Bibb officials might toughen erosion rules

April 11, 2005
By Travis Fain
Telegraph Staff Writer

Bibb County's engineer hopes to put some enforcement teeth into the county's soil erosion control ordinances by making it easier to pull building permits when builders let dirt run off their construction sites into area streams.

Under a proposed ordinance, Bibb County Engineering Department officials could go directly to the combined city-county Inspections and Fees Department to pull a building permit and issue a stop-work order if builders fail to keep soil from running off their sites.

Currently, the county goes through the state court system to issue such orders, county engineer Ken Sheets said. But that process takes time and "a lot of dirt has left their site by then," Sheets said.

The change is scheduled for discussion Tuesday in the County Commission's Engineering Committee. It also would set up something of a three-strikes system, with builders getting a warning for the first and second violations of soil erosion control ordinances. After five days, if the violation has not been fixed, a stop-work order would be issued.

On the third violation, no warning would be issued and the stop-work order would come immediately, according to the proposed ordinance.

If construction work presents an "imminent threat" to area waters or the public health, the order can be issued without a warning, the ordinance states.

By state law, builders are required to keep dirt from running off their property when it rains. Macon and Bibb County engineering staff inspect construction sites to enforce the law, according to Sheets and Bill Causey, who manages the city's Engineering Department. The city enforces
its ordinance by threatening to pull a construction permit but doesn't have a written policy on the issue, Causey said.

"We generally get a pretty good response from a violator by threatening a stop-order," Causey said.

Sheets said that because his office already inspects construction sites in unincorporated Bibb County, the ordinance change will not require any new employees to be hired.

Commissioners referred the issue to their Engineering and Public Works Committee last month, but an agenda for Tuesday's slate of committee meetings was not provided to The Telegraph.

The Engineering Committee typically meets early Tuesday afternoon in commission offices on the fourth floor of the courthouse in downtown Maon.