Tennessee Erosion and Sediment Control Handbook
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The Fourth edition of the Tennessee Erosion and Sediment Control Handbook has been designed to provide standardized and comprehensive erosion prevention and sediment control best management practices for use throughout Tennessee. 

This handbook serves as the primary reference for the development and implementation of Stormwater Pollution Prevention Plans (SWPPP), as required per the Tennessee General NPDES Permit for Discharges Associated with Construction Activities and individual NPDES permits. These permits allow the use of innovative or alternative BMPs or other controls, whose performance can be shown to be equivalent or superior to BMPs indentified in this handbook.

The Handbook is available for download here as one very large PDF file. In addition, the BMP standard drawings found in Appendix F of the Handbook can be downloaded either as a PDF files or in two versions of AutoCad.

NOTE: Use Command F (Mac) or Control F (PC) to search for words or phrases in the PDF.

If you would like to order a hard copy of the Handbook, please click here and you will be directed to an order form on our print services (Graphic Creation) website. You can purchase the Handbook in either black or full color format.


General NPDES Permit for Stormwater Discharges from Construction Activities (CGP) Construction Stormwater Inspection Certification (Twice-Weekly Inspections) 


Please note the following guidelines for new and active sites:

1.  Activities that currently have Construction General Permit (CGP) coverage, and will not be completed by October 15, 2013, must revise and implement the site SWPPP as applicable in accordance with the fourth edition of the Handbook.
2.  Construction activities seeking CGP coverage after October 15, 2012 must develop the site SWPPP in accordance with the fourth edition of the Handbook.


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