear from   anybody else's experiences because I know we're  all coming from different parts of the province so okay maybe we'll revisit again when  we have another question period   um is there anything else  there or can I can I continue I think we can move on to the next section  okay good okay The Good the Bad and the Ugly so   I'm just gonna show a bunch of examples  here hopefully this will be a bit   interactive and not so um just much me  just talking and taking up all the air   um so it's just an example there's a lot  of things that went wrong oh sorry Gary um can you read that out Sarah it's harder for me to  see that uh so from an macp perspective if the ANC   is required through a provincial officer's order  the essay is not created and or followed macp   May pursue charges non-compliance with an order  as an offense under the EPA mm-hmm yeah I think   I think all these there's all these  potential for offenses I think it's   I guess the the message the general message  I have it could be wrong but I'm pretty sure   this is what it's like in our jurisdiction  is that it just doesn't happen very much   um and even though the mechanisms are possible  the enforcement is just not really happening   um and so somebody could be fined for  something but isn't a lot of the times   and there's no enforcement there's not enough  Enforcement Officers or there aren't regular   inspections from by enforcement um that  would identify those things that's what   I've noticed but I can confirm with enforcement  like how things are happening lately and whether   that's changed but in past conversations  with them that's kind of been the tone um so if anybody wants to chime in I mean you  can type it in the chat and maybe Sarah could   read it off but I wanted to kind of show  this as an example this is a site where   the site we worked on was supposed to be like  a really good demonstration of a whole bunch of   erosion and sediment control practices Beyond  just the basic um still fence and a pond and   so they were supposed to be like kind of a  higher level standard above and it's clear   they did spend a lot of money trying to put in  erosion and sediment controls but then weren't   always executed very well and so this is an  example and particularly anybody who attended   the last Workshop where we talked about the proper  installation of things like this I'd love to hear   if anybody has any thing to kind of like comment  about what exactly went wrong and why there's   um they've seated they've they've seeded  this see does come in a bit and they've also   um used an enrolled erosion control  product but they still have a gully there okay I'll go ahead maybe you guys will chime in on  other ones so always considering there's there's   actually a lot of things wrong and not just the  the thing that's mentioned here so it is not it   does seem to be the wrong orientation so it should  um it should be installed down the slope and   extend to the top of the slope there should be an  anchor trench at the top where it's keyed in there   and at the bottom and be in continuous contact  with the soil surface and there should be an   overlap on those edges but it also seems like this  slope could have been could have benefited from   maybe a slope drain it doesn't seem like the seed  that was there was established enough to receive   the flows that were going down the slope and so  there's a few things that could have been maybe   improved and the unfortunate thing is it it's an  invest investment has been made here and money   has been spent but at the end it's still like not  working very well so it's kind of wasted effort to   some extent so yeah proper installation is really  important in that case I think another example   of a ruled erosion control product installed  for like a cutoff swill in this case like well   what went wrong here again it's the installation  and orientation of the length to some extent so   the strip should be applied parallel to the  direction of flow and as you can see it looks like   almost like either this is torn or the seam was  in the middle but it should be anchored at the top   of the slope on both sides and being continuous  contact with sole surface and overlap again could   have maybe benefit benefited from some more um  Stitch checks or something to slow down flows if   this is too much but it does seem like there's rip  and and in the middle there and so it could have   just been the way the blanket was installed  that wasn't ideal in terms of orientation   I also want to consider when you're installing  that clods in the soil will create air pockets   which is where stormwater goes through the  blanket and erodes this all below and that's   exactly what you don't want you don't want really  good ground contact you don't want these kind of   um unprepared soil where there's these clods  and create a tenting effect that's really   bad for blankets here's kind of an example of  unprepared soil and how it just won't work and   water will be flowing underneath there also on so  on the left you'll see the tent there's tenting   it's not really properly prepped the slope it  doesn't appear to be properly anchored to the   slope with staples um and on the right you'll  see like really good ground contact UM good   soil prep and ground contact is ideal there and  that's kind of what you want to be seeing when   you're installing a product if you want it to  work because if you've spent all that money to   purchase it you want to make sure you take it  all the way and install the property as well   here's an example we talked a lot I think when I  do the best management practices content which I   did um last week on Thursday time to talk  a lot about slope drain so here's another   example so why is this slow promoting it does  seem like they did try to install a slope drain   I had some people in some classes say well  maybe it's not actually installed properly   because of the way it looks but assuming it  is installed properly why is it still eroding um does anybody want to chime  in or provide the answers I mean in this case it does seem  like they've mulched the slope   um but it doesn't seem like it was sufficient  um protection stabilization heavy precipitation   directly on the surface yeah that's right right  thank you uh can you read some of the other oh   the single drain Maybe Can't convey enough flow  I would say that's true too it's unclear what's   happening with the drain it does seem like there's  maybe some sort of berm ditch situation halfway   not halfway but at the first quarter of the Hill  there that's supposed to be collecting flows but   water incident on there is clearly um still  causing that real erosion and it doesn't seem   like that mulch was enough to protect that surface  based on the flows that they're getting so I think   um there needed to be some better stabilization  or maybe the slope drain needed to be a little   bit improved or maybe they needed to  install like another interrupter flow   interrupter and then convey from that point  too so that you just don't have such a long   slope and that's where water kind of picks  up speed and becomes highly erosive and then   you start to see the rails forming like  almost towards the end of the slope there um here's another situation where maybe a slope  train could have helped to mitigate this problem   and this failure so again it looks like it's been  mulched and then you see that there's definitely   a point where concentrated flows are just even  just roughing up the surface yeah roughing up   the surface before you mulched it would make a  difference too and just create like more um kind   of slope it slows will slow down if it creates a  roughening and here you see yeah slope drain could   have had a good a maybe effect on this particular  project where there was definitely concentrated   flows flowing down there and if they had just kind  of contained it to that area and then directed   it down a slope drain and that would have been a  stable thing to take down the hill down the slope   instead of just flowing over your stabilized  surface and just washing all that mulch away   here's another example yes there's a silt fence  sediment fence but there are no posts and you   should always remember there should be no more  than two meters apart structural fencing support   like page wire or 10 by 10 wooden posts would make  first stronger sediment fence so I mean that's a   lot of water it definitely needed to be stronger  but it doesn't even meet the minimum criteria   where they're two meters apart so I mean there's a  lot of problems on this particular one but there's   an obvious one and then always consider  like if you do expect it to be potentially   um overcome you can always bolster with  options there are options to make it stronger   with this sediment fence installation I'm curious  if anybody's aware of why why it's not quite right there let me know if there's any  answers I can't always see them in time no J hook yeah thank you Amber doesn't  stop not terminated properly yeah we need a j-hook you always want to terminate you  want it to go up the end runs of any perimeter   control should extend distance up uh option to  prevent flow from going around not wide enough   could J hook likely not sorry can you read  them Sarah they disappear after a while for me uh so not wide enough could j-hook  likely not the proper control yeah but whenever you don't J hook it's easily  for water to flank around the measure so that's   something to always keep in mind it's the same  thing with any ways to handle staking when Bedrock   close to our ad surface um can you read that  audience sorry it disappeared again are there   any ways to handle staking when Bedrock is close  to or at the surface so it's taking for a sediment   control fence I guess I believe so yeah if you  can't get the stakes into the into the ground um that's challenging so you definitely I mean  consider a perimeter control that doesn't have to   be staked in as far so there's still talks which  people do like um put a bit of a depression and   then they do get staked in but maybe it doesn't  require as much you could consider the same things   you would consider in Frozen conditions so some  of the stuff we talked about in winter but again   like the winter like frozen ground installation of  silt fence is not going to be as effective so that   winter installation would be that you put like  a sediment silt still talk on the Upstream side   instead of trenching it in to keep it in place  but you would still need to stake that in too   so you'd have to get like some sort of Leverage  in there but anything that can't be any of the   perimeter controls you're going to consider so  the other option in the winter one was just like   a mulch firm um but anything you're going to  have to consider something that creates a burn   but doesn't like allow water to pass underneath  which is what's going to happen when you have   um something that's not trenched so there are  some perimeter controls considered but like if   it's not going to be trenched in if it's not  possible to like stake or transition in very   much it's just going to have to be more regularly  maintained and then another another way to look at   that will means I have to have multiple barriers  or be more careful in that area because I can't   make something as strong as it would otherwise  be that would be what I would t

2023-03-12

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