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Discussion Forum

Geotechnical report?

| Posted in General Discussion on April 12, 2000 01:51am

*
“Declare” a wetland? Not quite…thats from the fear & loathing of government lingo I think. I can’t provide a thorough answer, but the drill is something like this:

Depending on what the water retention of the soils are, and the indicator species presents, the wetland (which is actually there, not just “declared”) is classed (I, II or III if I remember correctly). One level is usually under local jurisdiction, the next under state control, the last under Army Corps of Engineers.

Approved septic or not, depending on the class you may or may not have to deal with various paperwork. Pain in the rear? Yup, sure could be.

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Replies

  1. hotsawdust | Apr 12, 2000 04:06am | #8

    *
    I realize this subject raises a lot of hackles in the "its my land I can do what I want with it" camp. However the widespread draining, bypassing and development of wetlands has led to numerous consequences. Even if you think all the species in these areas aren't worth much, destruction of wetlands is thought to be a large factor in the increase in major floods in the last decade.

    I live on a hunk of land which is about 30% swamp and other sections are transitional wetland. I may not have known it was wetland when I bought it, but it still was. It didn't just suddenly get "declared" into existence when they did the survey.

    It is what it is.

  2. Guest_ | Apr 12, 2000 04:18am | #9

    *
    Right, they didn't make it a wet land when the "declared" it as such. The just made it worthless, unusable, and took away your right to your property when the "declared" it a wetland.

    The land is the same, the right to it was changed.

  3. Hawkeye_ | Apr 12, 2000 05:12am | #10

    *
    Government has been taking away property rights for years. Usually its simply called zoning. The view that real estate should be used as the owner desires is defunct and is not coming back. I do agree that dealing with the governments (more than one, and frequently inconsistent or contradictory) on this issue may be difficult, but there are things that can be done, such as restoring adjacent wetlands to make up for the area that is lost. You may want to find a knowledgeable attorney, but make sure he/she is experienced in this area as attorneys are expensive to educate.

  4. Guest_ | Apr 12, 2000 05:19am | #11

    *
    >"attorneys are expensive to educate."

    Can I get a 'witness' !!!

    1. Guest_ | Apr 12, 2000 12:55pm | #12

      *Reminds me of a guy I heard speak at a conference one time. He was a big shot with a large lumber supplier. He said that due to environmental laws and restrictions, people were going out with a shotgun and killing and spotted owls and/or other endangered species on their land so that no one would find those critters and keep them from harvesting the timber.

      1. Guest_ | Apr 12, 2000 02:43pm | #13

        *Wetlands legislation is all about preservation and feathering the nests of buearucrats....thirty years ago, the largest agency for the destruction of the tidal and inland waterways and wetlands saw that they were going ot be out of a job.The Army Corps of Engineers then started a jurisdictional grab...when congress first passed the legislation to protect wetlands, it only pertained to 10 acre parcels or less, and the Corps of Engineers let the States administer it ..then the states started to build their own buearacracy , they staffed their enviornmental agencies with biologists and lawyers, and got the state enabling legislation changed so they now had jurisdiction over threee acre parcels..recently , a lot of the legislatures have deccided to give jurisdiction over one acre parcels.......i can look out my window and see a HOUSE LOT on a quiet street with town water and town sewer, asphalt paved street, surrounded by houses, there is a drainage ditch with a brook running thru it that runs along the back of ALL the house lots...the owner of this one tried for seven years to get a permit to build a house just like his neighbors, the DEM lawyers and biologists got a ruling from the court that this 75 ft x 150 ft lot was a wetland and unbuildable.... this with exactly the same conditions as the other twenty houses on the street...here in the original thirteen colonies, you can walk thru the woods and see the historical use of the land..it's history is written in the stone walls...they didn't build stone walls in swamps, they built them around fields that were plowed and cultivated for three hundred years... when the farming stopped, the fields grew up into brush, roads were cut in and the natural drainage changed... some areas were flooded.. but if the natural drainage were restored, the same land would again be tillable...the legislaures and congress are not interested in justice for the landowners.. nor are they interested in preserving wetlands.. they are interested in building large buearacracies of other lawyers and biologists and the only justification for their existence is micromanaging private property that was subdivided a hundred years ago...when the Corps of Engineers , the state Department of Enviornmental Management, and the Coastal Councils start arguing over who is going to adminster the land management.... the private property owner no longer stands a chance....roll it back to ten acre parcels if you want to give some meaning to the laws....and if you are truly interested in preserving wetlands...Kermit

        1. Guest_ | Apr 13, 2000 12:16am | #14

          *CannIgedda 'RIBBETTT!!!!"

          1. Guest_ | Apr 13, 2000 01:45am | #15

            *last frog out ... turn out the lights and drain the pondPogo

          2. Guest_ | Apr 13, 2000 03:38am | #16

            *About 6 yrs ago I decided to reforest about 5 acres of my farm. At that time, there was a subsidy program that would have paid for 1/2 the expense of the planting costs including site prep. However, to get that money, I would have had to file a farm plan and let them get their fingers in my business. Under the existing criteria at the time, soil saturates and water puddles on the surface after a hard rain (and we get hard rain here all winter), vegetation etc.,nearly every tillable acre of the Willamette Valley is technically a wetland. I decided to let them keep their money and planted my trees with mine.JonC

  5. Guest_ | Apr 13, 2000 03:40am | #17

    *
    What is a geotechnical report and why would I need one. I have an approved septic design. Can the government come onto your property and declare wetlands?

    1. Guest_ | Apr 12, 2000 01:33am | #1

      *> Can the government come onto your property and declare wetlands? Don't know, but my money is on "yes".Rich Beckman

      1. Guest_ | Apr 12, 2000 01:44am | #2

        *I do know, and the answer is still yes.

        1. hotsawdust | Apr 12, 2000 01:51am | #3

          *"Declare" a wetland? Not quite...thats from the fear & loathing of government lingo I think. I can't provide a thorough answer, but the drill is something like this:Depending on what the water retention of the soils are, and the indicator species presents, the wetland (which is actually there, not just "declared") is classed (I, II or III if I remember correctly). One level is usually under local jurisdiction, the next under state control, the last under Army Corps of Engineers.Approved septic or not, depending on the class you may or may not have to deal with various paperwork. Pain in the rear? Yup, sure could be.

          1. Guest_ | Apr 12, 2000 02:09am | #4

            *Dunno about all them fancy words you have for it, but a friend of mine just sold his property because the government decided that a large portion of it is wetland, and that he could do nothing with it. 'Declared' or 'just there' is semantics. It was not considered a wetland until he had his septic plan already approved, (several thousand dollars), and they came in and decided that it was wetland.Whats more, they charged him boocoo bucks for thier 'study', and wouldn't let him sell the property for more than 3 years..

          2. Guest_ | Apr 12, 2000 02:34am | #5

            *Fellers, this ain't soundin too good. Wonder if a guy could play around with the lay of the land to make it pass inspection?

          3. Guest_ | Apr 12, 2000 03:34am | #6

            *There are, I believe, lots of types of geotechnical reports. May I ask, what government agency wants the report, and what is the report to cover? In my area, for instance, we must have a soil analysis (a type of geotechnical report) to determine the design of residential footings, since we must deal with shrink/swell soils. The soil anlaysis is necessary to obtain a building permit. This doesn't stop us from building, although the expense rises, and it takes longer to obtain the permit.Maybe things are not as bad as they seem... Steve

          4. Guest_ | Apr 12, 2000 03:55am | #7

            *You're thinking now! There are better times of the year for inspection and time enough to eliminate certian types of vegatation and to landscape and reseed, but you're doomed if it adjoins a suspect area etc... But your concern may be for not.Meet ya in a dark alley and discuss................This may be of help, depending on your location>http://terraserver.microsoft.com

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