Development of testing protocols and evaluation methods for erosion and sediment control products

A study at the Erosion and Sediment Control Research and Training Center (ESCRTC) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign was conducted to develop testing protocols for ditch checks and erosion control blankets, as well as evaluate the products’ effectiveness as erosion and sediment control best management practices (BMPs) for construction sites. Construction activities generally involve significant land disturbances, leaving the soil unprotected and more susceptible to erosion, which may in turn adversely affect the surrounding environment. The lack of quantitative and qualitative data on erosion and sediment control product performance using standardized evaluation methodologies under locally relevant climate and soil conditions makes it difficult to appropriately select the most suitable erosion and sediment control BMPs. This study details evaluation protocols for ditch checks and erosion control blankets, as well as product evaluations under easily replicable conditions. For sediment control, three ditch check products (Sediment Logs, Triangular Silt Dike and GeoRidge) were evaluated and their results were compared using the testing protocol described in this study under different flow conditions. The results obtained revealed that the Triangular Silt Dike product performed significantly better than the other two products tested, while GeoRidge performed better than the Sediment Logs for higher flows and similarly for medium and low flow rates. For erosion control, three erosion control blankets (SC-150, DS-75 and Curlex I) were evaluated along with a bare control plot, and their results were compared and discussed. The results of the erosion control blanket experiments revealed that these products are an efficient control measure to ameliorate the effects of erosion and sediment transport on disturbed lands. The results shown a big variability of runoff collected when the Curlex I was installed relative to the other two treatments and the control plot. This variability was due to the dryness of the soil when the CurlexI was being evaluated even though the erosion plots were wetted prior to product evaluation to overcome the possible effects of soil dryness during the products evaluation. On the other hand, and regardless the total amount of runoff collected, the three blankets evaluated presented similar sediment concentration in the samples collected during testing, and significantly smaller than the sediment concentration obtained from the control plot