Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations County Issued Stop Work Order During Pond Repair

I’m located in West GA. The county issued a stop work order telling me I cannot do any work on the dam for the existing pond behind my house. The grader I hired has already drained the pond and taken a lot of the old muck out to install good dirt back in the dam and replace the old pipe that wasn’t working. The county has stopped me mid project and I have even put up 400ft of wire back silt fence and 500ft of mulch down the property line. They are telling me I need an erosion control plan from an engineer? The pond is only half an acre in size. The guy from the U.S Arms Corps told me they didn’t require permits for the construction or maintenance of farm ponds. I’m curious if anyone else has gone through something like this?

Dang man, that sucks!

This is why conservationist landowners find the government impedes environmental improvements. I feel your pain. I gave up on a NRCS plan for a wetland/pond complex that would have helped purify water draining from 80 acres of a neighbor's row crops into an EPA designated impaired waterway due to a local county surveyer who buried us in paperwork and permits. Smallminded power-hungry local officials who have no life. No wonder folks lose respect for government.

I'm so sorry, POF. Just absurd make work from someone who's probably never built a thing in their life. RAH has posted earlier about how they managed to bury his project, which would only have improved the environment. Another reason I'm glad my pond is in Texas.

“It is hard to imagine a more stupid or more dangerous way of making decisions than by putting those decisions in the hands of people who pay no price for being wrong.” Thomas Sowell

This is Dave Davidson's post from a thread duplication.


"Never heard of it"





It's not about the fish. It's about the pond. Take care of the pond and the fish will be fine. PB subscriber since before it was in color.

Without a sense of urgency, Nothing ever gets done.

Boy, if I say "sic em", you'd better look for something to bite. Sam Shelley Rancher and Farmer Muleshoe Texas 1892-1985 RIP

I think your solution is simple. Get it in writing from the U.S Arms Corps that no erosion control is required for your pond and continue working...after all, it is the U.S Arms Corps of Engineers right?

POF,

Sorry, that sucks.

In my state (Kansas) there is a listing of certified engineers in the documents of our agency that regulates larger ponds and dam construction. These are generally civil engineers that only work on that type of project.

I met with one of the engineers for a potential project, and he was a very git 'er done type of guy.

Perhaps Georgia has a similar listing (or you could find one on your own)?

If you found a very reasonable engineer, he might charge you for one hour and write a brief plan that might satisfy the local bureaucrats.

I am thinking along the lines of: place muck upstream of the pond for drying and later spreading, any silt run off will go back into the pond basin and will not cause any erosion or siltation problems off of the applicants property. (A real engineer should be able to improve greatly on that.)

Good luck extracting yourself from the gears of the machine that is currently crushing you!

I am no expert but spend months getting through permitting here in NY. I thought southern states were more reasonable. The issue could be that the Army Corps were considering the dam and dam safety, but the local officials are concerned about stormwater. Carrollton has a lot on the web about their stormwater activities and stormwater permitting, especially in their municipal drainage area. I found a local agency that helped me through the permitting but you may need to find an engineer that specializes in stormwater permits. If your land drains into the Carrolton watershed you may have to deal with the municipal water system, which is another layer.

If you know a local construction contractor they may be able to give you some advice.

Good luck, I too feel your pain.

Curious as to how the county even found out about your project. Is it visible from the road? When I did my pond reconstruction about 10 years ago I had heard all the horror stories and was dreading all the BS. My contractor advised me it was far easier to beg forgiveness than ask for permission. Never heard a peep from anyone.

I am in the same boat, when I built my pond 5 plus years ago I talked to an engineer friend of mine, obviously we were way off the beaten path, in the middle of the woods, in a more lenient neighboring county then the communist county I reside in, He told me to build away and dont worry about permits, easier to ask forgiveness then permission, just play dumb,, which is easier for me then most, comes natural.

I havent heard a peep from nobody yet, knock on wood, although it is just now showing up on google maps.

Maybe it's because we are loaded with livestock in TX, there's very little water permits we have to deal with. IIRC, all you need to do is stay under 200 acre-feet of water, stay on your own property, and don't dig a hole that affects an active river or stream. Other than that, dig a hole however you want. We actually built a berm at the top end of our big pond so water wouldn't back up onto our neighbor's pasture. We have 2 24" drain pipes into our pond from his pasture, but the pipes are high enough so that water can't backup on his property.

Your county has a guide posted on their website that will probably explain what you need, I linked it below. Without knowing your situation, you are probably required to have some version of a Stormwater Discharge permit. Here in Iowa they are handled by the state but other jurisdictions might handle locally.



Building or Renovating a Pond in Georgia A Pond Guide for Citizens

https://www.carrollcountyga.com/DocumentCenter/View/2634/pond_guide

Excellent catch by Imoore!

Definitely read through his guide. It appears you might(?) be exempt from the rules that you are using to stop you? It depends partly on the usage of your pond.

Do you have a hunting or fishing buddy that is a lawyer? Just a brief examination by a lawyer and his advice, may be enough for you to write a letter outlining how you qualify for the exemptions.

I dont know how the rules are in your area but here locally, the biggest thing you have to do is put a waterline out thru the bottom of the dam for a waterer behind the dam and immediately becomes a agricultural, cattle watering body of water, without it its purely recreational which is waaay more restrictive and subject to politics.

Its a fact that farm use for a pond is way easier to get around all the bull hockey.
If their argument is that you dont have cattle or goats, its because you didnt have an affordable water source for them, you just getting ready to get some.

In Marshall County Indiana it's just the opposite. No restrictions for a recreational pond, if you derive $0.01 from the pond then the area needs to have a zoning exemption from the A1 zone that is used for agriculture or livestock production.

In Texas, we generally call them stock tanks or shorten it to tank. I ran the water impoundment idea by the local NRCS office who told me that there was a possibility for cost sharing. I jumped on that and it was approved by the NRCS. They sent a rep out who agreed with me that the location I had picked was the best bet on my place. And, it isn’t all that great. My place is heavily treed with a heckuva lot of rocks.

I need to go to my place but in 108 degree weather it’s not all that important.