How’s your site holding up?
Given the wet start to 2020, maintaining a high level of site ESC compliance has been challenging. Whilst intense rain events and high winds present challenging weather conditions onsite in terms of managing water quality and airborne pollution respectively, this does not negate our duty to effectively manage such instances and comply with prescribed conditions and provisions under GED.
It is recommended that site managers regularly inspect controls onsite to identify effectiveness and any improvements or maintenance which may be required. Any inspection should be documented as a record, it should accurately reflect site conditions (i.e. not completed from site office) and ensure that it is undertaken to a level consistent with the erosion risk level of the site. Many regulators, including the Queensland Government, Department of Environment and Science (DES) provide compliance procedures or resources which highlight typical items onsite that would be inspected by the regulator as part of a compliance inspection/audit if they came to your site. When inspecting your site pre & post rain events or as part of routine weekly walkovers, it is recommended that you use a similar framework as a minimum. Reference to the DES checklist can be found at here.
Keep an eye out over the next 4 weeks for a series presenting:
Week 2 – compliance triggers and standards for drainage control
Week 3 – compliance triggers and standards for sediment control
Week 4 – compliance triggers and standards for erosion control
Within each of these posts we will aim to present what the common ESC triggers are, what they mean, how to calculate them and some practical guidance on how to achieve them onsite.