Your Home Builders Association Successfully Amends DHEC Policy on Sediment Basins

In late 2013 the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control issued policy guidance on the installation of sediment basins.  The guidance document is designed to be an aid in designing and constructing sediment basins.  Many engineers use the guidance methods in their work for our developer members.

However, as is sometimes the case with generalized guidance, the design guideline worked well in some parts of the state, where soils drain rapidly, but note in the Upstate where the most common soil type is clay.

Your Home Builders Association met with Greenville County and City of Greenville engineering departments, and then with DHEC officials to propose alternatives that are more suitable to the Upstate.  Your Home Builders Association, in consultation with Greenville County Land Development Services, proposed additional language for DHEC's policy guidance document.  After some editing, the guidance document for Sediment Basins now includes the following langage:

Guidance Disclaimer
This is a guidance document and may not be feasible in all situations.  Alternative means and methods for sediment basin design and construction also may be employed.

All means and methods must comply with the DHEC South Carolina NPDES General Permit for Stormwater Discharges from Construction Activities (Permit). Approved means and methods include those published and approved by an MS4 in compliance with the Permit.

In addition, a licensed Professional Engineer may design a sediment basin that, when constructed, accommodates the anticipated sediment loading from the land-disturbing activity and meets a removal efficiency of 80% suspended solids or 0.5 ML/L peak settable solids concentration, whichever is less, while remaining in compliance with the Permit.

Greenville County Land Development Services has published alternative guidance for Sediment Basins, which is available by clicking here.  A copy of DHEC's Sediment Basin Guidance document with the disclaimer above can be viewed by clicking here.

This success is an example of the advocacy efforts that your Home Builders Association works on every day on behalf of our members and the Home Building industry.  Your Home Builders Association's advocacy efforts save our members tens of thousands of dollars in unnecessary development and building expenses each year.

Thank you for being a member of your Home Builders Association and supporting these advocacy efforts on your behalf.