Franklin County, WA Environmental Rules: Erosion Control (2026)

Franklin County adopts the State Environmental Policy Act's substantive authority through Section 18.04.260, and that section is where the county's erosion and dust control power lives instead of a separate grading ordinance. Subsection B lets the county attach conditions to any permit or approval so long as the conditions mitigate a specific, probable adverse environmental impact identified in an environmental document, are written down, are reasonable and achievable, and are tied to one of the policies the county has adopted under subsection D. Subsection D.4.b is the erosion-specific policy: the county can require land development 'to employ dust abatement, wind erosion and/or site restoration methods' whenever construction or later operations involve grading or excavation.

That policy sits next to two related ones the county can also invoke on the same construction site: subsection D.4.a lets the county require measures to prevent air pollution and ambient air quality deterioration, and subsection D.4.d lets it require vegetation, topography, or on-site drainage systems sufficient to prevent runoff onto public roads, which overlaps with the separate on-site stormwater retention duty in Section 17.72.060. Because these are SEPA policies rather than a numeric grading-permit standard, they only attach when a project triggers environmental review and the responsible official documents the specific impact in an environmental checklist or threshold determination; a project categorically exempt from SEPA under WAC 197-11 would not have this condition attached through this section. A denial or a contested condition can be appealed to the Board of County Commissioners under Section 18.04.280, for a two-hundred-dollar appeal fee, within ten days of the decision.