Lake Charles, LA Environmental Rules: Erosion Control (2026)

Section 21-234 of the Code of Ordinances requires developers and property owners to use appropriate erosion and sedimentation control measures so that erosion, or the adverse conditions it causes, is eliminated or held to an acceptable minimum and does not cross to an adjoining property, right-of-way, street, or stream. The public works engineer, the zoning and development director, the city manager, or the city council can require a separate, detailed erosion and sedimentation control plan submitted with the site plan; otherwise control measures need only be shown on the site plan itself.

All control measures must be field-approved by city staff, typically the public works inspector, and maintained by the developer for the life of the project. 1 spells out the minimum measures for projects under one acre: exposing the smallest practical area at a time, maintaining a five-foot green buffer along the perimeter (or installing an erosion control device if the buffer is absent), directing runoff to protected storm drains, seeding or mulching any area exposed more than three months, installing temporary furrows, terraces, or sediment basins, and installing a silt fence or hay bales where soil could wash onto a roadway.

A gravel construction entrance is required before any site work begins, and sediment tracked onto roadways or into drainage ditches must be removed by the end of each working day. 00 respectively and a stop-work notice is posted on site. Section 21-235 assigns inspection and enforcement to the public works engineer, the planning and zoning department, or their designees, requiring three inspections (initial, interim, final) for commercial sites where soil is disturbed, each scheduled at least 24 hours in advance.