Posted by Christine Odiaga (66.51.83.131) on September 11, 2002 at 11:36:16:
The Wakefield Brook is widely considered to be a perennial stream. It floods dramatically in the area where a 142 unit cluster development has recently been proposed. The developer's engineer is claiming that it's intermittent because it shows up on USGS as a light blue line and he's seen it dry. There are extensive deposits of road sand, so in some places, the water moving through the waterway is obscured by the sand bar when there hasn't been recent rain. Also, debris at certain culvert grates makes water back up so that a couple specific downstream areas have limited flow, then you factor in the road sand....
I'd like to know of Commissions that have sucessfully rebutted a similar claim. Can the Commission take the stance that their collective knowledge of that brook is that it's perennial, and thus put the burden of proving that it isn't on the applicant?