Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Permit

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My State/County didn't require a permit. How did you come to find out you need one?

No permit needed here either.

I was told by the Dept. of Soil & Conservation that I didn't need a permit if my dam was 20' or less high. Turns out that the Plan Commision had different thoughts. Pond was complete, then applied for a house building permit. They saw the pond and would not issue house permit until pond permit was issued. After several tense weeks, pond permit was approved. Thank God for good research and planning. My understanding was that they would have made me back fill the pond if there were any zone violations. They ended up fining me about $175 plus the cost of permit. When the inspector came out for final inspection, all he wanted to do was pick my brain about ideas to build his own pond. By the way, I waited on him for 5 1/2 hours on a weekday to have this conversation. He said that he would be there between 12-4, he finally showed at 5:30.

I should also add, like Blaine, there were limitations on what I could build without a permit. If the dam was over XX feet they required a minimal fee for engineering. There were size restrictions as well. I called the soil and water department at the early stages and they were helpful and didn't fee.

My contractor applied for the permit and went through all the meetings and said he got the permit and started to dig. We started having problems with him and went to the police jury to get a copy of the permit and application. The lady said i was approved for the permit but no one ever paid for one then she asked if they had started to dig and i said there almost finished. I got a dirty look
and she went to get the man in charge i told him that the contractor said he paid and picked up the permit. He said that he would take care of it and that the fine for digging without a permit is 20000. I later found out that my contractor got a good chewing from the man in charge and that it will be a long time before he gets any more permits. He got a permit to dig the guys pond behind me but he had to put it in his sons name i told the guy behind me not to use him and now he is paying the price. OH WELL I TRIED TO TELL HIM>

Thats why you need to be in control. It's pretty much that simple.

My pond doesn't have a dam.

It always pooled water in this spot kind of like a natural pond

Phoebe,
For what it's worth...
I checked with the town and county and have letters stating no permits were needed.
Had Corp of Engineers verify the ditch my pond runoff ran into was not considered navigable, and that I was over 500' from any navigable waterway (or COE would have needed to approve).
Talked with the DNR since it was classified as wetland. Since the wetland area had already been disturbed by original pond and ditch work (25yrs ago), He gave me the OK to build up the back berm (technically in the wetland area) as long as I didn't move it further into the wetland.
Then he said since I was going to hold water above the surrounding grade, I needed a Small Dam Permit from the DNR. Did the engineering work for that, submitted my plans and drawings and I am a Small Dam Operator.

The long and short...
If the creek is not navigable, your property is not registered as wetland, you are not withing 500' of any navigable waters of the state, and your town and county don't require permits you should be good. Otherwise... On the bright side, you've got seven years with no issues, statute of limitations??? If you are in a wetland, it is still ok to dig, but you cannot raise the level of any wetland area with berms or roads etc.

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