The Adams County Conservation District (ACCD) celebrated its 75th anniversary in 2022. Conservation districts (districts) were initially established to promote the value of conserving soil and water to farmers. Today’s districts have evolved; their areas of interest and expertise involve almost every area of natural resource conservation imaginable. I wish to inform you of the “urban” Erosion and Sediment Control Program. This work relates to earth disturbance activities other than agricultural activities (plowing/tillage). Most of the “urban” work involves residential development but commercial, roads, utilities and timber harvesting are included. The urban team works closely with regulatory agencies, property owners, consultants, developers, contractors, municipalities, and many others.
Back in 1972, Pennsylvania adopted the Chapter 102 Regulations – Erosion and Sediment Control (E&S). These regulations were specific to all earth disturbance activities regardless of land use type. In 1981, ACCD agreed to administer the E&S program for voluntary compliance and encouraging voluntary conservation measures. In 1993, the district accepted the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) program from the state. It was also in 1993 that ACCD hired its first full-time person to administer the duties of the E&S and the NPDES program. That person would deal with all E&S issues not involving agricultural activities. The district utilizes four staff members (two full-time and two part-time) who spend time on the “urban” side of E&S. Two senior staff have over 50 years of experience in the urban side of E&S.
Under our Level II Delegation Agreement with Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), ACCD performs the following work: outreach/education, processing of NPDES permits, plan reviews and inspections. Under a Level II delegation, ACCD does not conduct its own enforcement. The ACCD instead refers enforcement cases to the state DEP. ACCD is required to conduct a set amount of outreach to the regulated community. This could be in form of news articles, workshops or most commonly, the use of internet and our link through the County of Adams website. ACCD conducts technical reviews of erosion and sediment plans for various projects. ACCD also receives all NPDES permits related to certain earth disturbance activities involving over one acre of earth disturbance. Part of the review process involves an administrative review and technical review. At present, ACCD does not perform a technical review of the stormwater component to the NPDES permit. That review is generally conducted by municipal engineer. ACCD is required to conduct inspections of all earth disturbance activities. These inspections could be due to complaint or routine inspection and follow-up inspections.
The E&S program is still a voluntary compliance program with the ultimate goal of protecting the waters of the commonwealth. Both DEP and ACCD strive for voluntary compliance, however, enforcement involving fines does occur occasionally. All readers should know this most basic requirement when conducting earth disturbance activities in Pennsylvania: all earth disturbance activities, regardless of the size of the disturbance, must incorporate best management practices to protect the waters of the commonwealth. Remember that we all live downstream.
Russell Ryan is the resource conservationist for the Adams County Conservation District.
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