Golf Course Runoff Concerns Raised
Sediment releases into Woods Creek from construction activity at the Lexington Golf and Country Club during three recent rain events are causing alarm among the creek’s protectors.
Citizens who have for years endeavored to improve the creek’s water quality are calling for a halt to the reconstruction of the golf course and facilities until more intensive measures can be put in place to stop the pollution. Rockbridge County did issue a partial stop work order in connection to the dewatering of a golf course pond following one of the rain events.
Peter Danaher, LG&CC superintendent, addressed the Board of Supervisors last Monday, Jan. 12, to inform the county and public that he and other golf course officials are “hyper-focused on protecting Woods Creek and the surrounding waterways that we are part of. We’re doing our best that when issues do arise, they’re addressed quickly. We’re taking additional measures to go above and beyond what [the Department of Environmental Quality] has required to ensure that the systems that are in place are the best that they can be.”
Several citizens who also addressed the supervisors last week asserted that the measures that have been taken to date are woefully inadequate to stop the sediment releases that are polluting Woods Creek and even reaching the Maury River.
“It’s important to note than none of the rain events were out of the ordinary for our area,” said Gretchen Sukow. “The total rainfall for each ranged from three quarters of an inch to a little over an inch with most of the rainfall coming over the course of a day. As I’m sure you’re aware, after the second event [on Dec. 25] our county issued a stop-work order and instructed the golf course to make a number of changes regarding the de-watering of the ponds to manage the runoff. I’m not a hydro-geologist and I don’t begin to understand all of the problems that are causing the sediment pollution but, apparently, whatever was done to manage the runoff was not enough since it happened all again [on Jan. 12].”
Deborah Woodcock said the sediment releases are “a serious matter for the county because the county has oversight over stormwater in conjunction with DEQ. So the county has to do much better to protect Woods Creek. We are expecting them to do that.
“There’s another serious problem with the golf course in the county which is that one of the conditions of the special exception zoning permit that was issued was that the golf course was required to do testing of wells on the golf course and on private property near the golf course,” Woodcock continued.
The results of that testing, she said, have not been made public, which is a condition of the SEP.
Barbara Walsh, a hydro-geologist long affiliated with Rockbridge Conservation, pointed out that all three rain events – on Dec. 19, Dec. 25 and Jan. 10 – were not unusual or of especially heavy precipitation amounts – as they were “less than half of the [National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration]’s expected one-year/24-hour storm, and not even a third of a typical two-year/24-hour design storm.”
She declared that “this is not just a sediment problem but a chemical contamination issue as well.” She cited the application of “forever chemical compounds” that have been applied to the golf course grass during reconstruction. Citizen monitors, she said, have observed “high turbidity” in the creek that is “clearly originating from the construction site.”
According to Walsh, “a project of this magnitude – on a site of over 100 acres –stormwater and erosion and sedimentation control must be addressed through site-specific, engineered systems, not simply residential-scale ‘best management practices’ such as silt fences. The proper approach is a comprehensive stormwater and E&S plan supported by engineering drawings, hydrologic and hydraulic data and calculations, and construction sequencing-designed for the volume, velocity and duration of runoff anticipated during construction such as a two-year/24-hour design storm.”
The developer, Walsh continued, “cannot simply continue to repair the existing controls that have failed repeatedly. After these ‘three strikes,’ work must be halted to put effective temporary stabilization in place. No work should continue until the developer has created an engineering plan with effective controls and monitoring in place.”
