The most common environmental compliance failure on construction sites.
Erosion and sediment leaving a construction site is the single biggest source of waterway pollution from the building industry. It's also the most common cause of regulatory action; fines, stop-work orders, and infrastructure charges all flow from poorly managed sediment.
Every Queensland and NSW council requires an ESCP for development sites above the relevant disturbance threshold. In Queensland, high-risk sites must have plans prepared or certified by a Certified Professional in Erosion and Sediment Control (CPESC) or a Registered Professional Engineer Queensland (RPEQ) with suitable erosion and sediment control experience. The certification requirement exists because the standard of plans being submitted has historically been low and councils have got tired of approving documents that bear no relationship to what gets built.
We prepare ESCPs to the standard the regulators need and the standard your site crew can deliver.
What we do
- Site assessment. We visit the site, walk the slopes, check the drainage patterns, identify the soil type, and look at how the construction sequence will affect runoff. The plan starts with what's actually there.
- Plan preparation to IECA Best Practice. Plans are prepared in accordance with the International Erosion Control Association Best Practice Erosion and Sediment Control guidelines and the relevant local government requirements.
- Construction staging. The plan is staged to your construction program. Pre-clearing controls, during-earthworks controls, post-stabilisation controls. Each phase has its own set of measures, so your site team knows what's required each week, not just at start up.
- Control measure specifications. Sediment basins are sized for the catchment. Sed fences are specified where trucks can drive past them. Stabilised entrances are designed to actually stabilise. Every measure on the plan has a specification your contractor can build from, that doesn't blow the budget.
- Inspection and maintenance schedules. Inspection frequencies, maintenance triggers, and weather-response protocols. Heavy rain forecast? The schedule tells your supervisor what to check and when.
- Integration with the CWMP and CEMP. Where your project needs a Construction Water Management Plan or Construction Environmental Management Plan, we prepare them as an integrated set.
Certification for Queensland high-risk sites
Plans for high-risk Queensland sites that require CPESC or RPEQ certification are prepared by Eko and certified by our CPESC partner, [partner name to be confirmed]. The certification process is integrated into our scope — you receive a single deliverable, prepared to the standard your council requires.
What you receive
- Site-specific ESCP document, lodgement-ready
- Construction-staged control measure drawings
- Inspection and maintenance schedule
- A3 site-ready summary cards for supervisors
- Council lodgement support (included in fee)
What it costs
ESCP fees depend on site size, complexity, and whether high-risk certification is required. We provide a fixed-fee quote within 48 hours of diagnosing your site specific ESCP risks and the disturbance footprint.