Sometime back, I posted concerning a developer who carved a road upon the face of the mountain above me and two neighbors with ponds. After we experienced varying degrees of mud run-off, we called in the Alabama Dept. of Environmental Management who “encouraged” him to fix the problem posthaste. One of my neighbors and I, who had relatively little drainage from the disturbed area, have had no further problem. The third pond, which received the bulk of the muddy runoff, no longer is receiving much mud, but has experienced a very heavy phytoplankton bloom and an extremely heavy growth of filamentous algae. That 10 acre pond is unfishable from the bank and not much fun to fish from a boat. This is the first summer in which such a heavy FA growth has occurred. (I have only a little FA.)
The raw earth the developer had left on the mountainside was hydroseeded after we complained with grass that has flourished and stopped the mud. However, I think that the high nitrogen fertilizer which was spewed out with the seeds and straw is washing into my neighbor’s pond with the unusually heavy and frequent rains we have experienced this summer and is feeding the FA.
Has anyone else seen anything similar after hydroseeding grass in the watershed of a pond? Any ideas, anyone?
Lou
