Nah….that’s not what I meant. In a previous post, I noted that there were maps available that show the myriad of soil types found in Christiansburg and how not every property falls into one of the 2 categories discussed in the Comprehensive Plan.
While I had planned on scanning copies of those maps, I found something a bit more useful. The United States Department of Agriculture, Natural Resources Conservation Service has a little old website that provides more and newer information than can be found in that old 1985 document.
The particular site section is the Web Soil Survey. I am not going to lie to you and tell you it is a piece of cake to use. However, with a little bit of effort you can find out some pretty amazing things about what should or shouldn’t be built where based upon type of soil, slope, tendency for concrete to degrade due to chemical nature of soil, and a whole lot of other things.
The whole site is very visual and interactive so anticipate spending a good deal of time waiting for maps to load up.
Once your on the main page, you will find directions for use that explain how to use this tool. (By the way the ‘shopping cart’ is merely a holding place, this is a tool free to the public. Maps that you want to obtain are provided in pdf format that prints out quite well or can be published to a website easily (hmmmm…..wonder where that idea’s going:)
What I found was pretty scary. It shows how very important it is to evaluate each area on it’s own merits and how a generic stormwater system is doomed for failure. Don’t get the idea that what you will find is saying ‘don’t build’ in certain locations. It is simply identifying those areas where special attention MUST be paid to manage potential hazards such as stormwater runoff.
Overall, it clearly shows the importance of soil testing by Town Engineering staff, making sure that plans submitted take these different soil types and slopes into consideration, and that thorough monitoring is performed by the Town.
It may be the developers responsibility to design and build, but it is the Town’s responsibility to make sure that things are done correctly (not necessarily minimum requirements) and that the safety and well-being of its citizens are the focus of deliberations and decisions.
