On December 17, 2004 , the Board of Trumbull County Commissioners adopted legislation to abate soil erosion and sediment from earth disturbing construction projects of five (5) acres or more. The legislation, referred to as the “Trumbull County Erosion and Sediment Control Rules” is effective as of January 17, 2005 . Please note: The rules have changed. The focus is from less than five contiguous acres to less than one contiguous acre. 
Please review the Erosion and Sediment Control Regulations for further detail. The Rules are in response to guidelines set forth in the Clean Water Act, and the Ohio EPA Phase II Storm Water Program mandate. The Trumbull Soil and Water Conservation District, by resolution of the Board of County Commissioners, has been named administrator of the Rules.
The Board adopted these Rules pursuant to Ohio Revised Code Section 307.79, authorizing the establishment of technically feasible and economically reasonable standards to achieve a level of management and conservation practices in order to abate soil erosion and degradation of the waters of the State by soil sediment on land used or being developed for non-farm commercial, residential or other non-farm purposes. Specifically the Rules are intended to protect:
Adjacent landowners from property loss due to sedimentation, erosion and flooding
County and township ditches, culverts and storm sewers from loss of capacity due to siltation.
Water and habitat quality in streams, lakes and wetlands.
Land development from the inconsistent application of state and regional guidance.
The Rules require the development of an Erosion and Sediment Control Plan. These plans will be reviewed by the staff at the Soil and Water Conservation District and approved or disapproved before any earth disturbance begins. Specifically, staff will review the use and location of BMP’s for each site, compliance with state and federal permits and perform on-site inspections to ensure that performance standards are being met.
For a copy of Ohio's new Rainwater and Land Development Manual for best management practices simply visit https://epa.ohio.gov/dsw/storm/rainwater for the Ohio Rainwater and Land Development Manual.
Trumbull Erosion & Sediment Control Rules (PDF, opens in new window)
Application (PDF, opens in new window)
Review Fees (PDF, opens in new window)
Post-Construction Storm Water controls are very important to every area that has been developed. With development comes an increase in water quantity (more runoff) and pollution to water quality (sediment, oil, etc.). To combat these issues permanent structures must be placed on the site to alleviate the impacts to property owners and ecosystems.
Water quantity is very simple math. Woods, open fields and farms allow much of a rainfall event to be infiltrated into the ground and absorbed by plants for evapotranspiration leaving very little water for runoff. If that land is changed into a subdivision or a mini mall all the roof tops and blacktop parking lots restrict the water from infiltrating or evapotranspirating and instead make more of it into runoff. This can sometimes double or triple the volume of runoff going into our drainage system (ditches, streams, etc.). Imagine a sink and a bucket of water. The running water in the sink is the rainfall, the bucket is the extra volume of water from the rainfall as runoff due to development, the bowl is property owners in that watershed area and the drain is the drainage system. If you run the faucet, water will flow through the drainage system and not flood the property owners. Add the development runoff by quickly pouring in the bucket of water with the rain; the bowl fills up (floods the property owners) in the drainage system because its capacity cannot handle that much runoff. However, this does not mean all development will flood our neighbors. By ponding the increased volume of water and releasing it at a rate equal to the amount prior, we can allow the drainage system not to become overwhelmed. Using the same example, if you were to turn the faucet on and begin to slowly pour in the bucket of water this would not cause the bowl (property owners) to flood.
Sediment is the largest pollutant by volume in the U.S. and is the target for water quality treatment because many of the problems with storm water (pathogens, chemicals, etc.) attach themselves to sediment. Luckily, water quality improvements can be achieved by utilizing some of the same methods for water quantity, sedimentation and filtration. The reason these two items are used is because of their ability to remove sediment without the need for mechanical or a chemical addition. Sedimentation is the process where gravity pulls the sediment particles to the pond bottom before the water is released. Filtration forces the water to flow through a natural media that removes the sediment. The problem with the storm water structures is the long maintenance cycles of these systems. This seems to create a trend of low or no maintenance on the structure itself. Most individuals view the structure like any other part of the lawn. Just like a septic tank whose job is to remove pollutants needs periodic cleaning in a proper manner these storm water structures require the same. Since the structures are designed to capture pollutants the sediment and media removed contains anything from oil to pathogens and should be discarded like septic tank sludge. Educational materials describing the proper maintenance items and intervals of some of these structures are provided on this website.
To maintain compliance under the Trumbull County Phase II Storm Water Program, the Trumbull County Engineers Office has developed and adopted a manual to minimize the impacts from water quantity and quality increases with the Trumbull County Drainage and Erosion and Sediment Control Manual. Any development over 1 acre in this County will not be affected by increased runoff, flooding or pollution because a Storm Water Pollution Prevention Plan is required to be developed and then reviewed by the County Engineers staff.. This effort is just one part of the larger Storm Water Program to reduce water quantity and quality impacts to our waterways in Trumbull County.
Drainage Manual (PDF, opens in new window)
This is a program that was mandated by the federal government. U.S. EPA expanded the Clean Water Program by promulgating storm water discharge regulations for urbanized areas. Ohio EPA has been authorized to implement U.S. EPA's regulations that requires Trumbull County to prepare and implement a Storm Water Management Program (SWMP). The SWMP has to address the following six minimum control measures:
Public Education and Outreach informing individuals, businesses and organizations within the MS4 as to the impact on surface water quality of contaminated storm water discharges and how they can help reduce storm water contamination.
Public Involvement/Participation creating opportunities for individuals and organizations to participate in the development and implementation of activities to reduce the contamination of storm water.
Illicit Discharge Detection and Elimination a program to detect and eliminate cross-connections, dumping of wastes or other non-storm water discharges not authorized by a separate NPDES permit.
Construction Site Storm Water Runoff Control a program to require erosion and sediment controls for sites disturbing one or more acres.
Post Construction Storm Water Management Control a program requiring the development, implementation and maintenance of controls on sites after development and redevelopment to address storm water pollutants and flow issues.
Pollution Prevention and Good Housekeeping a program to minimize pollutants from municipal operations such as garages, salt piles, pesticides used for green spaces, etc.
For more in depth information about the Trumbull County Phase II Storm Water Program go to the County website at:
www.stormwater.co.trumbull.oh.us
In urban areas, storm water runoff occurs when precipitation from rain or snowmelt flows over the ground and pick up pollutants along the way. Impervious surfaces in urban areas like driveways, sidewalks, and streets prevent storm water from naturally soaking into the ground, where pollutants may be filtered out. The storm water flows into the storm sewer system and is directed to the local waterways. Anything that enters a storm sewer system is discharged untreated into the waterbodies we use for swimming, fishing, and providing drinking water. This kind of pollution is called Nonpoint Source Pollution (NSP). This kind of pollution, you can not point your finger at the pollution..
For more information on the Clean Water Act and Nonpoint Source Pollution:
https://www.epa.gov/laws-regulations/summary-clean-water-act
To read more about the pollutants in urban areas:
Protecting Water Quality from Urban Runoff
For more information about storm water check out the following:
Trumbull County Soil & Water Conservation District
http://swcd.co.trumbull.oh.us/swcd_streamwatch.html
Ohio EPA Division of Surface Water
www.epa.state.oh.us/dsw/
Erosion & Sediment Control: Township
Erosion & Sediment Control: Municipal
MOU - Technical Assistance: Municipal
MOU - Technical Assistance: Townships