Friday, January 22, 2010

Not an Act of God

This is not an act of God, it is failing to do rudimentary civil engineering and heavy construction practices. The only way to control storm water on a site this big is to subdivide it and phase the construction, establishing drainage and turf in manageable tracts. Once 1300 acres were cleared and worked without immediately restoring some grass, it got out of control. The amount of silt in Burnt Mill Creek last April and this week is nothing like the localized runoff from a small site - it is massive on a watershed scale. There is also 10 miles of bare shoulders on CR388 due to the widening project; the surface water in the north ditches, which flows from the wetlands, is clear. In the south ditches, it is silt. The state and county regulations are not severe and they depend on the professionals involved to use the best practices. Where this is done, huge silt blow-outs don't happen. The airport has already signed two consent orders admitting these violations to DEP, it is not just a bunch of kibitzers with opinions.

Our bay system is self-contained; we have no Atlanta or Pittsburg upstream to spoil it. If it is ruined, we ruined it. If it is protected by "state-of-the-art" environmental technology, we protected it.

For now, I believe my lying eyes and I have photos to prove it - "we" are trashing these creeks.

Photos from CR388 and the creeks, Thursday Jan. 21:

http://www.dropbox.com/gallery/3098609/1/CR388Jan21_09?h=4ba8bc

Aerial Photos of ECP project, Friday Jan. 22:

http://www.dropbox.com/gallery/3098609/1/ECPJan22_10?h=0305cd

in reference to: Airport suffers stormwater breach | west, airport, bay - News - The News Herald (view on Google Sidewiki)

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