UPDATE: New Kent County officials agree to $35,750 penalty for wetlands law violations

New Kent County officials have agreed to pay a civil penalty of $35,750 as punishment for violating state wetlands law when land was cleared near New Kent Airport.

An 18-page consent order details the violations and enforcement action taken by the state’s Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ). The county must pay $4,180 to the state within 30 days of the consent order going into effect.

The county then must satisfy the remaining $31,570 by submitting proof of purchase of 1.54 acres of wetland credits from a DEQ-approved wetlands mitigation bank, also within 30 days of the order’s effective date. The land slated for protection must be within the same watershed as the airport, thus assuring no net wetland loss.

New Kent Board of Supervisors chairman Thomas Evelyn signed the order on behalf of the county on Dec. 30. DEQ officials are not signing the agreement until a 30-day public comment period, that began on Jan. 28, has expired. The earliest the agreement could go into effect is Feb. 27.

DEQ began investigating the matter after receiving a complaint on Aug. 9, 2013 from a resident downstream from the airport concerning water in Kent Lake, located in the Woodhaven Shores subdivision, turning brown after rains.

The first inspection upstream from the lake took place Aug. 21, 2013. Inspectors found an area where land had been cleared. They reported “poor stabilization of the site” along with “poor maintenance of erosion and sediment controls” and failing erosion controls near a culvert. Sediment had escaped a containment area, flowing downstream into Toe Ink Swamp, and more sediment had been deposited in nearby forested wetland, they said.

The consent order findings noted that the county had secured a DEQ permit for land clearing and disturbing near the airport, but no permit from either DEQ or the Army Corps of Engineers existed that would allow impact to wetlands or surface waters. DEQ issued a notice of violation to the county on Dec. 17, 2013 and discussed the violations with county officials on that date.

On March 19, 2014, DEQ and county officials met at the airport for further inspection. DEQ officials discovered 0.35-acre of forested wetland had been cleared by the county. County officials said the work had been done to bring the airport into compliance with Federal Aviation Administration requirements for removing obstructions near airport runways.

“This activity resulted in the permanent conversion of forested wetlands to scrub-shrub wetlands,” according to the consent order. DEQ issued another notice of violation on April 4, 2014. The county, meanwhile, reported impact to another 0.44-acre at the site on May 29, 2014.

Talks between the two parties continued until last Nov. 24 when the county submitted a proposed “Supplemental Environmental Project” designed to compensate for 0.77 acres of wetland impacts along with an additional 0.77 acres of wetland mitigation. DEQ based its enforcement action on the county’s proposal.

New Kent county attorney Michele Gowdy declined comment, saying she preferred coordinating any response with outside counsel that assisted the county on the matter. That attorney, however, is unavailable due to a recent death in the family.