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Summer/Fall 1999 |
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After being abandoned for sixteen years, the Kingwood Country Club is being revitalized as an 18-hole golf course. A developer from Tallahassee, Florida named J. T. Williams has cleared large portions of the property to reestablish the course that was constructed in the early 1970’s on an old dairy farm. Fundamental changes have been made to the old course, which required construction to encroach upon the 100-foot stream buffer that exists, by Georgia law, along designated trout streams. In order to accomplish this, Mr. Williams’ company, Killearn, Inc., was required to apply for variances on the specific sites that would impact the 100-foot stream buffer. After a two-month process, the site plan was approved. The approved plan specifically stated six requirements upon which the permit for land disturbing activities was conditional. Those requirements were standard procedures and guidelines contained in state erosion and sedimentation laws. On a clear day, where Stekoa Creek enters the "pristine" Chattooga River the scenic aspect of the place is diminished by a veil of grey water. The subtle transformation takes place in the long rapid below the confluence. As the waters of Stekoa dominate the smooth, moss covered slides on the right side of the river, the untainted waters of the Chattooga wind down through boulders on the opposite bank. The currents combine at the base of the rapid into a river, which is muted from the encounter. Although its entrance into the Chattooga is always fairly dramatic, during periods of heavy rain the sight becomes frightening. At these times, the grey waters of Stekoa give way to a raging torrent of diluted mud. The spectacle of cascades and waterfalls thrusting thick red waters into the Chattooga makes painfully clear the abuses, which go unchecked upstream. In 1975, then Georgia Governor Busbee signed into law the Erosion and Sedimentation Act, acknowledging water pollution as the primary threat to the environment in the state of Georgia. The Act was considered unique at that time because, unlike other state statutes, the Georgia erosion and sedimentation laws were to be implemented and enforced by local authorities. The Act requires that counties and municipalities adopt ordinances governing land disturbing activities within their boundaries, otherwise they would be subject to rules and regulations developed by the Environmental Protection Division (EPD) of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources. In addition, Georgia is divided into 40 Soil and Water Conservation Districts that are charged with the responsibility for oversight of local governments delegated by the EPD as issuing authorities. Rabun County is located within the Blue Ridge Soil and Water Conservation District and has a comprehensive Soil and Erosion Control Ordinance, which is administerd by the County Marshall. The Field Manual for Erosion and Sediment Control in Georgia is the reference manual that was developed to assist in the implementation of the Erosion and Sedimentation Act. The manual was intended for individuals involved in "non-exempt" land disturbing activities. The bulk of this manual is spent discussing Best Management Practices (BMP’s), which are structural and vegetative measures designed to reduce erosion and the resulting sedimentation that occurs during land disturbing activities. BMP’s include: down-drain structures, grade stabilization structures, sediment barriers (such as silt fences, hay bales and rip-rap), buffer zones and mulching. Among the various measures, the manual repeatedly mentions sensible planning and the immediate application of ground cover as the best methods to prevent sedimentation. The beginning of this summer was marked by periods of moderate rainfall. While passing along highway 76 during this time, one could not help but notice the Kingwood grounds riddled with deep ditches eroding away the steep slopes that had been cleared several weeks before. In particular, one prominent hillside exhibited deep gullies rushing with fine clay materials unimpeded by measures (BMP’s) to arrest the erosion. Chechero Creek receives this burden when it crosses under highway 76 and passes through the bottomlands that will eventually become the forward greens of the development. Upon leaving the property, Chechero passes back under highway 76 to the east and winds its way toward Stekoa Creek. From there the sediment suspended in the creek flows into the Chattooga River and is carried down to Lake Tugaloo. During these periods of rain, citizens contacted the CRWC office to report mud-laden waters flowing into the Chattooga at its confluence with Stekoa Creek, stating it was "the worst" they had "ever seen." The local issuing authority for Rabun County is the County Marshall, who was notified as soon as it became apparent that the golf course was depositing large amounts of sediment into Chechero Creek. Soil and Water Conservation officials and the EPD were contacted as well. These authorities’ responses were varied. State officials maintain that ultimately, the Rabun County Marshall is responsible for enforcing Rabun County’s Erosion and Sedimentation Control Ordinance. In that regard, one EPD official remarked that sedimentation was not the top priority. This sort of attitude pervades the bureaucratic web that exists to administer the erosion and sedimentation laws of this state. As a consequence of a recent complaint, a committee of officials from the various agencies concerned made a site visit. After walking the property and documenting "issues," they made recommendations to Mssrs. Williams and Lovell. Curiously enough, these recommendations were in fact conditions of the permit from the beginning. In addition, having recognized the fact that much sediment had entered Chechero Creek, one of the remedies this group managed to contrive was to have the sediment in the creek "removed with shovels." If the agencies actually intended for that to be done, tee time at Kingwood would be delayed for decades as Mr. Williams and his crews labored to remove the tons of sediment which were placed in the various creeks, rivers and reservoirs downstream from the development. The most recent rain event this summer confirms the fact that the erosion problems at Kingwood are continuing. An attorney from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reacted with disbelief when confronted with the data we collected from Chechero Creek. At various stages throughout particular rain events, water samples were collected and analyzed by standardized and certified methods that measure the Total Suspended Solids (TSS) in the stream. The resulting data from these samples indicates that 70 to 90 percent of the sediment in the stream came from the golf development. Later in the conversation with the EPA attorney, he asked if the figures for TSS were in the thousands of milligrams per liter (mg/l), an indication that a stream is heavily impaired. He was dismayed when we informed him that the figures were well over 10,000 mg/l at the peak of many rain events. On entering this property, Chechero Creek is by no means a virgin mountain stream, a fact that makes these figures even more staggering. All the bureaucrats from the state and local agencies have maintained all along that the developer was not in violation of his site plan, but had only "made a few errors along the way." The concerned EPA attorney said what we had thought all along: "The site plan and variances are not the issue at all, the sediment in the waterways is." Our quest to find a solution to the problems that the redevelopment of Kingwood have brought to the water quality of the Chattooga River began on June 28,1999, when we filed an official complaint with the EPD. Countless phone calls and letters have been directed at every agency concerned with water quality on a state and federal level. For at least six weeks following our initial request for intervention from the EPD, the graded hillsides at Kingwood remained bare with little or no erosion prevention methods present. Since then, every site visit that occurred has prompted the appearance of more silt fences and sod; eventually, the site began to look much as it should have all along. In the end, our efforts did not result in the administrative enforcement that we had hoped for. The administrative compromise that resulted led to a weak application of the erosion and sedimentation laws, which will plague the waters of the Chattooga for decades to come. |