ABSTRACT
Sourceter on point sources (Chapter 6), is the most effective and the lowest cost approach to ensuring that stormwater contaminants do control, as noted in the earlier chapnot reach receiving bodies of water. Temporary renewal, construction and renovation activities—several days to several months—are the subject of this chapter. All land surfaces lose sediments under rainfall but they do not have to be a source of major sediment impact. Problems occur when there are excessive amounts of sediments which enter streams, lakes, and rivers. Per one source a typical construction site may erode at a rate of up to 100,000 tons per year per square mile. This rate is estimated to be 200 times greater than seen from agricultural erosion and 2000 times greater than that from forested lands. The major stormwater pollutants caused by temporary or construction activities are sediments or suspended solids. Construction projects greater than one acre are point sources of stormwater pollution and therefore come under the Clean Water Act and its mandates. The difference between industrial point sources and construction sites is that latter are temporary, as are their impacts on stormwater.
