Earth Disturbance Definition?? 2

[cfj104]

I have a site that I am going to be paving/resurfacing. My question is, is milling a parking lot considered an earth disturbance in PA and would it require an E&S plan or a NPDES permit if over 1 acre?

Any thoughts are welcome.

Thank You

 

[francesca]

Call the state department of the environment; they'll tell you for certain.

 

[zabrab]

Although the definition of earth disturbance activity in Chapter 102 includes road maintenance activities:

Earth disturbance activity—A construction or other human activity which disturbs the surface of the land, including, but not limited to, clearing and grubbing, grading, excavations, embankments, land development, agricultural plowing or tilling, timber harvesting activities, road maintenance activities, mineral extraction, and the moving, depositing, stockpiling, or storing of soil, rock or earth materials.

I have never had to do anything related to erosion and sediment pollution control for a simple milling and overlay project unless the project involved other things such as storm sewer, regrading roadside swales, new areas of pavement, etc. That being said, I do not know the complete scope of your project; just call the County Conservation District for the county where the work is being performed and discuss it with them.

Chances are you will not need to do anything. If your project scope does involve some small areas of work that is defined as earth disturbance, they will most likely advise you to provide E & S controls on your plan, but they will not require a review unless, after implementation, the controls are not effective or are not being maintained.

One last thing I feel I should mention, I am seeing in the newer Act 167 plans that full-depth pavement reconstruction is being deemed as creating impervious surface while milling and overlaying is not. I cannot figure out why the distinction is being made for an existing pavement.

 

[LHA]

I am a PE in PA, I do a lot of E&S plans in southcentral and eastcentral counties.

I would NOT call the CCD. Depending on what county you are in (I'm thinking York, Chester, Berks), they could make you submit; and you WILL spend time and budget on endless resubmittals. AND you'll have to do WQ Treatment for the NPDES Permit, which you don't need.

Zagrab's definition is correct and verbatim out of 102 (I just checked), and milling activity will NOT disturb the surface of the land, only the man-made, impervious covering on top of the land.

Any full-section repaving, though, IS earth disturbance, so be very specific.

To CYA, put something in your specs or CDs, though, that states something like:
"Proposal is limited to milling and surfacing existing bituminous concrete. No earth disturbance is proposed. Should earth disturbance (including full-section repaving) occur, and should it result in 5,000 s.f. or more of earth being disturbed, it must be preceded by an E&SCP approved by the *CCD."

Remember, amateurs built the ark...professionals built the Titanic. -Steve

 

[cfj104]

Thank you for the response. I was under the same assumptions since we were not disturbing soil it should not be considered an earth disturbance.

The propblem is that we will be doing small areas of excavation in the pavement so we do need to submit an E&S plan, to further complicate matters it is an environmental remediation project. However, we have limited our area of disturbance to keep the area under 1 acre, avoiding the NPDES permit. This work is being done under Act 2, so we don't technically need an E&S Plan, although I am curious as to how the district will review the plan.

Now we just have to wait the 30 days to see what the conservation district's response will be! Cross your fingers!

Thanks for everyone's thoughts and opinions. It is always nice to know that other people have come to similar conclusions.