How much mud running into your pond from a nearby construction site is too much?

Two neighbors and I have recently been gifted with mud-laden water running into our ponds from a private road construction site. Attempts to discuss this with the owner were met with assurances that he would take care of the problem, but he followed up with band-aids, and the mud kept coming. We three are agreed that it is not our goal to punish the mudder or to ask for any kind of damages, so long as he takes all reasonable steps to avoid future damage and to repair any which has been done.

We decided that since we were going to have to take action, anyway, our goal would be zero mud from then on. We hired an hydrology firm to take water samples after a rain, and when the results were back the firm filed a notice of violation with the Alabama Department of Environmental Management (ADEM). Turns out the builder had never filed for a required ADEM permit. After the gentleman discovered we were serious, he hired a company to take care of the problem. Two of the three of us now have no mud flowing in, but the third still has a problem, although the environmental firm is laboring mightily to prevent it.

I have found it interesting to see how much can be done to stop mud flowing in runoff water. What I am not sure of is how seriously I should take inflow which is muddy enough to change the color of the pond but which doesn't seem to be heavily silt-laden. For now, that is not happening, but I don't know about the future.

How much mud is too much? What else should we do?
Thanks,
Lou

45 y.o. 13 ac pond/Shelby cnty AL,

Lou,

Here are my thoughts.

From a water quality point of view, and I'll even toss in aesthetics, I wouldn't want any muddy runoff entering my pond. Certain species of fish are more tolerable of this condition but you don't mention the specie(s) of fish you have.

Looking at it from a siltation point of view, why hasten what time will eventually do to your pond.

In my area, the DEC requires a silt fence to be installed around any areas of disturbance. This past summer, on a house construction site upstream from my pond, a contractor installed the fencing but a couple of hard rains resulted in a lot of muddy runoff entering my pond.

Russ

Thanks for the response, Russ. What did you do or ask the owner or contractor to do when the muddy runoff occurred?

Also, one of the steps which has been taken by the contractor to stop the mud coming into my pond is to lay a jute mat sprinkled with a flocculating material in the water-course going to the pond. I don't know the make-up of the material but it does seem to attract and settle out mud in the water flow. Does anyone know if it is safe to assume that such flocculating agents are tested and approved by EPA or some other agency and will not damage the ecosystem in the pond should any of it run in?
Lou

Lou, I don't know about the area you are in so my answer might not be appropriate to your "neighborhood". I normally toss brushpiles and rocks in runoff areas to trap silt, sand, leaves, etc. and to reduce erosion. Of course, we are back in the brush where aesthetics don't matter as much as effectiveness. But, I don't live on the land and no way I could do that at my home in the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex. I would be concerned with anything that alters water so it had a milky appearance. I assume the Hydrology firm has OK'd it though.

Lou,

I approached the contractor and asked if he could get the area raked and seeded. A couple of weeks later he did as asked. Once the grass was established, it was a big help in reducing the amount of muddy runoff that flowed into the pond.

My pond is small, only 80' in diameter. It was about 95% full two days after construction. I had planned on stocking some bluegill this fall but that plan has been postponed till next year. I was so happy with the results, my plan now is to drain the pond next year, after the spring rains, and make it a little bigger. This will also allow me to see what effect, if any, the muddy runoff had on the pond.

Russ

Interesting to me (environmental field) anyway. I doubt the contractor ever filed for a federal stormwater permit. All businesses with the potential to have point source runoff of stormwater are required to develop and implement a Storm Water Pollution Prevention Plan (SWPPP). This requirement also falls on any construction project of 5 acres or more. He's lucky if all he has to do is to comply now...huge fines are possible for violations of this nature.

Lou:

Wow, somehow missed this post last month but Matt is right. The answer to your original question is zero. According to the Federal Clean Water Act, which is where the NPDES and stormwater rules are based, no sedimentation may occur off the property or to "waters of the state". You did them a big favor by not reporting them to the enforcing agency immediately.

This is probably the most frequently ignored environmental regulation out there by both contractors and regulators. The favored techniques are always to prevent erosion before it occurs because it is much more difficult and costly to deal with sedimentation after the fact. You might want to sample your pond bottom and determine how much sedimentation has occurred (you might be surprised).

As you say, there are many management practices. I literally have volumes of information here on my desk regarding soil erosion and sedimentation control bmp's and procedures. You are much more patient and understanding than I am and should not have had to spend a dime on this.

Steve and Matt, I appreciate your comments. In the interim, the developer has hired an environmental engineer (something he was advised by his contractor to do in the first place but didn't think the expense was necessary), planted grass, put up activated silt fences and mats, and hung silt blocks in the runoff. You don't have any trouble seeing that I don't know the technical terms, I bet. He has also filed with the Alabama Dept. of Environmental Mgmt., something you were correct in assuming he neglected to do in the first place. My pond and that of my next-door neighbor now receive no detectible sediment at all. Another neighbor whose pond was more heavily damaged than ours and who continues to receive mud has retained an environmental attorney. He is not looking to get rich, just to be made whole again.

All of us are in the position of not wanting to see the developer be pushed to the wall because he has scarred up his part of our shared mountain (Well, we call it a mountain in Alabama, anyway) and we hope he can afford to finish up with a development which we can live with. We all live on our properties. I don't think the developer is evil, just an inexperienced idiot. He ran his road up the mountain at a 30 degree slope and is surprised that the county engineers will not accept it!

Thanks again for your suggestions. I guess we have each done all we can for now, but we monitor the streams coming down from his project every time a good rain comes.
Lou