Does your site need a SWPPP?

A SWPPP is a written document that will identify the non-structural and structural management practices, which will help you to minimize the negative impacts that might be caused by offsite storm water discharges. The main purpose of this plan is to minimize the run-off and erosion of sediments and pollutants from your construction site. When you ask a company to make you a storm water pollution prevention plan it must contain information about all the structures and best management practices that will help you control and treat a storm water. The places that can benefit from such a SWPPP are sites used for storing and maintaining of equipment, material-handling sites, sites used for disposal, treatment and storage, receiving and shipping areas, industrial plant yards, or places where industrial activity has taken place and some remaining materials are still present on the site. SWPPP are also useful for rail lines, immediate access roads, waste material, or roads travelled by carriers or raw materials. This plan tries to keep the water that results from storm as clean as possible, and to avoid the contact between it and any contaminants.

There are some requirements if you want to get a TCEQ Construction General Permit, which includes some specific items. You have to make an inventory of materials that you have stored and their types. You have to write down every material that can be exposed to precipitation and if there is any chance to run off. You should provide the company that will design you the storm water pollution prevention plan with a full site map, from which they can identify the discharge points, and the storm water drainage parts. You should mark on that map the places where are taking place industrial activities that might affect storm water. The SWPPP will include a list of structural, physical and mechanical ways of preventing pollutants to spread while a storm. Specialists will decide if there is needed any type of treatment for preventing contamination. These treatments may consist of infiltration basins, water separators, constructed wetlands, bio filtration or detention facilities.

The best management practices that are needed at a site to protect it in case of a storm water may vary, but there are some practices that often are part of a plan. One practice that is used in case of area that host chemicals is covered storage. They prevent contamination in case of a rainfall. A major point in a SWPPP plan is to identify if there is any equipment that can leak or spill and to have it periodically inspected and maintained. A focus point of every plan is to include an employee that works on the site and he will have to be proper trained. These employees have to make a difference between managing the storm and protecting the environment from contamination. A plan has in view to find ways of infiltrating parts if not all the storm water. An infiltration trench or a grassy swale may help in this situation. Do not forget that every construction activity that is taking place on an area equal or greater than an acre needs a SWPPP.

If you want to find more about storm water pollution prevention plan or TCEQ Construction General Permit, please click on these links!

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