The Berrien County Drain Commissioner’s Office has gotten the county back into compliance with state erosion control standards.

Drain Commissioner George McManus told county commissioners last week that when he took office, the county was in violation of the soil erosion and sedimentation program but has since completed an audit and gotten back into compliance. McManus tells us it took him about ten months to get the program on track.

“It was one of the things I had to work on first, and that audit takes time because you have to bring all your practices in your office up to the standards that the state of Michigan requires and that our county ordinance requires,” McManus said.

McManus says the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy requires soil erosion permits to be issued for just about any construction project.

“It has to do mostly with construction projects or demolition projects where we have what’s called an earth change, where the soil is moved so it could possibly erode then because the vegetation’s been destroyed. So, for instance, if you’re putting a swimming pool, building a house, sometimes adding a deck, adding a driveway, those are very common instances when we need to have a soil erosion permit.”

McManus says the county’s soil erosion program needs to pass an EGLE audit every five years, but the county was a year behind when he came into office.

“We’re the arm of the government that gets that permit ready and works with the property owner to make sure that measures are put in place to control the erosion so we don’t get sedimentation into our lakes and streams.”

The issue is now all straightened out and McManus says the county won’t have to deal with it again for another five years. He says there’s no particular penalty for not being in compliance, other than EGLE sending in a consultant to take over the audit, but he’s glad to have the issue resolved.