Damaged Pond? Need a Lawer?

[Ches]

Would like some opinions from you guys. Here's the situation: Fourteen years ago my wife and I bought this place (on eleven acres) from a young widow who's mother-in-law gave her son the land before he was killed. The mother-in-law continued to own the remaining 30 acres until her death a few years ago and it was left to her son who recently sold it to some developers. The developers have gone in and excavated a road from the front to the rear of the property. The road crosses a stream bed (has been dry all summer due to our drought). The developers put in a 36 inch culvert and a substantial sediment trap on both sides of the culvert. The stream bed catches the run off from a couple hundred of acres and it feeds into the head of my 1 and 1/2 acre pond. When the pond is above the full level the water exits through a spill way at the other end of the pond. (Pond is 8ft. deep in middle). The developers submitted a soil erosion control plan to the state outlining how they would control the eroding sediment during construction. Having lived here fourteen years I knew the volume of water that is caught by the stream bed and that would flow into the pond. I attended the Planning Board meeting to express my concerns and was assured the developers would do all they needed to to control the erosion of sediment into my pond. Part of the requirement was that they would monitor the controls after every rain and repair as needed. Well, we just had about nine straight days of rain for a mere total accumulation of rain of about three inches. My once clear pond now looks like a cup of coffee doctored with creamora (a nice golden brown, if you like golden brown ponds). I have taken pictures from before the excavation began (showing the pond and the stream with water in it feeding into my pond) through today (almost on a daily basis, so I could show the progression of sediment entering the pond. I took pictures with the front page of the local newspaper to document the dates. My

 

[beenthere]

Once things get settled down and established, there probably will be some uncontrollable run-off. But that was probably the case when your pond was first established. In a year or so, the upstream activity will be grass-covered, and the soil will likely not erode. And often as not, the developers will just beg forgiveness for making the mess in the meantime. That is usually the norm.
Too bad you didn't get an opportunity to buy the land first, and have control over its use.

 

[AndyF]

You should keep a close eye on the developers and ensure that their plans for development include a catch basin or something similar to minimize surges into the stream when it rains. I recently moved from an area which was rapidly developed without adequate planning for run off. The creek which ran along our yard was used by many developers as a storm sewer and they did everything they could to channel run-off from their roads, roofs off of the houses and everything else into the creek. When we moved there 12 years ago, the creek might come up 2-3 feet after a real heavy rain, when we left 2 years ago it would come up 5+ feet and we would be left with a lot of debris to clean up including shopping carts, railroad ties and more plastic junk than you can imagine.

Keep in mind that as the area is developed, there will be a lot less ground available to take up the rain and the flow into the stream will be a lot more rapid unless the developers have put in catch basins and other devices to manage the rainfall.

You might need to start attending a lot of planning board meetings and try mobilizing your neighbors to ensure that the development is done intelligently and that the developers are forced to adequately address the impact their development will have on the surrounding area.

 

[dmccarty]

Ches,

You might also want to check into state regulations regarding
water quality, runoff and erosion control. I know that the
state has come in and fined some developers for not
following the rules....

I know that NC state and some localities have some pretty
strict rules on how much of a lot can be developed. Maybe
this can help...

Later,
Dan McCarty