Wyoming welder faces $75,000 a day in EPA fines for building pond on his property

[weedpharma]

In south west Australia I bought my property 20+ years ago. I wrote to the relevant authorities about damming a winter only creek. I was told they did not care. I had a dam excavated. End of story. I now have a 4 acre dam and no problems with any part of local or state government.

This is how it should be.

weedpharma

 

[jjlite]

What if a person needed some dirt for a project and removed said dirt from there own land. The place the dirt was removed from filled with water and turned into a pond.

 

[rekees4300]

In theory the EPA has a legitimate reason to exist. We all want clean air and water. However, it has become a rogue bureaucracy with 17,000 full-time employees who need something to do to justify their jobs. A complete overhaul is needed.

 

[PlumCrazy814]

The edict does sound a bit draconian to me. It's hard to comment when you don't know the full details like who might be afected if a "dam" failed. I hope the investigation ends favorably for the landowner.
Had a neighbor that faced a similar situation about 25 years ago. He was told to cut 8' off of the top of his dam and line it to prevent erosion. He was ticked too until he lowered the water level and saw the erosion on his earth dam. He worked with the govt and was lucky enough to get some concrete sections of highway that were being replaced to line his dam. The lake is still there.

 

[TCJatko]

In south west Australia I bought my property 20+ years ago. I wrote to the relevant authorities about damming a winter only creek. I was told they did not care. I had a dam excavated. End of story. I now have a 4 acre dam and no problems with any part of local or state government.

This is how it should be.

weedpharma

Agreed. I you folks had a Second Amendment I'd consider moving there.

 

[SPIKER]

In south west Australia I bought my property 20+ years ago. I wrote to the relevant authorities about damming a winter only creek. I was told they did not care. I had a dam excavated. End of story. I now have a 4 acre dam and no problems with any part of local or state government.

This is how it should be.

weedpharma

Bet that is not the case NOW as your government has gotten as out of hand as OURS has in last 20 years...

In theory the EPA has a legitimate reason to exist. We all want clean air and water. However, it has become a rogue bureaucracy with 17,000 full-time employees who need something to do to justify their jobs. A complete overhaul is needed.

I would say ALL of government HAD a use but most of it has become a self sustaining blaze that is eating up the Oxygen of Free Will and FREEDOM we all ONCE HAD.

Just read article today how IG (Inspector General) ran thru the EPA GAO credit cards finding of their sample 90% were fraudulent purchases. see here

EPA Bureaucrats Paint the Town Red with Federal Charge Cards - Justin Sykes - Page 1

I'm sure the same can be said of the IRS and just about ANY Government agency who uses their power in government to force others to bend to their will and to make themselves more powerful.

Mark

 

[nc redneck]

Just another case of the current administration and excessive Government overreach that hurts any and all Working Americans. As my check out girl at Home Depot mentioned to me last week. Best we can do is Vote and pray. Good advice
IMO

 

[Rustyiron]

His solution was to build it and then claim it had always been there, but it had fallen into disrepair and he was just cleaning it up.
Eddie

I also "repaired" a pond on my place. Turned out that cleaning and repair needed to go 15' deep! Also required an overflow/outlet pipe and a dock (to be repaired properly):thumbsup:

 

[Larry Caldwell]

It looks like a fabricated story to me. Otherwise there would be complete photos of the pond showing that it did not dam a creek.

 

[dave1949]

It looks like a fabricated story to me. Otherwise there would be complete photos of the pond showing that it did not dam a creek.

Exactly.

I'm sure Andy has issues with his pond that may be fair or unfair, but the reported story played up the big bad EPA angle only. I don't trust any reporter who begins with this sentence: "All Andy Johnson wanted to do was build a stock pond on his sprawling eight-acre Wyoming farm"

Andy lives in the middle of nowhere, in Wyoming. There is no such thing as a sprawling eight acres, or a sprawling eight acre farm, in that setting. No offense to anyone in Wyoming, or to an owner of eight acres, but that's just not sensible writing. It is writing with a slant as in, little pond on large farm--how could it matter.

The Maine DEP got after a farmer for daming a stream to create a trout pond. They got involved when a neighbor complained about flooding.
https://bangordailynews.com/2013/04...onstructing-trout-pond-out-of-interim-stream/
Lawyer: Farmer hopeful of keeping homemade trout pond — Mid-Maine — Bangor Daily News — BDN Maine

The DEP here makes it difficult to impossible to create a pond over 1/10 acre in an existing wetland. The wet land doesn't have to have standing water either, just evidence of anaerobic soil. Nor can a vernal pool be disturbed. We can forget about tapping into running water for the most part.

There are sound ecological reasons for such rules that become more important as development extends into areas that were previously untouched. We all want to think we or our situation are an exception.