(Des Moines, Iowa/Iowa Capital Dispatch) – State environmental regulators recently issued three fines for unabated soil erosion at construction sites that contaminated creeks in different parts of the state. The Iowa Capital Dispatch reports that according to three recent orders by the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, who levied the fines, “Sedimentation of Iowa’s waterways is a serious problem, and regulatory agencies have recognized that uncontrolled runoff is a significant contributor to these problems.” Two of the violations were noted at housing developments on each end of the state, and one was found at a sewer construction site in Ely, in eastern Iowa.
In March 2021, the DNR went to a Golden Hills development in Crescent after receiving a complaint about dust blowing from the site. It found sediment had discharged from a basin into a ditch that flows to Lapworth Creek, a terrace that had breached and that the site was missing multiple erosion controls, according to a DNR order. Within days, Golden Hills said it had repaired a silt pond and terrace, installed new terraces and put up about 600 feet of silt fence. But later that year, someone reported that a roadway had been flooded with silt from the site more than once and that the sediment had filled a highway ditch.
The DNR visited the western Iowa site three more times that year and noted that erosion controls were still inadequate. The department returned to the site in August 2023 and found that some of the erosion controls needed repair, sediment was still flowing off the site and there were areas that had not be stabilized. Golden Hills recently agreed to pay a $4,500 fine for the violations.
At a Century Heights development in Bettendorf, the DNR documented numerous deficiencies in soil erosion controls over the course of about seven months, according a DNR order. In December 2021, the DNR investigated the eastern Iowa site and found that a sediment basin that is meant to contain stormwater runoff had been partially dismantled and allowed runoff to flow toward Pidgeon Creek, which goes to the Mississippi River. It further noted that silt fencing had been overcome by sediment and that part of the fence had apparently been flattened by construction equipment, which had also been driven through the creek. In March 2022, the DNR found that work had been done to remedy the runoff problems, but that water discharges from the basin were flowing on unstable ground toward the creek. There was a plume of sediment in the creek.
In June 2022, the DNR documented numerous areas of silt fence that had been knocked down or driven over. Century Heights recently agreed to pay a $5,000 fine.
In Ely, the city failed for more than a year to adequately control stormwater runoff associated with a sewer construction site near a creek, according to a DNR order. Responding to a complaint about the situation, the DNR went to the site in January 2022 and found two silt fences covered in soil and discovered that no one had been inspecting the site for erosion problems. In February 2023, the DNR responded to another complaint and found that there were no erosion controls in place at the site and that sediment was going into a tributary of Hoosier Creek. The city recently agreed to pay a $4,000 fine.
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