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DATA · GLOSSARY · FIBER APPLICATIONS

What is a sediment retainer?

Coir glossary · Updated 2026-09-25 · Also in Português →

Device placed on slopes, in ditches or at the foot of embankments to slow runoff and hold back soil washed off by rain. In Brazilian road specifications (DNIT 074/2006-ES) the term, with “artificial berm”, names cylinders of pressed plant fiber stapled to the ground.

Sediment retainer: where the term comes from.

“Sediment retainer” renders the Portuguese retentor de sedimentos used in DNIT 074/2006-ES. The standard lists, among erosion-control devices, bamboo dikes, rip-rap or scrap-tire septa, silt basins, biodegradable blankets and nets, and artificial berms (sediment retainers). A silt basin is built downstream of an embankment to hold the fines carried by rain (item 3.1); the retainer works earlier, along the slope itself (item 3.8).

In US practice the equivalent fiber devices are called fiber rolls, fiber logs or straw wattles. The EPA fact sheet describes tubes filled with straw, flax, rice, coconut fiber or compost, wrapped in UV-degradable polypropylene netting or in fully biodegradable netting such as burlap, jute or coir. When both the fill and the netting are coir, the product is a coir log.

Sediment retainer: equivalents.

PT: retentor de sedimentos, berma artificial · ES: retenedor de sedimentos, barrera de sedimentos

Sources: DNIT 074/2006-ES · EPA. Definition from the Carve coir glossary, where the full source list is given.

Related terms.

Coir log: Flexible cylinder of coconut fiber packed inside a netting and staked to the ground, used to slow runoff, trap…

Erosion control blanket: Rolled mat of plant fibers (coir, straw or a blend) held together by stitching and netting, laid and stapled over…

Hydroseeding: Spraying a slurry of water, seed, fertilizer, fiber mulch and tackifier onto slopes and bare ground from a tank…

See also: Coir logs · Coir fibre for erosion-control blanket makers · back to the coir glossary.

Sources.

  1. DNIT (Brazilian National Department of Transport Infrastructure). Standard DNIT 074/2006-ES: Environmental treatment of slopes by erosion-control devices — Service specification. Rio de Janeiro: IPR, 2006. Items 3.1, 3.7, 3.8, 3.9. www.gov.br/dnit/pt-br/assuntos/planejamento-e-pesquisa/ipr/coletanea-de-normas/coletanea-de-normas/especificacao-de-servico-es/dnit_074_2006_es.pdf
  2. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Stormwater Best Management Practice: Fiber Rolls. Washington, DC: EPA, 2021 (National Menu of BMPs, Construction). www.epa.gov/system/files/documents/2021-11/bmp-fiber-rolls.pdf
CARVE
About this page. Part of the coir glossary maintained by Carve Biorrefinaria Agroindustrial Ltda, a coir pith and fiber producer in Paraipaba, Ceará, Brazil. Corrections: comercial@carvebio.com.br.