Covered Bridge Road complaint

To ADEM;

Please accept the following complaint of behalf of Friends of Hurricane Creek and Hurricane Creek concerning an unnamed polluter on Co. road 59, 33°11'26.05"N    87°17'50.86"W Next to the shell station located at the “Brookwood exit”. It is located in a headwater, unnamed tributary to Little Hurricane Creek, under TMDL.

A large excavation located behind the Shell looks like it’s been in operation for some time now. There is no NPDES permit posted at the entrance and No BMPs except a few bare minimum, Home Depot type silt fences. This was reported to ADEM in July 2019 with no response or corrective action. ADEM has an obligation to insure sites like this one are permitted and comply with the conditions of said permit. So far this is a total failure by the developer and ADEM.

If there is a permit number registered for this site, I respectfully request ADEM forward me the number and take action up to and including, monetary penalty in an amount that reflects at minimum, 103 days of non-compliance that I have documented. This is to see that this site comes into complete compliance and pays the price for operating out of compliance with CWA regs. as well as well as all unpermitted activity.

In mid July I noticed the site was open and no permit placard to indicate the permit # or any registration at all. BMPs at that time were minimal and certainly not adequate to control such a large site. (Photo 02 and 2 a reflect the issues and time frame)

Photo 03 shows no BMPs as well as an unprotected fuel cell along with several discarded oil / hydraulic buckets that remain today.

Photo 04 shows a small section of inadequate Home depot type silt fences, which on 10/21/19 were failing to control the runoff. From this location the storm water leaves by way of a woodland behind the Shell truck stop next door. It enters a drainpipe there where it flows under the parking lot where it enters storm drains under the interstate. The receiving stream below I-59 is an unnamed tributary to Little Hurricane Creek, which is included in the Hurricane Creek T.M.D.L.

Photo 05 shows a complete lack of proper BMPs and a set of silt fences standing under water that makes no sense at all. Storm water from here travels across the site to the area where it enters the drain leading to I-59. Via the Shell parking lot.

Photo 6 shows the improperly stored fuel cell and discarded buckets still remaining.

Photo 07 shows the drainage area as of 11/02/19 and deep rills, silt fences under the mud, and offsite runoff to the Shell drain to Little Hurricane Creek trib.

Photo 08 shows the path of sediment leading away from the unpermitted site to where it enters the trib to Little Hurricane Creek.

Photos 09 -014 show the drainage downstream of the Shell and where it is leaving large sediment deposits as far as 2,000 feet downstream where I sampled.

This site is in chronic disrepair and depositing large amounts of sediment and turbid water and has been for months. It has been reported to ADEM previously but seems to have seen no enforcement action since. Please do your job and go out there and cite this developer. The lack of compliance by the developer is not surprising since ADEM doesn’t seem to take storm water issues seriously, which is absolutely inexcusable.

As of today, 11/03/19 there is no NPDES signage posted. If there is a permit for the site, please forward the permit # as previously requested and be sure there is a CBMPP attached or included. The very act of not posting the sigs is a violation, which needs to be addressed throughout the watershed.