The U.S. EPA has mandated that most communities in Lake County adopt educational programs and a suite of ordinances as part of Phase II of the Clean Water Act, which went into effect in March of 2003.  As a generalized service to communities, the Lake SWCD provides administrative assistance in the form of plan reviews, site inspections, and reporting requirements for the erosion and sediment control (ESC) ordinances that satisfy the mandates of the U.S. EPA.

Currently, the Lake SWCD administers ESC ordinances for several communities in Lake County. The specific ESC ordinances for these communities can be viewed by clicking on the communities on the left with green backgrounds.  Communities that have ESC ordinances that are not administered by the District have a black background.

  The goal of the ordinances is to ensure that the earth disturbing activities that accompany every new development site do not in any way negatively impact water resources off-site, and help to minimize the impacts of resources on-site.  Sedimentation damages our community by filling in Lake Erie harbors, transporting pollutants and heavy metals, reducing fish spawning habitat, impairing the gills of fish and aquatic organisms, creating stream bank erosion, and limiting recreational fishing opportunities.

 These ordinances are designed to ensure that exposed soils remain intact to the greatest extent practical and that sediment-laden water created by construction activities is controlled, filtered, and treated before being released downstream.  These ordinances are essential for protecting our waters from economic and ecologic impacts caused by sedimentation.

At right:  Sediment leaves a construction site by washing into the street or being carried there by equipment tires or treads.  In this case, the sediment escaped from a poorly installed silt fence.  It gets washed into an unprotected storm drain, which carries it to a local stream.  The stream becomes sediment-laden and contributes its load of debris to larger tributaries downstream.  Eventually, this excess sediment finds its way into Lake Erie via the major rivers of the county.  This sediment decreases water quality in each body of water it flows through, stressing the aquatic ecosystem and decreasing abundance of stream life.