Why silt fence makes me crazy

Generally people are not provoked over silt fences.  I am. I can work myself right into a funk over a silt fence while others don’t even notice its existence.  Last weekend I spent 30 minutes in the North Carolina woods overlooking a washout where three guys were putting up such a fence.  I studied how they pulled and staked black fabric to make a wall along the creek.  I noticed the fabric was already distorted out of shape and ragged on one side.

“Are you re-installing this fence?”  I, a hiker from the flat Florida suburbs who has never herself installed such a fence, asked the North Carolina mountain man going back to his truck for another sledgehammer.

“Yes ma’am.  Happens whenever we git a big rain.”

That’s what makes me crazy about these fences - -they are so often lying down. Washed out by rain. Pushed over by heavy construction equipment. Dilapidated due to poor installation.With those results, why bother!

I learned of silt fence years ago in meetings with developers as they worked out construction details for a new neighborhood.  On the outside chance that you happened to have missed any silt fence discussions yourself,  I’ll just briefly mention that it is a temporary fence used to control stormwater runoff and prevent erosion.  It protects wetlands, streams and creeks from sediment pollution during the digging and grading processes of construction.

You’ll see it along roadsides, around new home sites or development areas.  It’s typically black, a synthetic fabric stretched between stakes.  (You’re part of a special demographic if you converse about it.)

Why bother?

Federal law through the Clean Water Act requires that a construction site larger than one acre prevent sediment runoff from the site that will pollute downstream waters.  Various methods are used to prevent soil from leaving the site.  A barrier of straw bales was common, though swift storm runoff often breached the barricade. Geotextile fencing (a.k.a. silt fence) is the current norm.

Who cares when the fence falls down?!

That’s my usual rant to anyone in the vicinity when I see a flopping fence.  The owner is in charge but if no one calls him/her/them on the violation, the owner may not actually care about the fence or about the water it is protecting.  Then too, it costs money in labor to maintain something that keeps falling down.  I called my friend the professor-in-the-woods to clarify for me who is watching the fence.

“The mandate is federal and overseen by EPA,” he advised, “but enforcement and monitoring are handled by local government.”

Monitoring means owners must conduct inspections of fence every seven days.  The owner must keep a documented log of inspections and provide the log when asked by authorities.  Often the owner hires a consultant to inspect the fence and maintain the log of conditions.

That’s nice.  But when do the authorities ask to see the log?  I asked the professor-in-the-woods.“Well, you never know,” he said.“They show up whenever.”

Who ya gonna call?

Tired of flopping fences?Perhaps we should help.

Legally, owners have seven days to repair the fence.  If after two weeks the fence is still bad, we can call the local enforcement office in charge of stormwater and report the lazy lowdown fence.  The local government wherein the property the fence is located is responsible for keeping an eye on the owner.  If the property is within a city, then notify the city stormwater department.  If it’s in a rural area, contact the county.

To be fair to the mountain men repairing the oft-falling silt fence on the hillside.  As the professor-in-the-woods pointed out, “At least they were out there working on it.  That’s a good thing.”  Yeah, too bad they’ll have to do it again next time they get a big rain.