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-May 2005- |
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Success Stories in Construction Site Monitoring | |||
| Last month, after a busy day at work, Prairie Rivers Network Board member, Jason Lindsey, noticed a gray cloudy slurry that had developed in a creek near his home in south west Champaign. Though small, he knew that the polluted creek eventually connected to the Sangamon River and decided to report the situation. Jason stated “I called Prairie Rivers Network because it just didn’t seem normal for our creek to look like this and knew that they could help me.” Using the contact information on the Construction Site card, he proceeded to call the local Illinois EPA office and then Champaign’s Public Works. Within an hour, the fire department came to examine the situation. “Even though I didn’t know where the sediment in the creek came from, the IEPA and Champaign’s Fire Department came out and examined my complaint promptly. They found that the silt runoff was coming from a construction site upstream that was not containing its sediment on site as required by the law, and assured him that the situation would be attended to soon.” he said. When asked what he learned from this experience he replied. “I was amazed at the fast response rate of the IEPA. It was good to know that IEPA cared and that the construction site was notified of its violations and given instruction to address them. I now feel confident to report other violations I see, especially since I have a construction site card.” Another Prairie Rivers member aware of Clean Water Act construction site stormwater runoff regulations used the EPA's general complaint form online to report a construction site that had severe runoff problems. He learned that the construction site was less than an acre in size and therefore was not covered under the Clean Water Act rules. However, the Illinois EPA gave him the correct person to contact in his city to discuss his concerns further. When asked about the experience, he stated that through the process, he found out "that something is being done beyond the current requirements to regulate stormwater runoff below 1 acre in Urbana. Even though there are no enforceable ordinances to regulate smaller construction sites…I was pleased to find out that the IEPA and Urbana took my complaint seriously and that small sites would be cleaned up in the future." When asked for last thoughts on monitoring he acknowledged that. “The online form is easy. Really easy.” | |||
