OVERVIEW
The Town of Wake Forest administers an erosion control program within the Town limits and extraterritorial jurisdictional area. This program operates under the direction of the Land Quality Section of the North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources (NCDENR) which enforces the requirements of the Sedimentation Pollution Control Act of 1973 on a statewide basis. Permits are required for land disturbance of 0.50 acre or greater.
The Sedimentation Pollution Control Act of 1973 is a performance-oriented law that allows flexibility in determining the most economical and effective methods for controlling erosion and sediment. The North Carolina Sedimentation Control Commission sponsored the development of the North Carolina Erosion and Sedimentation Control Planning and Design Manual, a basic reference used during plan preparation, review, implementation, and enforcement to minimize and control the effects of erosion and sedimentation on surrounding land, water bodies and ecosystems.
Farming, foresting or mining are the exceptions to permitting and are regulated by the NC Department of Environment and Natural Resources - and not by the Town of Wake Forest. All land-disturbing activities involving an area greater than one-half acre (except mining, forestry, or agricultural activities) are required by law in the State of North Carolina to operate under an approved erosion control plan. This plan must be obtained before work begins on a site.
Although tracts containing less than one-half acre do not require permits, adequate measures to prevent erosion and contain sediment on site are still required. These requirements include silt fence on the low side of the lot and a 10-foot by 30-foot stone construction entrance. If these measures are not in place, Wake Forest will not allow the foundation to be poured and will suspend construction until the necessary corrections are made.
Plans are required to be prepared by, or under the direction of a Professional Engineer, Professional Land Surveyor, Registered Architect, or Registered Landscape Architect. Since every site has unique characteristics, each erosion and sedimentation control plan should be site specific. However, the Town of Wake Forest offers a checklist of items to be incorporated into a typical plan.
An engineered drawing showing the site, its features (blue line streams, contours, etc.), and the proposed erosion and sedimentation control plan should be submitted to the Engineering Department for review. A completed Financial Responsibility/Ownership Form and an acreage-based permit fee are also required to be submitted with the proposed plan. The current erosion control plan review and land disturbing permit fee is $400 per acre, which is rounded up to the nearest acre.
Staff engineers review the plan and if it is found to be incomplete or inadequate, the designer will be requested to provide additional information or to revise the plan. Once the plan is approved, a Land-Disturbing Permit is issued. During implementation of the plan and subsequent construction, Construction Inspection staff visit the site to determine if the approved plan has been implemented and to ensure compliance with the law. Any person or party engaging in a non-compliant land-disturbing activity will be directed to stop work and will be issued a Notice of Violation. Violators are subject to a fine of $5000 per day for each day that the site is not in compliance, and may be charged with a Class 2 misdemeanor, which may include a fine not exceeding $5000.
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Examples of violations include:
- No approved plan
- Grading without a permit
- Failure to follow an approved plan
- Failure to provide adequate ground cover within 21 days
- Insufficient measures to retain sediment on site
- Failure to take all reasonable measures
- Inadequate buffer zone (Neuse River Buffer Zone)
- Graded slopes and fills too steep
- Unprotected exposed slopes
- Failure to maintain erosion control measures
Proper installation and maintenance are factors critical to the performance of all erosion and sedimentation control measures. All measures should be installed as shown on the approved plan, and should be inspected by the contractor or developer on a weekly basis. Per National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) general stormwater permit, a rain gauge must be installed on site and all sites should also be inspected after storm events that produce greater than one-half inch of rain. Prompt maintenance of deficient measures can help to maintain compliance.
Developers, contractors, builders, and residents are also reminded that no disturbing operations shall take place within 50’ (Zone 1 and 2) of a stream, river, or tributary without approval by the NC Department of Water Quality and US Army Corp of Engineers as required by the Neuse Buffer Rules. All sites must also be in compliance with US EPA’s National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) General Stormwater Permit which states that a rain gauge must be kept onsite and inspections by the contractor must be made and logged after every half inch of rainfall and once a week.
Please contact Holly Spring at (919) 554-3158 to discuss matters pertaining to erosion and sedimentation control in the Town of Wake Forest and its extraterritorial jurisdiction.