Putnam County, FL Environmental Rules: Erosion Control (2026)

Section 14-34 of the Putnam County Code, part of Chapter 14's drainage standards enforced by the county Public Works Director, requires erosion control wherever a ditch's grade reaches two percent or its sidewalls slope steeper than 3:1, and wherever a ditch intersects a deeper drainage ditch. The erosion control must go in immediately after final grading is finished, and it must keep the ditch's soils substantially in place through a design-frequency storm event. The section lists acceptable methods: concrete or asphalt paving, sandbag rip-rap, ditch checks, grade stabilization structures, sodding, or a combination of these.

Unless the Public Works Director specifies otherwise, every mitered headwall installation also needs a two-foot-wide strip of sod placed around it as soon as the headwall is finished, tying this rule to the culvert and headwall standards in Section 14-33. The Public Works Director may grant an exception if the applicant demonstrates the ditch's soils will stay substantially in place during a design storm without the specified erosion control, giving builders a documented path around the default methods when site conditions do not require them.

Erosion control plans are reviewed alongside the drainage permit application required under Section 14-24, so a project cannot get its construction permits until both the drainage permit and its erosion control measures are approved by the Public Works Director's office.