Summer outlook

Preparing your site for Christmas shut down

• Engage your consultant: Contact a suitable erosion and sediment control (ESC) consultant, to conduct a site inspection and advise of appropriate corrective actions to be taken to ensure the site will be suitable for a shut down.
• Stabilise disturbed areas: Ensure unfinished earthworks and exposed soils are suitably stabilised and protected to prevent erosion, including stockpiles.
• Maintain controls and suitable access to controls: Monitor erosion and sediment controls and maintain controls in a condition representative of current best practice. For example, ensuring ESC devices are free from silt and material to increase capacity.  
• Assess drainage measures: The proper management of water flow through and around site is essential in surface water management during construction and bulk earthworks. Assessing diversion drains and drainage control measures will aid sediment retention on site, the effective treatment of site runoff, decrease flow velocity, minimise risk of rill and gully erosion, and decrease the volume of water to be managed through clean water diversions. For example, ensure all dirty water diversions are directed to a suitable control, and all clean water diversions are lined and stabilised.
• Ensure appropriate materials on site: Making sure there are appropriate controls and materials on site which can be employed prior to rainfall or as contingency is important to enable the effective operation of control measures. For example, having enough flocculant on site to treat site runoff to basin, or extra ESC materials which can be used where maintenance is required.
• Inspection and monitoring regime: It is good practice to assess the effectiveness of controls through regular site inspections and water quality monitoring, particularly pre and post rainfall. This should include conducting thorough pre-shutdown inspections to inform appropriate amendments to the site. This will promote effective maintenance and action to be taken if failures of controls are observed.  
• Housekeeping: Maintain a tidy site and remove/contain any construction waste to prevent dispersal. 

Minimising soil disturbance 

• Minimising disturbance: This is the most effective erosion control measure. The less area left exposed; the less erosion will occur.
• Groundcover: Groundcover can be achieved multiple ways including through temporary measures such as geofabric, or permanent erosion controls such as turfing and revegetation.
• Progressive stabilisation: Disturbed/exposed areas should be stabilised as soon as reasonably practical and always where an area will not be worked for an extended amount of time.
• Drainage management: Divert clean water around site where practical, direct dirty water to sediment controls, maintain effective slope length, and control water on your site and leaving your site appropriately (for example, velocity controls such as check dams).
• Timing and staging earthworks: Timing bulk earthworks to occur in low rainfall months, and staging works to minimise area exposed to erosion at one time.

Enjoy the festive season!