We Had To Warn Against
Occasionally, we are thrust into a situation where a superintendent is adamant that we perform work that would leave them out of compliance with the governing authority, such as removing silt fence when the surrounding area is still disturbed (dirt, mud, non-vegetated). We had such a situation come up recently where crew lead Andy Diaz and his crew were rerouted to come and remove silt fence in this very situation.
The silt fence that was to be removed protected a drainage channel, and removing the silt fence could potentially lead to silt, sediment, and debris getting into the channel, and ultimately into our bayous (the exact circumstance we exist to prevent). In this situation, our crews spoke with the superintendent to inform him of the risk of removing the silt fence that protected the drainage channel. Our current line up of SWPPP Crew Leaders have well over a decade of experience in performing SWPPP work so we are confident in saying that we are experts in our line of work. Our crew put that on full display by conveying our knowledge and advice concerning this situation. Not to mention, rain was-a-coming!
By educating our customer, we earned their respect by being fully transparent with the hazards associated with their request and making sure that they were making the most informed decisions. Our customer now knows that we have their best interest at heart, and that we will not put them at risk without informing them of potential risks.
Ultimately however, the decision is up to our clients what they want us to do. In the case, given they wanted the fence removed so that they could grade the area, they still had us remove the fence, regardless of it putting them out of compliance and opening up the possibility of runoff. But, they did so with full knowledge of compliance issues and risks, thanks to our knowledgeable crew.
