No Violations at Rock Ridge Subdivision According to Experts.....

"No deposition of clay in the wetlands" according to staff that inspected
the Rock Ridge site this past Wednesday

At approximately 2:14 AM last Wednesday--the county received a complaint regarding the Rock Ridge Subdivision being constructed in Beulah. 

from the complaint:

"I am reporting possible violations of permits issued by Escambia County and other agencies and am attaching photos to show some of the issues that have been ongoing for some time in the development.  (1) There has been serious erosion for a long period of time which silt fences along the street may have helped prevent.  (2) The pond is muddy.  (3) The portion of the development that is a wetland swamp has had silt and mud for a period of time.  Recently, the water level of the swamp became much lower.  I was told by Tim Day a while ago that Rock Ridge did self-report the mud in the swamp.  Has there been any action taken such as a Consent Order regarding these matters?

 I would request a written response via email from Escambia County and each agency that has jurisdiction in this matter explaining what if any violations were found and what the outcome may be.  I plan to remain involved in the process and to follow-up with this matter."

The same day the complaint was received, County Environmental staff made an immediate site inspection.  Here is what was determined by the county based upon that visit:

"I conducted a site visit at the Rock Ridge Subdivision on 7/17/19 as a result of an email received from XX  XXXXXXXXXX. My review was only of the wetland and associated buffer found in the southeast portion of the property. Generally, it appears that the sediment controls around the wetland buffer area were in reasonable shape and continue to function. I did note that it appears that some clay dissolved in water (redwater) did make it through the sediment controls and was deposited in the wetland buffer (see attached slides). It is reasonable to expect that this water also entered the wetland, however I did not observe any deposition either on the soil surface or in remaining areas of standing water."

Yesterday afternoon, an inspector from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection inspected the site and wrote the following:

"I did my site visit today and agree, BMP's were maintained and the site is more than 70% final stabilized as required by the Stormwater Generic Permit. No water was in the  pond and no inlets were clogged with sediment from the site as the pictures submitted by XX XXXXXXX showed.  The pictures submitted were from a past date, but all that has been taken care of and not todays site conditions."

The Army Corps of Engineers will be coming out to inspect the site based upon the complaint, and they have sent the following to county staff:

"The Corps, upon our next availability, will inspect the site to evaluate the allegations in XX  XXXXXXXXX's email dated 17 July 2019.  Thus far, I've not had the availability to conduct a site inspection.  In addition, if violations have occurred, XX XXXXXXXX will not have purview to any resolution until the corrective actions have been completed."

The takeaway for me is simple:  If a complaint is made, our staff and multiple other agencies will go out and check out the accusations.  In this particular instance, the information in the complaint was dated, and did not match up with current conditions at the development based upon inspection by the FDEP, Escambia County, and the engineer of record for the project.  As of now, there is no evidence to substantiate the claims made last week.