Grading Company tried to bury a car, etc

[weesa20]

They ae clearing a 35 acre lot behind me to put in a development. The grading company has clearcut the area and made 50 foot wide, 100 foot long and 40 foot deep trench with earthmovers to put much of the slash, stumps, and topsoil in. This part abutts my property so I like to go out and see what the big boys (All Cat equipment) are doing. I noticed that an old car chassis that was near my property line, along with some old farm equipment, tires, trash, etc had disappeared. Then I looked down into the trench-- and there it all was. My gut told me this was wrong, but I am unfamiliar with rules about this kind of stuff. So I eventually got intouch with the owner of the grading company and he had his gyus take the junk out. Just makes me wonder what is buried in the parts that I can't see!!

What do you guys think? Was it wrong of his guys to try to bury that stuff?

I have been in touch with the City/County to try to find out if there is an ordinance, but no-one will give me an answer. Since he took care of this problem, I don't know if I have any grounds to go to the EPA?

W

 

[Bird]

I don't know whether it's right or wrong, but I know it's quite commonly done.

 

[rdln]

burying a car is not being a responsible steward of the land a little steel and stumps no big deal EXCEPT if some poor unknowing sole tries to build in that spot thinking it is virgin ground and those stumps start to rot.

 

[HomeBrew2]

In these hills, a buried car with windows rolled up and a hole jammed in the top is a septic tank

 

[toolaholic]

home brew you made my day ! that's funny tool

 

[DieselPower]

It's pretty much illegal to bury any kind of trash anwhere in the US now day's. Contact the EPA. They are great at giving out 5 and 6 figure $ fines for nuckle heads like this. I reported a company about 2 years ago that I saw covering up old cars and trucks on a construction site. Hmm, they went out of business about 1 1/2 months later. From what I heard through the grape vine (and we all know how they work), they ended up being investigated and wound up with over $300K in fines. Guess they learned their lesson.

 

[AndyMA]

I don't know about the rest of the US, but in Mass and Conn you cannot bury stumps. They are now typicaly bringing in huge tub grinders to grind up the stumps (with embedded rocks) and sending the grindings to power plants for energy.

Andy

 

[markct]

yea i have heard that also about it being illegal to bury stumps, now i know ya cant bury them where there will be any kind of building or road etc, but does that mean that technicaly i cant even bury a few stumps out in my back field and let them rot and compost over time? is this any different than piling them up and lettin them rot that way? thats what we usualy do every few years kinda push them around and break them up some more. takes a few years but we got the space and time. there way outback under the powerline right of way so the unsightly aspect doesnt matter

 

[weesa20]

The grading company guy told me it was okay to bury the stumps and stuff "outside the building envelope" meaning that he buried them in the backyard of where the houses will be, not where the foundation will go. He said it was okay to put organics in the hole, but everytime I went out with my camera, the guy on the trackhoe would start pulling the stumps back out of the hole, acting guilty.

I think I will contact the EPA, I think they have an office in Raleigh.

I have also contacted one of the VPs from the building company that is going to be bulding the houses, so I think some pressure might be coming down from the top to keep their noses clean. VP sent me back an email to that extent anyway.

The city soil and erosion guy said that it was out of his jurisdiction but he did fine them for having inadequate tree protection fencing.

W

 

[Richard]

“Outside the building envelope”
My sister lives in a subdivision. Seems her neighbors yard was “out of the building envelope” and they buried organic stuff there. Her neighbors yard is now a bowl shaped yard from the depression. They also know of another neighbor who has a plethora of unused bricks buried in THEIR front yard. They keep joking that if they ever build a shed, they’re going to dig them up so it’ll be a nice looking shed.

Regarding the car, we had the farm where I live timbered several years ago (father in law did). When they had left, they left behind several HUGE slash/burn piles. No biggie as we had plenty of room to burn. As I was looking around, I noticed a HUGE tire inside said slash pile. It was one of the huge tires of the machine they might call a ‘forwarder’ or something? It’s the machine they drag the trees around, back to the processing site.

When I asked the lumber guy about it, he simply said “oh, just burn it”, as though they did me a favor. I said that was not only irresponsible, but I wasn’t going to have any steel belts (if that’s what it had) carcass laying around forever after… he needed to come get it.

Week or two went by and he showed ZERO effort/interest in getting it, so I called someone (forget) like the county health department.

They said it indeed WAS a foul play to do that and if I wanted to turn it in, they would cite EVERYONE, including the land owner. I said that was fine as if it got to THAT, then we’d sue him for the damages.

Long story short, after I gave them his name/number, it lasted about 2 more days and was gone.