Bradley subdivision residents face polluted creek with little help

CLEVELAND, Tenn. -- Deanna Bryant used to take her children down to Wilkinson Creek to wade in the water and search for wildlife. Now she keeps them as far away as possible.

"It used to be clean and clear; you could see to the bottom of the creek," she said. "We haven't seen the bottom of that creek in years."

Mrs. Bryant is one of many residents in Bradley County's Royal Oaks subdivision searching for a solution to pollution from a leaking and unlicensed sewage pump station that serves the Peachtree Pointe mobile home park.

Tests by the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation found high levels of coliform bacteria from human waste downstream of the station.

Neighbors say it wasn't so much of a problem before beavers moved in.

When two colonies began constructing dams near the subdivision, residents watched as the creek seeped over its banks into yards, devastating the landscape.

With the flooding came a stench, neighbors said.

"It's almost humiliating. It's embarrassing to have the opening to our subdivision look and smell so distasteful," Mrs. Bryant said.

Barbara Gilbert said that after she moved from Atlanta to Royal Oaks to retire, she decided to investigate the source of the problem on behalf of the community.

"I've only been in Cleveland for the last 10 months, but for the last nine and a half months I've been taking care of civic issues," she said.

The pumping station's owner, Jerry Jacobson, of Dana Point, Calif., ignored a notice of violation issued in 2004, according to TDEC files. Earlier this month, TDEC sent him a second notice of violation and warned he could be fined up to $10,000 a day.

Mrs. Gilbert and other residents from the subdivision attended a County Commission meeting last week to speak about the matter.

Had Mrs. Gilbert not moved in, the county still would be ignoring the situation, Mrs. Bryant said.

"They have known for the entire time that this system's not working," she said. "They have sent notices and nothing's been done and no one has tried to solve it. ... No one seems to have really cared."

The district's county commissioner, Jim Smith, said in a telephone interview Saturday that because the beavers are on private property, the county has no authority in the matter.

"I don't know if it's ever been proven that anything is leaking out of that pump," Mr. Smith said, adding that the state is "not very aggressive" when it comes to following up with violators who live out of state.

He said the county probably could condemn the pumping station because it is consumed by repair problems that nobody is willing to resolve.

County Commissioner Louie Alford said Saturday that communication has been difficult.

"The biggest problem is that we can never get in touch with most of the property owners. Most of them live out of state; in fact one lives in the Virgin Islands," Mr. Alford said.

Meanwhile, Mrs. Gilbert said heavy spring rains have worsened the problem. The creek has flooded the only access road to the subdivision's nearly 200 homes and devoured 10 lots, mutating grassland into swampland.

Local landowner John Lombard said he repeatedly has torn down beaver dams on his property in the past year. The beavers also destroyed several of his landscaped trees, he said.

Mr. Smith said he put residents in contact with a trapper who gave an estimate of about $1,200, but that residents would have to pay the cost.

Mrs. Gilbert said she suspects the total cost to remove the beavers, the dams and the vegetative growth will run substantially higher, close to $6,000.

Now the still water has become a breeding ground for mosquitoes.

"The mosquito population is horrid," Mrs. Bryant said. "I don't know everything mosquitoes can carry, but I sure hope they can't carry E. coli."

Mrs. Bryant, who has lived at Royal Oaks for 12 years, said she never saw a snake there until this year. Recently, three have been spotted in her yard. One resident found a snake in her air conditioning vent, Mrs. Gilbert said.

Landowner Barry DeLong said the group is being "stonewalled."

"They don't want to do anything about it. I can't understand why."

Mr. DeLong said he's seen dead fish floating in the creek, but he figures that only a threatened species could get the state's attention.

"If I put my diving gear on, doused myself with disinfectant, and found a variant of the snail darter or something like that, then somebody would sit up and take notice," he said.

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