Save money by preventing damage during land disturbance

by Paul Komar, Fall 2002

The Rappahannock County Building Office recently asked the Board of Supervisors for approval to begin a Land Disturbing Permit System whereby anyone preparing to disturb any land in preparation for construction, building a driveway, or any other land-disturbing activities not related to agricultural operations must apply for a permit to do so.

In addition, the Virginia State Law requires that a land disturber be certified as a Responsible Land Disturber. A Certified Responsible Land Disturber will be responsible for all land-disturbing activities, including the implementation of Erosion and Sediment Control measures to control the offsite transfer of excavated soils.

The county has recognized the importance of erosion and sediment controls. It also has recognized the difficulty in monitoring the excavation and implementing the controls necessary to control the off-site transfer of sediment that occurs when erosion control measures are not implemented for an excavation project. The Virginia Erosion and Sediment Control Handbook (download it at www.dcr.state.va.us/sw/e&s-ftp.htm or call for a copy at 804-786-1712) has an article, written by a renowned civil engineer, describing the benefit of prevention versus repair in erosion and sediment transfers. For examples, I contacted a firm in Manassas who does erosion and sediment controls for major developers in Northern Virginia and obtained a price list to calculate what the cost would be for an average home construction project.

Let's assume the home to be a modest 1,500 square feet, constructed 100 feet off a road in Rappahannock County. The driveway is 100 feet long and 10 feet wide. The land has a slight slope going uphill from the road to the home site. The 1,500-square-foot home site requires a hole, 30 feet by 50 feet wide and 6 feet deep, to be excavated for the basement. The home site alone will have 9,000 cubic feet of dirt. Each cubic yard contains 27 cubic feet, which in this case equates to 333 cubic yards of dirt being piled high near the construction site.

For those who cannot imagine the magnitude, the dirt in the pile will be three-fourths the size of the home being built. The driveway (assuming only 1 inch is scraped off the surface) will have almost 1 cubic yard of excess material, which must be spread elsewhere or disposed of offsite.

The home construction site will have about 4,000 square feet of disturbed land. When a septic field is added, which requires about 10 drain lines, each of which is 100 feet long, an 10,000 additional square feet of excavation is accumulated. The total disturbed land for this simple home construction project will be 14,000 square feet. This relatively small home in a good location has more than 300 cubic yards of dirt just waiting to flow away with the next rainfall.

To protect the neighboring properties and the roadway, the driveway should have a silt fence (200 feet long) on both sides to keep the loose dirt from transferring during a rain event. The dirt pile should be surrounded by silt fence (100 feet long). Any area on the downhill side of the excavation, where water would naturally drain, would also require a silt fence (100 feet long). The driveway should have stone that is large enough (3 to 4 inches in diameter) to capture any dirt or mud on equipment tires before vehicles leave the construction site (about 20 tons of stone). Add 20 straw bales for additional protection in areas where silt fence is not easily erected.

The cost is $1,000 for the silt fence (at $2.50 per foot installed) and $90 for the straw bales ($4.50 each), for a grand total of $1,090. (We'll leave out the cost of the stone, an estimated $200, since stone of some sort would be needed for the driveway in any case.)

Now let's compare the cost of prevention with the cost of repair. From the same company, the cost to transport and operate a backhoe with a four-hour minimum is $125 per hour plus an $80 per hour operator's fee. Transporting any dirt or debris is $55 per hour plus one hour of travel time. Raking the damaged area, including the damage from the cleanup equipment, will cost $60 per hour, plus some labor to spread seed and straw at $51 per hour, plus materials (an estimated $100). Total cost for four hours of cleanup is then $1,539. Repair in this case costs $449—almost 50 percent—more than prevention. Be assured that repairs always cost more than the prevention and could run into the tens of thousands of dollars. It's not worth the gamble.

Please support the soil-disturbing permitting process and tell your friends and neighbors to do so also. It is for our mutual protection.

Activities excluded from the Erosion and Sediment Control Regulations: Minor activities, such as home gardens, home landscaping, repairs, and maintenance. Individual service connection to utilities. Installation, maintenance, or repair of any underground public utilities, provided they are on hard-surfaced roads. Septic-tank lines or drainage fields, unless included in an overall plan for land-disturbing activity relating to construction of a building to be served by the septic-tank system. Tilling, planting, or harvesting of agricultural, horticultural, or forest crops (a typical farming operation) or a livestock feedlot operation. Agricultural engineering operations (for example, terraces and terrace outlets). Land disturbance in areas of less than 10,000 square feet; however, the governing body or program authority may reduce the minimum area covered by the regulations. Installation of fence and signposts or telephone and electric poles.

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