Post by Rich Fisher on Mar 14, 2018 8:48:33 GMT -4
Statement of Jay Falstad, Executive Director, Queen Anne’s Conservation Association (QACA), March 13, 2018
Re: Shut-Down of Four Seasons at Kent Island
Today I have been informed by Queen Anne’s County that the Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE) has stopped site work at Four Seasons on Kent Island. K. Hovnanian cannot proceed further until it develops a new Erosion and Sediment Control Plan for the project and obtains approval of the new Plan from the County.
QACA applauds this action by MDE.
Going forward, we urge the County to insist that K. Hovnanian present a Plan that will, unlike its current Plan, protect Macum Creek, the Chester River, and the Bay from further pollution by Four Seasons. Below is our drone image of the atrocious, avoidable pollution event in February:
(The attached QACA drone photograph shows a massive sediment plume in Macum Creek following the breach of a silt fence at the Four Seasons construction site in Chester.)
Yesterday QACA filed Public Information Act requests with MDE and the County to insure that citizens are fully informed about K. Hovnanian’s transgressions on Kent Island and the regulators’ responses to them.
What went wrong at Four Seasons on Kent Island, what is being done to penalize Hovnanian malfeasance and to prevent recurrences, what a proper Erosion and Sediment Control Plan for the site should require – these are not matters that should remain hidden behind closed doors, protected from the sunlight of citizen scrutiny.
The Bay restoration effort cannot succeed unless citizens know what’s going on and can make their voices heard. QACA is committed to advancing that democratic process.
Re: Shut-Down of Four Seasons at Kent Island
Today I have been informed by Queen Anne’s County that the Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE) has stopped site work at Four Seasons on Kent Island. K. Hovnanian cannot proceed further until it develops a new Erosion and Sediment Control Plan for the project and obtains approval of the new Plan from the County.
QACA applauds this action by MDE.
Going forward, we urge the County to insist that K. Hovnanian present a Plan that will, unlike its current Plan, protect Macum Creek, the Chester River, and the Bay from further pollution by Four Seasons. Below is our drone image of the atrocious, avoidable pollution event in February:
(The attached QACA drone photograph shows a massive sediment plume in Macum Creek following the breach of a silt fence at the Four Seasons construction site in Chester.)
Yesterday QACA filed Public Information Act requests with MDE and the County to insure that citizens are fully informed about K. Hovnanian’s transgressions on Kent Island and the regulators’ responses to them.
What went wrong at Four Seasons on Kent Island, what is being done to penalize Hovnanian malfeasance and to prevent recurrences, what a proper Erosion and Sediment Control Plan for the site should require – these are not matters that should remain hidden behind closed doors, protected from the sunlight of citizen scrutiny.
The Bay restoration effort cannot succeed unless citizens know what’s going on and can make their voices heard. QACA is committed to advancing that democratic process.