Dearborn Heights, MI Environmental Rules: Erosion Control (2026)

Section 39-32, Water Resources Protection, requires a buffer strip to be established or preserved from the top of bank of any watercourse or surface water the city approves as part of a stormwater management system; § 39-2 defines that buffer strip as a zone at least twenty-five feet wide where stormwater-filtering plantings are preserved or established and where construction activity, paving, and chemical application are barred, except for the work needed to create the buffer itself. Section 39-44 then sets erosion-control duties for the physical conveyances that carry stormwater: under subsection (c)(7), every closed-conduit inlet and outlet must have an end treatment and soil erosion protection and may be required to carry a protective grate, and under subsection (d)(3), every culvert and bridge that carries a watercourse under a state, county, or city road must be built with adequate soil erosion protection, including added protection where the structure will be inundated by storms larger than the design storm set by the Michigan Department of Transportation or the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality.

These duties attach to the design and construction phase of a stormwater management system approved under § 39-21, so they are checked when the city reviews an application for stormwater construction approval and again when the applicant later certifies the system was built to the approved plans before financial assurance is released under § 39-54. The rule does not create a separate silt-fence or general construction-site sediment permit; it works through the buffer-strip and conveyance-design standards built into the stormwater management chapter itself.