Homeowner frustrated with construction overflow at lake

LAKE WYLIE, N.C. — A Lake Wylie homeowner says he's fed up with mud and sediment overflowing onto his property from a nearby construction site.

When Greg Daughtry bought his home on Lake Wylie seven years ago, he never expected the creeks on either side of it to wash mounds of sediment into the cove where it was built from a nearby construction site.

"It literally looks like class-five rapids," he said.

He said it's clogged up his irrigation system and reduced the depth of the water underneath his dock.

Sam Perkins, director of technical programs with the Catawba Riverkeeper, said he's heard from a lot of homeowners like Daughtry. He said the overflows can carry pollutants and hurt wildlife, and by filling in the cove, they also put boaters in danger.

"If you have shallow water, you're much more likely to have trees, limbs or rocks or anything else exposed that might ding a boat engine, a boat prop, and boat hull," Perkins said.

The city oversees erosion and sedimentation control at construction sites like the Bear Creek subdivision affecting Daughtry.

Daughtry said he's been asking the city to take action for years.

He said in March, they started talking about dredging the cove to remove some of the sediment.

"Nothing's happened," he said.

City of Charlotte Erosion Control Administrator John Geer said the developer is following the law by having silt fences up to catch the mud, but admits the measures are "probably at best 80 percent effective."

Geer said the city can push the developer, Standard Pacific, to file for cleanup permits and can enforce that with fines of up to $5,000 a day.

But he said they're waiting because only half of the homes have been built so far.

"We like to see the clean-up initiated after the majority of the homes are built because we don't want to see it done twice," he said. "Hopefully, here, by summer, we will be looking at taking care of the cleanup."

Daughtry said he's heard promises before and will believe it when he sees it.

"It always seems like there's some reason that it's not going to happen," he said.

WSOC