A rezoning request for a borrow pit at the intersection of Brigdon Road and Islands Highway, which drew much opposition from neighbors, has been approved by the Liberty County Board of Commissioners.

Tuesday’s approval came with a condition: that the Liberty County Development Authority write a letter to Claude Dryden stating that it would cooperate with him to address drainage issues.

Dryden, owner of Dryden Enterprises, applied to rezone the nearly 6 acres from single-family residential to agricultural district for the pit. The dirt from the pit will be for Dryden’s projects.

There was strong opposition, particularly from neighbors who cited drainage as a major concern.

Drainage plan

Trent Long of T.R. Long Engineering P.C., representing Dryden, told commissioners drainage will be direct. Water will be pumped into a basin to settle sediments to the bottom of the pit. Then water will flow into a ditch along Islands Highway, under the highway into a cross drain to another ditch in front of property owned by Jim Cooler and eventually onto Dryden’s adjacent property. From there, water will go onto land owned by the LCDA that was once used for timber harvesting, then north, under Sunbury Road and into a marsh. Long said that the water pump will not operate 24 hours a day.

“Mr. Dryden did agree to move that ditch onto his property. We would minimize the flow going across the neighbor’s property,” Long said. “… (We’ll) move it away from our adjoining neighbor so we’re not running water across his property to give him some relief. We’ll keep it open so it doesn’t back up and stand on our neighbor’s property because we don’t want to create a wetlands.”

Long said a state Environmental Protection Division representative has visited the site twice and is ready to issue a surface mining permit.

Paul Zechman, the county’s chief building official, was designated to monitor the issue. Long is the county engineer, but has also been working with Dryden on the project.

Long said there is a verbal agreement with the Development Authority for water to drain onto its property. Stevens and Commission Chairman Donald Lovette said there should be a written agreement with LCDA.  

Neighboring pits

Cooler said one of his properties, between Dryden’s and Martha Dykes’ property, has a large borrow pit that was turned into a lake. Cooler said this property started to lose trees when Dykes and her husband started a pit. He does not know if Dykes’ pit was the direct cause but said he does not want his trees next to Dryden’s property to die. Cooler took issue with the water that will enter the cross drain under Islands Highway and into the ditch in front of his property.

“It’s not a ditch. It’s a swell there,” Cooler said. “The engineer says that they’re going to divert the ditch over onto Mr. Dryden’s property. I’ve been shooting elevations for about two days now, and I don’t see how they can dig a ditch through the swamp and come back out that swamp and maintain the elevation in order to drain it in that area.”

Cooler said the side Dryden seeks to pump to is about 6-8 inches higher than where it is coming from.

“I’m not an engineer but I know that water does not flow uphill,” he said.

Cooler said he is retired after working construction for 43 years, which included storm and sewer systems. He said he walked a quarter-mile along the drainage route and found that the ditch no longer exists because brush has grown in the area. He added that he would be willing to walk through the area with Dryden and Long.

Dykes told commissioners that she thinks Dryden will have to constantly pump water because of the area’s high water table.

“My borrow pit was probably 50-60 feet deep, but even before we got half that depth, we had to have two pumps running,” she said. “You’ve got to keep pumps running 24/7 to keep the water down so you can dig and stockpile dirt.”

For her borrow pit, one pump was pumping 1,000 gallons per minute and a second 600 gallons per minute, she said.

“He doesn’t know how long he’s going to be digging there. He has a lot of projects that need a lot of dirt, so that tells me he’s going to be digging there for a while. And the more he digs in that pit, the deeper he goes, the more springs he’s going to hit, the more water that needs to be pumped,” she said.

Stevens said he was willing to table the issue for 30 days to give him a chance to look at the drainage issue with Long, Dryden and Cooler. Lovette then suggested that the issue be brought back at the commissioners’ mid-month meeting instead of 30 days. Stevens agreed and made the motion to table the petition. The motion failed for lack of a second.  

Commissioner Pat Bowen asked Dykes to clarify her reasons against the pit. Dykes repeated her concerns. Bowen said he still did not understand. The conversation went back and forth.

Commissioner Eddie Walden made a motion to approve the borrow pit. Lovette added that it should be approved pending a letter received from LCDA. The petition was approved 6-1, with Stevens opposed.

When the meeting adjourned, Dykes asked to make a statement to commissioners.

Neighbor belitted?

“I have been a taxpayer in this county for 48 years. I have never felt so humiliated and belittled by a group of peers as you all made me feel tonight,” Dykes said. “The only person who has taken me seriously was Marion Stevens. … I was not taken seriously nor was (Cooler) taken seriously. I am very offended.”

Bowen again said he still did not understand her complaint but that he had to trust the judgment of engineers and EPD saying that the drainage plan will work.

Commissioner Connie Thrift said, “I did drive down there but I have to leave it in the hands of our engineer, and they seemed like they crossed all the hurdles that they were supposed to and EPD, they’re going to police it.”

“If it doesn’t work, they have to bring it back to us,” Lovette said.

Dykes said she has seen people get away with violating EPD policy.

Walden tried to reassure Dykes that his decision to approve the petition was nothing against her personally.

“Mrs. Dykes, I’ve known you even before I ever sat on this board. I can tell you if it was Mr. Leonard Dykes (her late husband) sitting back there asking for a pit, I would’ve done the same thing for Leonard Dykes that I did for Claude (Dryden),” Walden said.

If it doesn’t work

Lovette said the commissioners made it clear that they do not want to see Cooler’s property adversely effected and will be hold county employees responsible to make sure it doesn’t happen. Lovette added that there was no intent to belittle her. Thrift told her to come back to the board if she sees a problem.

“If it was your property, would you want this water going across your property?” Dykes asked.

“Aren’t you going to feel bad if it works?” Bowen asked Dykes. “Aren’t you going to feel bad coming in here and telling us we belittled you and this project works? If it does now would you come back and apologize?”
Dykes said she would.

Lovette said, “We’re sorry about that, but that was not our intention to make you feel that way.”

Commissioner Gary Gilliard gave her his card to contact him if there are any problems.