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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.
As soon as the agency signs off on the agreement, the company must stabilize the berm, submit a monitoring plan, a material management plan for upland disposal of any soils removed as part of the stabilization, and provide a start and completion date for each step.
Pollution in the 13,000-acre lake has been a concern in recent years. Elevated levels of copper, lead and zinc were found in sediments in Contrary Creek in 2004 monitoring studies. Some of those problems stem from 19th-century gold mining in its headwaters.
Crowther said sediment dredged from Contrary Creek by Mendleson was tested. Levels of those metals did not reach a threshold to cause any human health concern.
Meanwhile, state and federal agencies are trying to determine the source of PCB contamination found in the main body of the lake, and in fish tissues.
Polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, used in electrical transformer oils, were banned in the 1970s after being linked to cancer and nervous-system disorders. PCBs remain in the soil and sediment for decades after being released into the environment.
DEQ is accepting public comment on the proposed consent decree with Mendleson by e-mail, fax or mail.
For more information, or to submit comments, contact Jennifer Sheedy, DEQ Northern Virginia Regional Office, 13901 Crown Court, Woodbridge, Va., 22193; e-mail
Email: jlsheedy@deq.vir ginia.gov; fax 703/583-3938.
To reach RUSTY DENNEN:
Email: rdennen@freelancestar.com
