Ouachita Parish, LA Environmental Rules: Erosion Control (2026)

The Ouachita Parish Police Jury regulates erosion and sediment control through its Site Development Regulations, Chapter 19½, which apply to all land in the parish outside the corporate limits of Monroe, West Monroe and Sterlington (Sec. 19½-2). Section 19½-74 requires every construction project to carry a stormwater pollution prevention plan describing the erosion-control measures that will keep sediment out of neighboring property and drainage facilities, and that plan must stay in force for the life of the job, including replacing any control that fails and repairing any damage it caused.

Section 19½-75 spells out the accepted best-management practices: temporary seeding with ryegrass, oats, browntop millet or similar short-lived species on ground that will stay bare a year or less; permanent seeding with Bermuda grass, Bahia grass, St. Augustine, centipede grass, carpet grass or tall fescue where cover has to hold long-term; and mulching with straw, hay, wood-cellulose fiber or commercial mulch on slopes of three percent or steeper. The same duty extends to the parish drainage system: Sec. 21-61, in the storm-drainage article, requires seeding, sodding, or rip-rap or pavement to protect any natural or open channel from erosion, and Sec.

21-60(g) separately requires all natural open-channel slopes to be seeded or sodded as soon as possible after finish grading. A site development permit under Sec. 19½-24 is a prerequisite for construction covered by this chapter, so erosion control is reviewed as part of that same approval.