California builders must take extensive precautions due to El Niño-fueled storms

California’s winter storms, fueled by El Niño, make it more critical for contractors to take measures to reduce stormwater runoff.

Regulations require builders to keep all stormwater runoff on their property to prevent pollution from reaching nearby waterways. Record-setting rainfall could bring unprecedented problems for them. Stormwater control efforts include rolls of straw wattles, as well as hay bales, sandbags, gravel, wood-chip mulch, hydro-mulch and a host of other materials used to keep the earth in place.