Building 2563
Essayons Way
Fort Jackson, SC 29207

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     Fort Jackson implemented the Land Rehabilitation and Maintenance component of the Integrated Training Area Management program in 1996 to guide the subsequent repair of eroded military training lands. The program enhances training land and forestalls regulators from having to enforce water quality issues.

     Fort Jackson also has a Memorandum of Agreement with the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control to remediate 87 sites with severe erosion and water quality problems. To date, 48 of these sites have been completed.

     Gully erosion severely threatens the integrity of Fort Jackson’s training areas and ranges, making range closure a possibility. Erosion also transports sediment and pollutants into adjacent streams and wetlands, making expensive cleanup another concern.

     From 1997–1999, eight ranges were remediated. The "before" picture below, taken in August 1997, depicts one such site before remediation. Through a series of Best Management Practices, the site was stabilized to prevent erosion and control storm water runoff. The remediated site, completed in August 1998, is shown in the "after" picture.

     In 1997, Fort Jackson also began stabilizing steep slopes such as these by using new technologies of bonded fiber matrix, mulch containing polyethylene fibers for structure, and polymers that absorb and retain moisture.

     Stabilizing the range landscape using these techniques protects target mechanisms from erosion, provides better drainage for storm water runoff control, and prevents the threat of range closure due to environmental concerns. From a natural resources perspective, this eliminates off-site sedimentation, protects wetlands and streams, and improves water quality and conservation. Native vegetation also benefits from erosion control. When vegetation is established, native grasses are included in the seeding mixture and gradually spread over the site.

     Erosion of unpaved access roads hinders safe and dependable access to training areas and delivers sediment to streams and wetlands. Efforts to improve these roads have been ongoing since 1993. The "before" picture below, taken in March 1998, shows a typical access road on Fort Jackson. It was difficult to access adjacent training areas due to sand and sediment accumulation in dry weather, mud holes in wet weather, and erosion on and alongside the road.

     In July 1998, this road was regraded with a crown. Fort Jackson constructed waterbars to provide storm water drainage and, using recent advances in erosion-control matting, vegetated waterways to convey storm water away from the road without causing erosion. Fort Jackson hardened the road surface with crusher-run gravel and rock underlain with geotextile. Reclaimed asphalt pavement is used in place of gravel when available. The results are shown in the "after" photograph below, taken in August 1998.

BEFORE / AFTER 

     Thanks to projects such as these, soldiers have safer and more dependable access to training areas, adjacent wetlands are preserved, and road maintenance can be performed once every four years instead of twice a year.

     A concrete chute built to convey storm water from a landfill was causing severe erosion in the adjacent woodland. An access road was constantly being washed out by the force of the water.

      Interlocking cellular concrete blocks were installed in 1998 to line the channel in order to decrease water velocity. The blocks were cabled together and shipped as mats, placed onto a geotextile cloth, and simply picked up and placed in the channel.

Now, water can cross the access road via the block channel without damaging the road.



High velocity water from the concrete chute empties
onto the interlocking concrete block waterway.