Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Renovating a Pond or Lake? help!!! to re-dig or not!!

have roughly an acre oblong shaped pond...recently a developer came in a started building a giant strip mall upstream of our pond....the pond (which at present is only 3 feet deep), quickly became muddy and soon after it cleared up, all this underwater vegetation sprang up....could legal action be taken to help with the re-excavation?? has a nice fish population....should total draw down and re-dig be needed or just clear up what we have and not worry about the depth?

Welcome guitardog! Legally speaking the "developer commited tresspass by allowing his actions to arrive on your property. Most construction is state regulated to prevent soil runoff like this.

Contact the developer first---Be nice but firm with them---they know they are liable and will probably take care of any damage---you may even get extras from them. If they are obnoxious (like a neighbor of mine) you will need to speak with a lawyer to solve the problem.

Lawyers are expensive!

Best of luck and please keep us posted.

California has VERY stringent laws about construction run off. I would check into your state's requirements regarding these types of regulations.

Welcome to Pond Boss, we're glad you found us.

You may want to start out at the county level. Many counties have adopted their own (more stringent) laws in regard to erosion control, water quality impact and chemical pollution during contruction. County inspectors are responsible for monitoring this stuff and typically wield a great deal of power.

Great advice Weiss.

Go to the builder first and be nice I bet he will help out.

DOCUMENT, DOCUMENT, DOCUMENT!!!!!!

Take pictures and show what happened. You will have to prove that the developer caused this to happe, which should be real easy, then it's a simple case of sueing for damages if it goes that far. Usually the developer will just fix the problem as it's easier to do then to go through the legal hassle. He/They also don't want to get the local permitting authorities involved as it will slow down, or completely stop their project fron continueing.

You didn't say how far upstream he is, but in just about every commercial development, they fall into a total different level of responsiblity to the surrounding area. If they are contaminating the stream, and you can show this with pictures, then you have even more leverage over them.

Tell them it was a perfect before they showed up and you want it as good, if not better then before. Never ask for money or compensation, just aproach it politely with the wish to fix the problem that they caused. If and when they agree, get a timetable and be sure to keep an eye on the development.

There is always that guy out there who will say anything to make you happy without any intention of actualy doing anything. If it's getting close to being done, you need to go legal and file a complaine with the city or county. It might be a good idea to find out who the permiting authority is now, so if it comes to that, you can act quickly. By filing the complaint, he wont be able to pass his final inspection, which won't allow him to get paid for the job he's done. This will make your problem his problem.

Good luck,
Eddie

Otto and Eddie are dead on in their advice.

thanks..all of you..since the development was completed about 1 1/2 years ago, i may be a little harder to prove..my brother in law was going to try to do something, but he passed away last christmas...i didn't know how bad it was until i went out there and started clearing some small trees away and went out in a johnboat and could touch the bottom with a 3' oar. if nothing can or will be done, any recommendations on how to improve the current situation? pond will be mainly used for occasional fishing, and just a nice place to hang out.after the water cleared up, ALOT of underwater grasses sprang up..don't really know what it's called, but makes fishing really difficult.

if i am forced to take on the project of re-doing the pond, what is usually the best (possibly fastest, cheapest) course of action? i have access to dozers, trac-hoes, and dump trucks, ( a relative re-dug my parents 1 acre pond)..but since the pond was in the natural bowl of the lay of roughly 50 acres, he dug out the mud and piled it up in several mountains of muck in the adjacent feilds...over time, dad took a small dozer and loader and began spreading it back out into the feilds...2 years later, nothing remains of the mounds, and the water is a beautiful blue/green and the catfish and carp are thriving...before, the only thing in there were millions of small bluegill, shell crackers, and bream, nothing large at all..now there are some MONSTER cats and carp!!

Learn from your dad. It sounds like he did a good job.