February Construction Update By Katie McCamant
February 7, 2012
Well, the rains finally came, and we were ready for them! Our focus over the last couple of months has been to get the slabs poured and the road ready for winter so we can work through the winter rains-and we did that! As the drops started falling last month, our grading contractor was just finishing up compacting rock on the road to create a working base for construction trucks and lots of workers.
Unlike the old days where winter rains meant you could just go home, today rain means lots of inspections for erosion control. In the last couple of years, California has instituted much stricter regulations about how construction sites must protect against erosion. A Storm Water Pollution Protection Plan (SWPPP or “sweet pea”) requires every construction site to develop a plan for mitigating erosion and performing ongoing inspections and maintenance. For every storm event-defined as 50% or greater chance of getting more than 1/2 inch of rain-we need to do a pre-storm inspection, a during- storm inspection, and a post-storm inspection, and sample water leaving our site to make sure that we are not contributing particulates to the stream below. Two of our community members-Butch and Dick-are assisting our Geotechical/SWPPP consultant Tom Holdrege with these inspections to help keep costs down. The fines are serious ($10,000 per violation, per day!) so we have to take this seriously.
I find myself torn over the strictness of these new regulations. On one hand, I am glad to see stronger protections of our waterways, which are cleaner now than they have been for 160 years, and at the same time I am frustrated by the amount of time and money these inspections cost us. But over time, this will become the norm, and Wolf Creek will remain a healthy mountain stream that can support fish and marine life. Wolf Creek Lodge can be proud that it is doing its part to protect that stream both with our erosion control measures and with members’ involvement in the Wolf Creek Alliance, a local non-profit that monitors the stream’s water quality.
On other fronts, I have been working closely with our Construction Project Manager to coordinate subcontractors for the start of erecting the walls next month. The walls are being pre-built in a warehouse and will be delivered as panels to the site. That will be an exciting day when they start going up!
