Select a construction site from your own direct experience, preferably, or from projects in which your agency or firm is or has been involved. The site should be selected according the following criteria:
- The site must be subject to the Stormwater National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) Construction General Permit.
- There must be sufficient background information to complete the tasks listed below.
- The construction must entail a substantial amount (acres) of clearing and grading on slopes steeper than 2 percent.
- The construction must entail at least one of the following conditions: (1) vehicles or other motorized equipment service on-site, (2) construction materials with polluting potential handled and stored on-site, and/or (3) hazardous wastes produced, handled, and stored on-site.
- Please include a site map and photos if possible to show me the scale and scope of the project.
You can use a construction project that is already complete or partially built. However, you should not simply report on what was actually done at the site; you should analyze the site completely and from the beginning according to the principles and methods presented in this course.
Submit a report describing your selected site and how it complies with the criteria. I will approve the selection, or recommend searching for another site if the report does not demonstrate that the site meets the criteria. The report can be filed any time up to the due date to obtain early approval if you wish.
Submitting your Assignment:
- Compose your response as a PDF document, then save it on your computer.
- When you have done the above, return to this assignment and use the “Submit Assignment” button at the upper right of the screen.
- Use the “Choose file” button to find and select your saved response.
- Press the “Submit Assignment” button to turn in your assignment.
PART 2: Course Project
Select a construction site from your own direct experience, preferably, or from projects in which your agency or firm is or has been involved. The site should be selected according the following criteria:
- The site must be subject to the Stormwater National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) Construction General Permit.
- There must be sufficient background information to complete the tasks listed below.
- The construction must entail a substantial amount (acres) of clearing and grading on slopes steeper than 2 percent.
- The construction must entail at least one of the following conditions: (1) vehicles or other motorized equipment service on-site, (2) construction materials with polluting potential handled and stored on-site, and/or (3) hazardous wastes produced, handled, and stored on-site.
You can use a construction project that is already complete or partially built. However, you should not simply report on what was actually done at the site; you should analyze the site completely and from the beginning according to the principles and methods presented in this course and decide on the best course of action accordingly.
Complete the following tasks for the selected site:
- Submit a report describing your selected site and how it complies with the criteria. This report is due no later than 9:00 AM Pacific time on the Monday at the beginning of the fourth week of the course. I will approve the selection, or recommend searching for another site if the report does not demonstrate that the site meets the criteria. The report can be filed any time up to the due date to obtain early approval if you wish.
- Obtain and complete the Notice of Intent (NOI) form used by your state (the NOI requests General Permit coverage).
- Describe and thoroughly analyze all site conditions that pertain to soil erosion and sediment transport. The conditions and their analysis are covered in Lesson 3 and include geology, soils, hydrology (runoff and its relation to precipitation), hydraulics (water management on slopes and in conveyances), topography, and vegetation.
- Describe and thoroughly analyze all site conditions that pertain to the generation of pollutants other than sediments. Lesson 3 also identifies these conditions, which include vehicle fluids, various construction materials and wastes, and non-stormwater discharges.
- Select best management practices (BMPs) from Lesson 6 and Lesson 7 to address all erosion, sediment transport, and other potential water pollution problems identified in steps 3 and 4.
- Write a stormwater pollution prevention plan (SWPPP) for the site, incorporating the results of steps 3-5 and the other elements of a SWPPP prescribed in Lesson 4 and Lesson 5, as well as the advice in Lesson 9. The SWPPP must indicate the locations and, as appropriate, sizes of the BMPs in some way. The method easiest for you to convey this information to the instructor is probably to mail an existing site plan annotated with the BMPs in place. Other methods are digitally altering an existing plan or preparing a digital plan for this purpose and submitting the plan electronically with the remainder of the SWPPP.
Various templates exist to structure the SWPPP. I prefer that you draw up an original plan without using a template but do permit its use under two conditions. First, you must modify the template as necessary to incorporate all elements addressed in this course. Second, you must delete the instructions that templates usually give authors. In other words, I want to see only your work and not what the developers of the template told you to do to “fill in the blanks”.
Please see the course schedule for the date and time to post to receive credit for the products of steps two through six.
The project will be evaluated according to thoroughness of analysis, appropriateness of the BMP specifications for the potential problems identified, and completeness and presentation quality of the SWPPP.
Submitting your Assignment:
- Compose your response as a Word document, then save it as a PDF file.
- When you have done the above, return to this assignment and use the “Submit Assignment” button at the upper right of the screen.
- Use the “Choose file” button to find and select your saved response.
- Press the “Submit Assignment” button to turn in your assignment.
- Good luck!
