Citizen Complaint Jamestown Villas

Citcomp Jamestown Villas 08.31.09

Please accept this citizen complaint for the record against “Jamestown Villas” of behalf of John L. Wathen, Hurricane Creekkeeper for Friends of Hurricane Creek (FoHC)

Located at the end of 6th Street E. in Tuscaloosa Al.

Longitude= -87.4757194519043 Latitude =33.20874667940322

From I-59 take the HWY 11 exit, University Blvd. Follow HWY 11 into Tuscaloosa and turn right on Crescent Ridge Road. Follow Crescent Ridge Road to 6th St. East on right. Turn right and follow 6th Street E. to the violator’s site.

Since it’s beginning this site has been in significant non-compliance.
No NPDES registration is posted. no approved gravel entrances, failing or non-existent BMPs, and discharging into a TMDL segment of Hurricane Creek, listed for turbidity.

On 08/19/09 I visited the site and found no NPDES posted, no BMPs, no approved gravel entry. These issues were reported to Chad Christian, Tuscaloosa City Engineer listed on the flyer sent out by Tuscaloosa as “Storm Water Hotline” Mr. Christian stated that he contacted Mr. Burns, owner of Jamestown Villas, Covington Villas, Barrett Trace, and Mimosa Park. All of which are consistent violators of the CWA and flagrantly non-compliant with both state and city regulations. The city chose to take no action other than a “courtesy call” to Mr. Burns who stated he was “working with the Friends of Hurricane Creek. Mr. Burns is NOT working with FoHC and is in fact one of the worst-case scenarios in the watershed for consistent violations.

See Photos

On 08/27/09 I flew over the site with SouthWings pilot David Mauritson. The site was obviously failing and causing impacts to “Stone Creek”, a tributary of Hurricane Creek.
From the air I could see silt fences down with siltation leaving the site. It was obvious that the conditions had been failing for some time due to the amount of mud seen outside the silt fences. There was excavation ongoing but no attention was being paid to the failing BMPs.
I could also see a fuel storage tank located just inside the entrance to the left with no containment berm surrounding it as prescribed by law.

I could see from the air that there appeared to be a large deposition of debris in the stream itself.

On 08/28/09, I returned in the rain to ground-truth the site.
I found
1. No NPDES registration posted.
2. No city building permit posted.
3. No approved gravel entrances.
4. Off-site tracking of mud
5. Fuel storage container not protected.
6. Failing BMPs
7. Non-existent BMPs.
8. Offsite siltation in receiving stream.
9. Debris dumped into the receiving stream is a 404 USACE and ADEM violation.

I returned on 08/30/09 right after rain where I found the site had deteriorated even further. I found the following.
1. No NPDES registration posted.
2. No city building permit posted.
3. No approved gravel entrances.
4. Off-site tracking of mud
5. Fuel storage container not protected.
6. Failing BMPs
7. Non-existent BMPs.
8. Offsite siltation in receiving stream.
9. Debris dumped into the receiving stream is a 404 USACE and ADEM violation.
10. Polluted water is bypassing the retention pond due to a breach of containment prior to the retention pond. Water is “piping” along the drainpipes from the pond and flowing along the outside of the pipe allowing silt to be transported to the stream without treatment or retention.
a. A large portion of the site drains away from the retention pond and has bypassed the pond all together.
11. The retention pond itself is filled to capacity already and needs cleaning out.
12. Retention pond standpipe is improperly constructed. Large holes found below the silt line have no protection and the pond is piping along the outside of pipes allowing untreated silt laden water to escape.
13. A very poor standard of care throughout.

This particular site was located in the county until an annexation was approved to bring just the acreage of the Jamestown Villas into the city. The city approved the site disturbance plan and annexation against strong objection from FoHC and the community. City Engineers Joe Robinson and Chad Christian assured FoHC that they would remain “extremely vigilant” in overseeing this project. That has not occurred. Chad Christian has paid the owner one courtesy call that we know of advising him that I had complained. To date, there has been no improvement to the site. In fact it is deteriorating daily and significantly with each rain event. Neither the city nor Mr. Burns seem to be taking this seriously.

For the record…
I walked the entire path of the drainage from Hurricane Creek up Stone Creek to the Jamsetown Villas development. ALL tributaries showed no signs of impact leading me to believe that Jamestown Villas is the largest contributor in the entire Stone Creek drainage system.

This owner is responsible for Covington Villas, Barrett Trace, and Mimosa Park. All of which have been cited by ADEM in the past but to no deterrent value. We believe that ADEM is not taking the violation of regulations requiring the reduction of turbidity into an approved TMDL stream. It should also be mentioned that this site is causing impacts to a publicly owned park held by Tuscaloosa Park and Recreation Authority. This especially sensitive area should be protected better than either ADEM or the city of Tuscaloosa seems able to accomplish. The city storm-water permit has not been modified to accommodate the approved TMDL for Hurricane Creek. We respectfully ask EPA to investigate this and find out why neither ADEM nor Tuscaloosa has taken this TMDL into their permitting.

We respectfully ask EPA Region 4 to oversight this complaint due to ADEM and the city of Tuscaloosa failing to respond in any way that has caused this polluter to come into compliance for years.