Common ESC site failures and likely causes

An ESC plan will typically be required for developments and construction activities involving land disturbance. The ESC plan should clearly identify the minimum drainage, sediment and erosion control standards to be achieved onsite. In general your sediment and erosion control requirements are based on erosion risk (low risk = lower level of controls, whereas high risk = high level of control effectiveness). Erosion risk may be determined using a soil loss estimation (i.e. RUSLE), monthly rainfall erosivity, monthly rainfall amounts or some other risk assessment approach. 

Regardless of your controls onsite, you will typically have some minimum compliance requirements which you need to demonstrate compliance with. A summary of common site failures and what to look for if these are occurring onsite is summarised below. It is important to note that depending on your specific project requirements and locality a number of performance outcomes may apply regarding water pollution and environmental harm.

You can also download the above summary of common site values from here.

Keep an eye out over the next 3 weeks for a series presenting:

• Week 1 – compliance triggers and standards for drainage control

• Week 2 – compliance triggers and standards for sediment control

• Week 3 – compliance triggers and standards for erosion control

Within each of these posts we will aim to present what the common ESC compliance triggers are, what they mean, how to calculate them and some practical guidance on how to achieve them onsite.