Environmental agencies may take enforcement measures

By TOM KANE

INDIAN ORCHARD, PA — A major storm struck the Home Depot construction site on Route 6 on August 8, causing storm water to gush over the steep earthen embankment. The muddy waters flowed into the unnamed tributary before it inundated the nearby Holbert Creek, which spewed muddy waters into the Lackawaxen River. The scenario repeated itself following a violent thundershower on August 14.

“Contrary to what appeared in the papers, we did not have a mudslide,” said Anthony Strazzella, project manager for R.I Spencer, the company doing the excavating work.

The RI Spencer Company is the contractor at the new Home Depot site next to WalMart, and the Leeward Construction Company of Honesdale is the subcontractor doing the work.

Strazzella admitted that a great deal of soil erosion occurred during a rainstorm where nearly four inches of rain fell last Monday afternoon.

“This amount of rainfall happens rarely,” he said.

Strazzella said that the irrigation ponds that collect runoff were completely inundated by the flood caused by the downpour and failed to control it.

Strazzella explained that Leeward is building terraces and installing specially designed trenches and flow ponds that will better control any storm water runoff in the future.

Environmental agencies step in

David Mitchell, resource conservationist of the Wayne County Conservation District, said that his agency may take enforcement measures against Spencer and Leeward.

The construction companies were warned last year at public meetings held by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection and the Wayne County Conservation District that measures had to be taken to insure against pollution of local waterways. A similar situation had arisen when Leeward constructed WalMart at the same location in late October 2001.

“An erosion control plan was in place early on in the project,” Mitchell said. Construction companies don’t always follow these and they tend to take short-cuts, he said. He would not comment if these companies took shortcuts.

“We are all going to meet at the site tomorrow [Wednesday, August 17] for a final discussion and inspection,” Mitchell said. “We will decide then whether enforcement is appropriate.”

The county conservation district has no enforcement powers but passes on their recommendations to the state DEP.