Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutApp. E. - 2014 Cover Letter 04-24-2020 VAUGHN Environmental Services 406-586-6909•Cell:406-581-0655•bvaughn@montana.com 8353 Saddle Mountain Road •Bozeman,Montana 59715 Attn: Todd Tillenger US Army Corps of Engineers Helena Regulatory Office 10 West 15'h Street,Suite 2200 Helena,Montana 59626-0014 March 21,2014 Dear Todd, The following letter summarizes details of the meeting between you, Greg Stratton, and Barbara Vaughn, conducted on March 14, 2014, in Helena, Montana. The meeting was convened to address issues associated with the man-made overflow channel that flows from south to north through the west half of the Wing Lake property located in the north half of Section 9,Township 2 South, Range 5 East, Gallatin County, Bozeman, Montana. This information is beingr provided to you at your request to document the site hydrology, permit history, channel development, engineering solutions, and historical site conditions for inclusion in the Valley West and Norton East 404 permit files. This information will be used to respond to any questions or complaints by third parties regarding fill work in wet areas and to document the hydrological, physical, and regulatory history of these subdivisions for interested parties in the present and future. The history of the development of the channel was documented at the meeting through the use of historic and recent aerial photographs, master plan layouts, and wetland delineation maps drafted as part of the plat submittals for the Valley West(USACE Reference Number NWO-1998- 90014-MTH) and Norton East Ranch (USACE Reference Number NWO-2007-01084-MTH) Subdivisions. The information included the 1994 wetland delineation map (drafted in 1998) for Valley West Subdivision that showed the existence of a wetland swale extending north from the south property boundary of the Wing Lake parcel to Durston Road (Figure 1.0). The description in the January 1998 Wetland Delineation Report compiled by Wetlands West for the swale identified as W-2 (E) states that"No soil pit was excavated in region W-2(E)due to the nature of the area. It was dominated by redtop (FAC) and was considered to be an agricultural swale area that exhibited marginal wetland characteristics. It was mapped only for informational purposes; this area is the location of the proposed lake. No wetland hydrology was present. Historic aerial photos again show that at one time this area may have had sufficient artificial hydrology to support a dominance of hydrophytic vegetation(MRCS maps 1954 and 1965)." The 2006 wetland delineation map for Norton East also showed that there was no wetland or surface wa ter connection between the Norton East property to the south and the Wing Lake property to the north (Figure 2.0). Wetland W-5 identified on Norton East property terminated at the boundary and was,therefore,classified as isolated and non jurisdictional for USACE purposes. The enclosed photographs from 2007 show the upland area that existed between the two properties after construction of the Valley West gravel pit and before the development of the Norton East Property(Photos 1 to 3). 1 i j In early summer 2010, groundwater from dewatering activities on Norton East Ranch was discharged overland. The water flowed downgradient to the Valley West property and inundated the trees and shrubs planted for mitigation on the Wing Lake perimeter in fall 2009. A channel was excavated on Wing Lake property in summer 2010 by Sime Construction on behalf of Norton East to redirect the surface water flow around the west lobe of Wing Lake to the borrow ditch located on the south side of Durston Road. The borrow ditch drains through a culvert to the Aajker Creek Tributary, which was restored for mitigation for Laurel Glen Subdivision. Construction activities on Norton property included a permitted fill of an historic agricultural drain that contained flow from an underground the drain. Overflow from the swale discharged to a ditch located west of Baxter Creek. Water in the ditch was directed through a headgate to Baxter Creek. A second underground rile drain was exposed during construction in 2013. The installation of the file drains by the previous land owner to facilitate crop production ' was recorded at the Department of Natural Resources and Conservation(DNRC). The additional surface water from the broken rile drains currently flows overland year-round through the non- jurisdictional wetland(W-5) on the Norton property across the property boundary to the channel excavated on the Wing Lake property in 2010. The channel overflow has inundated a majority of the land located west of the west lobe of Wing Lake preventing development of the property without implementation of an engineering solution to contain and redirect the surface water to another location. Figure 3.0 shows the current location of the overflow channel and surface water located on the west half of the Wing Lake parcel. The 404 permit file administered by the USACE for Valley West Subdivision including Win Lake r - _I� reference number NWO 1998- 0014 g 9 MTH, was closed in August 2013. The file closure letter documented that all the permitted fills were completed by the November 2010 permit expiration date and that the mitigation monitoring was completed within the required timeframe. You stated during the meeting that the existence of the channel and inundated areas west of the lake were neither the fault nor responsibility of the current owners of Wing Lake,American Bank. j You also stated at the meeting that based on the information provided to you, the channel was excavated in an area previously established as upland as evidenced by the 1994 Valley West and 2006 Norton East wetland delineations, subsequent aerial photographs, and the six-foot difference in the hydrostatic elevation between the lake surface and adjacent upland(Photo 4). I Potential solutions to the problem were presented at the meeting to determine any USACE permitting issues. The Gallatin County Conservation District (GCD) that administers the 310 permit system determined in 2013 that the overflow channel was not a perennial stream and did not come under their jurisdictional authority. The optimum solution for the owners of Wing Lake and the most effective solution from an engineering standpoint would be to capture the groundwater in a file drain at the south end of the Norton East property and to pipe it in a solid pipe to the ditch that parallels Baxter Creek north of West Babcock Street within the Norton property. The ditch is currently dry. This action would likely require an extension of the 404 permit obtained in 2009 by Kevin Spencer of the Norton East Ranch. That 404 permit file, reference number NWO-2007-01084-MTH, has not been closed. Enhancement of the non- jurisdictional wetland W-5 via the planting of trees and shrubs has been completed on the south half of the wetland. Trees and shrubs have not been 1 p anted on the north half of the wetland bordering the Wing Lake parcel. Mr. Spencer would be responsible for any permits and any costs incurred. The intent of piping the excess groundwater before it reaches the Wing Lake parcel would be to eliminate the water source from entering the property. Once the water on the Wing Lake property dries up, the site would revert to the post-construction upland conditions that existed in 2009. Based on the 2 current preliminary concept plan for Wing Lake, the area west of the west lobe is slated for lot development. The development on Wing Lake could then proceed without a 404 permit. At the meeting, you brought up the fact that the USACE has some legal recourse to enforce the piping option on the Norton property. Under(2) (c)of the section titled FURTHER INFORMATION on the Norton USACE Individual Permit,item(2)Limits of this(permit)authorization states that"(c) This permit does not authorize any injury to the property or rights of others." You stated that your agency intended to explore the authority of the USACE regarding non-compliance issues for the Norton East Ranch Subdivision based on this stated limit and on the lack of completion of mitigation and monitoring by the required permit expiration date. Corrective options that could be completed within the boundaries of the Wing Lake property were discussed with you should the owners of the Norton East property either be unwilling or unable to proceed with the corrective action described in the previous paragraph by a specified deadline. The onsite options would entail collecting the water at the south Wing Lake property boundary and then piping it to either Baxter Creek or the Aajker Creek Tributary that flows north of Durston Road through Laurel Glen Subdivision. The primary limiting factors would be whether the grade was sufficient and whether the pipe would cross mitigation wetlands, protected upland buffer, or the City watercourse setback. Greg Stratton indicated a potential solution would be to install the pipe within the roadway located west of the west lobe through the ! open space corridor to the Aajker Creek Tributary. The piping option with the discharge point to Baxter Creek would likely be more problematic as a result of insufficient grade and the proposed alignment through a protected mitigation area. You stated at the meeting that the onsite collection and piping of the overflow would revert the flooded land to its previous upland state and would not require an additional 404 permit based on the information provided to you at the meeting. Please contact me should your regulatory office decide to take non-compliance action against Mr. Spencer. I assisted Mr. Spencer in obtaining his 404 permit and I would like to keep him apprised of his options. Thank you for your prompt attention by convening the meeting in such a timely manner. If you have any questions,please do not hesitate to contact me at 581-0655 or bvaughn(&montana.com. Sincerely, Barbara Vaughn Environmental Engineer,MS Cc. American Bank Greg Stratton Attachments: Figure 1.0—1994 Valley West Wetland Delineation Map Figure 2.0—2006 Norton East Ranch Wetland Delineation Map Figure 3.0—2011 Aerial Photograph showing overflow channel Photos 1 to 4: Photographs of site conditions before and after construction of Wing Lake 3 _ z ��w MW Photo 1. The photo shows the gravel pit in 2007 from the south looking northeast. Note upland area in foreground located north of south Valley West boundary. Photo 2. The view is looking south at non jurisdictional W-5 on Norton East property in 2007 prior to development from Wing Lake property. 4 Photo 3. The photo was taken looking south at Norton East parcel from swale W-2(E)area on Win Lake arcel in 2007. Note resence of smooth brome. Photo 4. The photo was taken during Wing Lake monitoring in 2011.Note elevational difference between lake surface and base of spoil pile located between Wing Lake and Norton East. Overflow channel is located south of spoil pile and west of Wing Lake. 5 i BAXTER CREEK& RIPARIAN COR IWOR IIETl%NDS _ - u _ UPLAND `+ 2(t) GRAIN FIELD (4.374 AC) W-4 W- SPRING FED .8 C UPU WETLANDS (0.113 AC) PAST UPLAND PASTURE Figure 1.0 Map shows dry wetland swale W-2(E)in October 1994 identified on future Wing Lake parcel. 6 NORTON PROPERTY BEING A PARCEL OF LAND LOCATED IN THE SE1/4NW1/4, SW1/4NE1/4, E1/2SWI/4, W1/2SE1/4 IN SECTION 9 T29, R5E, PAN, GALL4T1N COUNTY, MONTANA dUPSTON' ?+ 4k ETLrJd D J4 Y tJC?PJ-JURISDICTIONr',L l� WETLrJ,10 #3 x ! JURISDICTI01'JAL ', EfLAND PaOrV—JUP,i lQI; �:r� WEST BABCOCK STPEET 4 WETLAND #2 ' .NON -JUP.ISDICTIONAL WON N PPt�PEPTY o p€3UNDA.R( d a: 0 0 D C: BiLLiOhJ u UTCS PLAZ4 FFINE LANE ' k BROOM I NQKfCl�PR�[TY c W�'n "'"' fM�lYlw i'il�Tl bIAI�CllEt7�N Figure 2.0 Map of Norton Property in 2006 showing non jurisdictional Wetland#5 and Valley West gravel pit prior to construction of Wing Lake and Norton East Ranch Subdivision. Agricultural drain that was permitted to be filled is shown as the diagonal red line connected to Baxter Creek. 7 j c "mac. � �'- •. _ L� T 1 tG f �. �Ox- - z-F s7,t I r' w , A Y _