Erosion Control Issues

By Julie Etra Last June I wrote for this column and addressed regionalization. Now that it has been accomplished, the following is a brief summary of our evolving organization and potential for growth. Those who have visited IECA’s website within the last several months have seen the new, yet still simple, world map indicating Region One and Region Two. Users can click on their region, which can also be set as their default home region. The Region One website continues to make changes so that it becomes...>... More >

John McCullah started working with dirt as a landscape contractor after having earned degrees in botany, geology, and forest and range hydrology from Santa Cruz Cabrillo College and Humboldt State University in California. Today, he calls himself a fluvial geomorphologist…and much more. McCullah owns Salix Applied Earthcare in Redding, CA, a company that designs, develops, reviews, and implements erosion control plans. He offers best management practices workshops. He develops guidance manuals. He devel...>... More >

By Janis Keating Anyone who’s worked with a containerized plant has seen evidence of how strong plant roots can be. Adhering tightly to the soil, roots form a living net of fibers that often require a sharp knife, or ax, to rend. Of course, with any erosion control project, plant materials (especially those with fibrous roots, rather than taproots) are always a key component; however, many in the industry argue that plants can do much more of the work expected—and that a copious amount of hardscaping is...>... More >

By Carol Brzozowski Norman Chamberlain, vice president of Taylor Engineering Associates in Auburn, ME, remembers the days when he’d have to do pond routing by hand. “That’s very complicated and time consuming,” he says. “I progressed into computer programs that did routing and storage indication, and that’s a big time-saver.” Since the early 1990s, Chamberlain has used HydroCAD for that purpose. Like many of his peers throughout the country, Chamberlain uses software to offer important data and save lab...>... More >

Written by Carol Brzozowski Weather can wreak havoc on slopes. Here and abroad, erosion control specialists are constantly working to shore up what weather events have shaken up. In some cases, slope stabilization is performed on new construction sites as a type of insurance policy against a weather event destroying the slope. In either case, many are turning to bioengineering techniques to help mitigate the problem. Following the heavy winter rains of 2001 and 2002, Pebble Beach Drive in Crescent ...>... More >

ACF Environmental www.acfenvironmental.com Agrecol Corp. www.agrecol.com Agru America Inc. www.agruamerica.com Belton Industries www.beltonindustries.com Bowie www.bowieindustries.com Central Fiber Corp. www.centralfiber.com Envirolok www.envirolok.com Ernst Conservation Seeds www.ernstseed.com Express Blower Inc. www.expressblower.com Filtrexx International LLC www.filtrexx.com Finn Corp. www.finncorp.com Foresight Products Inc. www.earthanchor.com Genesis Nursery Inc. n/a Geo-Slope International www.g...>... More >

Written by David C. Richardson The fact that sea levels are rising does not come as a surprise to many scientific and engineering experts. For government agencies such as the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), whose responsibilities include protecting the public from flood damage along the coasts and inland waterways, rising sea levels had been a focus of concern for some time—decades, in fact—before the current urgent conversations on climate change gathered steam. Charley Chesnutt, a coastal eng...>... More >

Written by Steve Goldberg “The city of New York has a world-class drinking water treatment system, and it keeps getting better,” says Bill Young of Young Environmental LLC. “What they’ve done is recognize how nature is the best for water purification, so New York City has gone upstate in New York and bought thousands of acres of reservoirs and buffer land, realizing that if they can keep the farms off and keep the roads off, and buffer them with forests and meadows, they’ll have clean water. And I ...>... More >

When it comes to dust, the effects from the hand of nature may appear a bit more dramatic than those generated by the activities of humans. The catastrophic eruption of Mount Krakatoa in 1883 blasted an immeasurable quantity dust 4 miles into the atmosphere, where it persisted for up to four years, blocking sunlight and drifting to span the globe, lowering temperatures by a full degree. The great dust storm of November 12–13, 1933, started in the plains of the United States and caused discoloration of s...>... More >

FINN CORP. Finn TRU-Mulches are produced from high-quality virgin woods for use in hydroseeding and erosion control applications. All Finn TRU-Mulch products are produced using an advanced “Double Refining” process, whereby high-pressure steam is used to soften the virgin pine and poplar wood chips before they are put through a second process that refines the wood chips into the long fibers required for effective mechanical cross-linking. All the Finn TRU-Mulch products are made from high-quality pines ...>... More >

Profitability—it’s the goal of all businesses, though many are struggling to survive in the current economic climate. But to be profitable, it’s not enough just to get better at what we’ve always done. There’s a bigger risk to the heavy construction sector lurking out there—and it’s the accelerating trend towards sustainability. Governments worldwide are funding infrastructure work to keep the economically important construction sector going. But what will we do when we’ve built all the roads and railwa...>... More >

ACF Environmental www.acfenvironmental.com Belton Industries www.beltonindustries.com Bowie www.bowieindustries.com Bowman Construction/Biosol www.rockymtnbioproducts.com Central Fiber Corp. www.centralfiber.com East Coast Erosion Blankets www.eastcoasterosion.com Ernst Conservation Seeds www.ernstseed.com Filtrexx International LLC www.filtrexx.com Finn Corp. www.finncorp.com Foresight Products Inc. www.earthanchor.com Genesis Nursery Inc. n/a Gravel Roads Academy www.gravelroadsacademy.com Hamilton Ma...>... More >

Written by Dori Larna On June 28, 2012, a fire driven by high winds and scorching summer temperatures ravaged the hills—part of the Bannock Range—south of Pocatello, ID. The accidental fire ignited on Charlotte Drive, located at the upper end of a highly populated mountain community, traveled down the mountainside into the Mink Creek area, and eventually burned into the Gibson Jack area, the nearest northwestern valley. These regions that were once covered with dry grasses and juniper trees became ...>... More >

Written by Janet Aird Segmental retaining walls have come a long way since humans first fit rocks together to hold back slopes. And although site owners have many additional retaining wall types to choose from—including reinforced earth, poured concrete, soldier pile, and soil nail—segmental walls, also known as dry-stacked and mortarless walls, are still the most popular. Modern blocks vary in size, shape, and appearance. What they have in common is their precision-engineered design. Their batter ...>... More >

Written by Margaret Buranen  A study done by the Washington State Department of Ecology in 1992 found an average dust emission rate of 1.2 tons per acre per month for active construction sites. Another study by the same agency listed earthmoving, traffic, and general disturbance as the major dust-generating factors in construction work. Dust-generating work has to be done, of course. But for the public good, the dust and particulates so generated has to be minimized and controlled. Controlling...>... More >

WESTERN EXCELSIOR Tackmat is an enhanced erosion control blanket manufactured by Western Excelsior.  Tackmat is available in numerous varieties, developed to provide economy and performance across the spectrum of possible applications. The photograph shows a landfill project in North Carolina where a Tackmat variety was placed along a series of steep gradient slopes (seeded prior to application) and allowed to vegetate. The vegetation established quickly, benefitting from a completely stable seedbe...>... More >

Written by Janis Keating  Thousands of American acres, both private and public, burn each year. Whether caused by human carelessness or malevolence, or natural causes such as lightning strikes, wildfires destroy natural resources, displace wildlife, and often put human lives at risk. Because of its dry climate, the Southwest’s forested areas are especially vulnerable to seasonal fires. While wildfires destroy, they also create; some plant species, such as Ceanothus (shrubs and trees in the buc...>... More >

Written by Carol Brzozowski  Be it for flood control, aesthetics, or habitat restoration, streambanks throughout the globe have been getting a facelift, and, in many cases, projects installed years ago are demonstrating continued success. Each time an engineering firm is presented with the challenge of repairing streambanks, the primary consideration is what type of liner or approach will best suit the long-term site needs. Water volume from a five- or 10-year storm is one consideration, as we...>... More >

Written by Steve Goldberg  The Kinnickinnic River, one of three concrete-lined waterways running through Milwaukee, WI, eventually empties into Lake Michigan. The river has had its share of problems, including pollutant contamination, excessive sediment buildup, and urban flooding. As part of its flood mitigation project, the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District  (MMSD) authorized the construction of a river-lining retaining wall consisting of more than 10,000 square feet of ReCon ret...>... More >

Written by Tara Beecham  Growth lies at the heart of erosion control. Certainly the most tangible growth in the practice of hydroseeding can be visible in the form of new plant stems rising toward the sun, but creative hydroseeding methods—combining mulches, techniques, and seed mixes for well-timed establishment—reflects development of another kind. Highway construction, new residential and commercial construction, reclamation, and revegetation are some of the most common sites and uses for h...>... More >

A. H. Meyer Maschinenfabrik GmbH www.ahmeyer.com ACF Environmental www.acfenvironmental.com AER-FLO Inc. www.aerflo.com Agru America Inc. www.agruamerica.com Belton Industries www.beltonindustries.com Bowie www.bowieindustries.com Central Fiber Corp. www.centralfiber.com Earth Chem Inc. www.earthchem.com East Coast Erosion Blankets www.eastcoasterosion.com Enviro-USA www.enviro-usa.com Ernst Conservation Seeds www.ernstseed.com Express Blower Inc. www.expressblower.com Fiber Marketing International www....>... More >

The King Coal Highway is an unusual stretch of roadway being built through the mountains of southern West Virginia, part of a new corridor highway system across the bottom of the state. “The King Coal is an unusual highway project in that it’s kind of a partnership between the coal mining industry and our highway department,” explains Jamie Bailey of the West Virginia office of ACF Environmental. “They’re using a mountaintop removal site and running this highway on a portion of coal mining property. Tha...>... More >

Residents of a popular housing development near Wichita, KS, recently discovered that serious erosion problems can strike pretty close to home. With the rising volume and velocity of runoff due to increases in impervious surface, stormwater ponds have become a necessity for many suburban areas. Although they keep home sites and communities safe from flooding, the ponds sometimes take up highly desirable real estate for a civil engineering function. However, some developers have found ways to make the be...>... More >

A group of property owners in the New Uri watershed, encompassing Florence, KY, began to complain to city officials about erosion from a 10-foot-high streambank that was taking a sharp turn in their neighborhood. The erosion was so significant that some property owners were losing their fences to cave-ins. From a 2007 watershed study conducted by the engineering team of Viox & Viox, it was determined that a particular channel indeed demonstrated excessive erosion. “We decided, in order to save the p...>... More >

Each year the International Erosion Control Association (IECA) recognizes industry professionals and their outstanding achievements in the erosion and sediment control industry. IECA recently named its 2012 winners for the Environmental Achievement and Contractor of the Year awards.  The Environmental Achievement Award is IECA’s premier award. It recognizes an outstanding erosion and sediment control project, program, or system that demonstrates excellence in natural resource conservation and envir...>... More >

Written by Phil Handley Howdy again to y’all from Texas! The topic of my update is the progress of the IECA brand. IECA—the oldest and largest association dedicated to erosion control that addresses key issues in both stormwater management and natural resource protection—experienced its 40th anniversary in February 2012. In our 40 years of existence, the IECA logo, with its three interlocking brown, green, and blue rings, continues to be the recognized symbol of the essence of IECA. That essence of IECA...>... More >

Written by Janice Kaspersen This issue marks the 20th anniversary of Erosion Control magazine. In 1993, the Clean Water Act was a mere two decades old. Phase I of the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) had just begun, and Phase II—which would control nonpoint-source pollution like sediment—was still 10 years away. What else has changed in the last 20 years? The public has, by and large, become more aware of the causes of environmental problems. The 1970s brought a wave of environmen...>... More >

Written by Eric Woolson When Jim Trifilio is asked to share the story of Okaloosa County’s effort to restore two pristine beaches along Florida’s northern Gulf Coast, he pauses and takes a short breath. “How much time do you have?” he asks with an uneasy laugh. “It’s a long and harrowing story. I’m not even sure where to start.” Trifilio, who was hired in December 2005 as the first coastal management coordinator for the Okaloosa County Tourist Development Council (TDC) to begin the Okaloosa Island ...>... More >

Written by Carol Brzozowski Now, the use of geosynthetics in paving operations may get a boost from the federal government. In late October 2011, US Reps. John Duncan (R-TN) and Frank LoBiondo (R-NJ)—both members of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee—sent a letter to the US Government Accountability Office, asking that office to conduct a study regarding geosynthetic materials in roadway systems. The Geosynthetic Materials Association (GMA), a division of the Industrial Fabrics Associ...>... More >

Written by Sandy Mathews Erosion control professionals associated with IECA do outstanding work protecting and restoring soil and natural resources. IECA’s awards program recognizes these achievements. Needless to say, there is strong competition to be honored with an IECA Award of Environmental Excellence. The annual call for nominations for 2012 awards will be released shortly, featuring several changes due to regionalization and to facilitate a simpler process. 2012 will be the first year that IECA’s...>... More >

Historically, long-term performance data for construction stormwater best management practices (BMPs) have been virtually nonexistent. The performance data that do exist are primarily associated with short-term performance test protocols using single pass-through flows through passive sediment control BMPs. A better understanding of long-term performance for construction BMPs is essential, as future construction water-quality regulations will undoubtedly continue to become more stringent. Long-term BMP ...>... More >

The US Geological Survey released a disturbing report in June. Since 1990, according to tide gauge data collected throughout North America by USGS scientists, sea-level rise along parts of the East Coast is occurring much faster than predicted. The full report is available online at http://www.nature.com/nclimate/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nclimate1597.html . When we think of sea-level rise, most of us tend to think of the world’s oceans as one giant bathtub, so to speak, with the continents scattered t...>... More >

For retaining wall contractors, the long-term goal of a solid retaining wall that will not fail is the primary consideration, but just as important is how the material will hold up to challenges inherent in constructing it. Weather, tight spaces, poor-quality soils, suitable backfill, and time and budget constraints are among the challenges contractors must address. High Pointe Commons A retaining wall project involving High Pointe Commons in Harrisburg, PA, entailed six different walls of more than 24,...>... More >

All of us have seen at some point the destruction caused by widespread deforestation: accelerated erosion, landslides, and, too often, financial hardship for the people living right on the slippery edge of their countries’ economies. In Haiti, for example, about 98% of the forests have been lost, first to farming and the timber industry, and then to the many thousands of individuals who clear land to plant subsistence crops, cut trees to burn for fuel, or try to eke out a living by making charcoal. The ...>... More >

There are slopes and then there are slopes. Some of the slopes on the back sides of the dams around Horsetooth Reservoir in Colorado, for example, reached 1:1 and stretched as much as 800 to 1,000 feet long. The hydroseeding equipment used on the reclamation project was pulled up and supported on its way down by tractors on narrow roads constructed especially for the job. On the other hand, the Ruby Natural Gas Pipeline reclamation project involved working on terrains that ranged from wetlands to steep ...>... More >

Yesterday’s industrial activities often create environmental headaches for today’s communities and businesses. What was once considered “business as usual” now frequently leaves behind sites with contaminated soils that can erode into rivers and leach into water tables. A former zinc and lead mine in extreme southwestern Missouri is one such site. One of many sites throughout this tri-state region, the land was mined for its deposits beginning in the 1920s. “City populations in this mining region expand...>... More >

Written by Janice Kaspersen If there’s one thing that stands out as a black eye in the history of erosion control, it’s the use of plants that turn out to be invasive. Many of them have root systems that are excellent at anchoring the soil; that’s the upside, and the reason we’ve so often imported them, sometimes from halfway around the world. The downside is that they eventually devastate the very environments we were trying to protect, crowding out the native flora and providing less-than-livable habi...>... More >

Written by Larry Trojak As the benefits of a comprehensive GIS effort have become more and more apparent, larger cities and municipal utilities have been steadily getting on board with the technology, citing it as something of a no-brainer in terms of better asset availability, increased accuracy, ease of access to information, and so on. Smaller towns and cities, however, have been reluctant to make the same move, often citing it as both too daunting and far too cost-prohibitive. The City of Trout...>... More >

Written by Janet Aird “The use of permeable pavers has gone rampant,” says David Hein, an engineer with Applied Research Associates in Toronto. “It’s driven by the stormwater people. There’s been a major effort to deal with stormwater at the source.” While the goal of poured concrete and asphalt is to guide water away from their surfaces, the goal of the permeable paver system is to allow it to infiltrate into the ground below. And although they’re used most frequently for parking lots and driveway...>... More >

Written by Janet Aird Construction activities can generate 400 times more erosion than takes place on undisturbed land, according to the Planning and Zoning Division in Jefferson County, CO. Sediment, the most abundant form of water pollution, generally contains a mixture of clay, silt, and sand, with particles ranging in size from 0.004 millimeter (0.00016 inch) to 2 millimeters (0.08 inch) in diameter. More ominously, contaminants such as cadmium, mercury, lead, PCBs, PAHs, and many pesticides ma...>... More >

Regionalization. It has been a while since this topic—and process—has been discussed in this column (as far back as the September/October 2010 issue), and many of you—especially new IECA members—may not even be aware of the most significant restructuring of the organization since it was founded more than 40 years ago. Almost 10 years after Australians Rick Morse and Doug Wimble initially proposed a major structural change, we finally are becoming truly international. And after a membership survey and su...>... More >

By Carol Brzozowski It’s home to 153 million people, or about 53% of the total US population. It generates tens of billions of dollars each year through industrial and business activities. It is the coast: the 95,331 miles of ocean and Great Lakes coastlines. And while the population continues to increase in coastal areas—3,600 people relocate to coastal areas each day, according to the Office of Coastal and Resource Management of the National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)—the land is...>... More >

ACF Environmental www.acfenvironmental.com Aer-Flo Inc. www.aerflo.com Belton Industries www.beltonindustries.com Bowie www.bowieindustries.com Central Fiber Corp. www.centralfiber.com Enviro-USA www.enviro-usa.com Ernst Conservation Seeds www.ernstseed.com Express Blower Inc. www.expressblower.com Fiber Marketing International www.fmisales.com Filtrexx International LLC www.filtrexx.com Finn Corp. www.finncorp.com Foresight Products Inc. www.earthanchor.com Genesis Nursery Inc. n/a Geoberm LLC www.geob...>... More >

By  Tara Beecham Used at construction sites for years, geographic information systems (GISs) and modeling and mapping software are taking a central role in erosion control planning and design today. With 3D graphics, animation, and projection detailing what a present site will look like years into the future, project engineers are making use of these technologies to save time and money as they work to control sediment and monitor water quality onsite before problems begin, keeping projects streamli...>... More >

A wide range of erosion problems of varying scale and complexity lend themselves to a common solution: channel armoring, a practice that has evolved from simply lining degraded channels with piles of stone or blankets of concrete to include a broad assortment of materials and techniques. The city of Houston, TX, has a long history of devastating floods going back to the first few years after it was established during the early 1800s. The reason is simple, says Heather Saucier, a spokesperson for the Har...>... More >

In October 2010, ground was broken on a 57-acre site for Carlsbad High School, located just north of San Diego at the eastern edge of Carlsbad, CA. The $104 million project is being hailed as one of California’s most environmentally advanced and energy-efficient high school campuses. But situated as it is at the headwaters of one of the lagoons in the area, there were some important environmental issues that needed to be addressed, delaying the start of construction. “The site was classified as an Envir...>... More >

EPA’s new stormwater rule is scheduled to be released late this year; it’s an update to the national stormwater regulations now in place. If you’re not working directly for a municipal stormwater program, what will the changes mean for you? At the StormCon conference in Anaheim, CA, in August, Jeremy Bauer, an environmental scientist with EPA, gave us an overview of the rule’s highlights. Although the rule will have little direct effect on construction-site erosion and sediment control practices—its pri...>... More >

Modern landfills operate under many regulations. Under EPA Title V, landfills must prevent the escape of methane gas emissions through the installation of a gas collection and control system (GCCS). In addition, EPA Subtitle D requires landfill operators to perform temporary, or intermediate, closure once individual landfill cells are full, and then install a “final cap” once a landfill has reached its maximum permitted capacity and cannot be expanded. In December 2010, Progressive Waste Solutions (form...>... More >