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Dredging contrary for creek
Spotsylvania developer to be fined $13,720 for illegally dredging Contrary Creek, a Lake Anna tributary
Date published: 3/2/2006
By RUSTY DENNEN A Spotsylvania County land developer has agreed to penalties, including a fine, for dredging a tributary of Lake Anna without a permit. The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality has proposed fining Mendleson Development LLC $13,720 for dredging about 1,200 feet of Contrary Creek in Louisa County. The company has signed a special consent order with the agency and agreed to take action to mitigate environmental damage to the waterway. The illegal dredging occurred along property planned for a residential area and golf course off State Route 652. DEQ inspected the Links at Lake Anna site in October 2004, finding that the creek had been dredged to a depth of 6 feet, and 90 feet wide. The dredged material, some 17,000 cubic yards, was cast into the creek, next to the channel, creating an underwater berm the length of the project, according to the agency. An average-size dump truck holds about 6 cubic yards of material. In addition, the stream channel was diverted from its original course. Mendleson had not obtained authorization for the work from the Virginia Water Protection Program. A joint permit application was submitted to DEQ after the inspection. Then in September 2005, DEQ issued a notice of violation for the unauthorized dredging and filling of surface waters. The company said it had received permission from Dominion Virginia Power, which created Lake Anna to cool reactors at its Mineral nuclear power plant, for the project. But the company admitted that it did not seek permission from DEQ. The state agency concluded that stabilization of the berm "was determined as the ecologically preferable remedial action, as it will have the least amount of additional environmental impact to Contrary Creek and Lake Anna," according to the consent decree. Joan Crowther, who works with water permits and monitoring in DEQ's Northern Virginia office, said yesterday that the agency directed the company not to replace the sediment to avoid making the problem worse. "We were telling them we prefer for it to stay where it is instead of them doing more work in the stream," she said.
Date published: 3/2/2006
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