Hey blogland.

I was going to post about Ranger today. Instead, I have to see if, in the collective blogland, someone knows someone or something about erosion or the EPA or environment and could help me.

See, just about 8 year ago, I bought my house. And, turns out, there was a really large pipe in the back yard. Like 30 feet long. And there is no permit. The EPA found out (thanks to a neighbor) because the township didn’t care about it.

We found someone to remove it. Then he fell off the face of the earth. Then January we found someone else, but we needed to find a neighbor’s property for access. This is hard when we’ve never met the neighbor’s (back up to us at the edge of our 4 acres) and you have to drive to get to their driveway so it’s about 2-3 miles to their house by car. I mailed a note, but never heard anything. The one guys wife died so that might have been it? The other property the owner doesn’t live on the premises and there are tenants. Plus there is a minor issue of a STONE WALL. But, evidently this is my problem. Do you all know how expensive it would be to remove a 100 year old stone wall?

But now we’ve waited too long. And they’re mad. Because I should never have listened to their advice. Or ended up in the hospital nor should my husband (it was a bad spring and summer with 2 day long ER stays and 3 weeks of still being sick for me). But, I angered the PTB because I can’t be slow but they can wait 4-5 weeks to respond to me or not respond at all…

Anyway, if we can find access (we’re going to try and locate the neighbor and/or send a certified letter), the excavator can remove it. But, now the EPA wants:

Erosion and Sediment Control Plan.

Erosion and Sediment Control Plan (or E&S Plan) is a site-specific plan consisting of both drawings and narrative that identifies methods which will be used to minimize accelerated soil erosion and sedimentation (deposition of soil) before, during and after earth disturbance activities.  It is a means to minimize the amount of soil (dirt) that could get washed into the stream during the excavation work that will be done during the removal of the pipe and boulder obstructions in the stream.

An E&S Plan could include methods such as a sandbag stream diversion, silt fence, filtersock, etc.  Whomever will be doing the work to remove the obstruction will be responsible for following the Plan.

Does anyone know who or how I get that done? Anyone have experience? Can anyone help me in anyway so I can stop have a nervous breakdown?