Population Growth
As developers and growth turn open fields into sprawling shopping centers and new neighborhoods, more lake communities downstream are finding their water clogged with silt and debris.
It’s a problem for lake residents, developers, and governments wherever big projects are built upstream from lakes.
Some communities are going to court to try to force developers to pick up the tab of making their watersheds clean.
Under the federal Clean Water Act, builders are supposed to trap silt in silt fences or ponds as it heads downstream, a job that should be relatively cheap and simple. The only problem is that it takes daily upkeep from the constant runoff from building sites.
July 6, 2006 7:07 AM | Category: Cleanup