Hold On to Your Dirt Erosion problems create new laws — and new solutions by Kathy Price-Robinson On a construction site, dirt is usually the last thing anyone thinks about. Of course, you need soil stable enough to hold up the building, but beyond that, who cares? The answer is: Lots of people — and plants and animals — especially during the rainy season. Every year, rain sweeps millions of cubic yards of topsoil off construction sites, creating flooding problems, sending mud or silt onto down-gradient properties, and contributing to the sedimentation and silting of streams, bays, estuaries, reservoirs, and other water bodies. This excess soil can cause numerous environmental problems, such as disrupting fish spawning
