To concerned parties,

I have been blessed after a lifetime of hard work and saving to get to move to and live on Beautiful Smith Mountain Lake for my retirement years. For approximately the last year and a half, I have witnessed large amounts of sediment from a nearby development, Kennedy Shores, flow into Smith Mountain Lake during rain events. I personally witnessed on the deck of my home a massive sea of yellow mud flowing into Smith Mountain Lake from Kennedy Shores on February 11, 2108. The rain occurred on the night of February 10th and morning of February 11th. These dates were a Saturday and a Sunday. The development was not being monitored by the developer or any state or local agency during this major rain event. Since the February 2018 event, I have taken pictures after many other large rain events when the site continued to let silt flow into SML. I reported the initial event to the developer, DEQ, Franklin County, and AEP. The only agency that showed me any significant concern was the DEQ but I learned after viewing this event that the primary enforcer was supposed to be Franklin County.

As a follow up to my story above, I believe that sediment run-off should be the holy grail of concern under the Storm Water Permitting process. I also believe that the inspection process during and immediately after storm events needs to be beefed up substantially. With the Kennedy Shores property, I as a private citizen was often the only one inspecting the run off into the lake after storms. I believe that a self inspection process by the developer should be mandatory and it should be a process that would include pictures and scientific evidence that could be easily verified by the responsible inspection agency.

I also think that the enforcement process as it exists now is extremely broken. There is somewhat of a conflict of interest with the county that is welcoming development which will be providing them with a new tax base and monitoring the developer to make them comply with the regulations. You would think that the county would only want quality development in their county that would result in long term quality developments for a long term quality tax base. That is not what has seemed to be the case with what I have witnessed in the last year and a half in Franklin County. I have been reporting the obvious violations via pictures to DEQ, Franklin County, and AEP. I have asked in my emails for a response to what was going to be done to correct the violations. I received many responses from the DEQ, only once from Franklin County, and none from AEP. I believe that the DEQ should use their authority to step in and take over situations like I have witnessed where the local authority is either incapable or unwilling to use the authority that they have to force the developer to comply with the environmental regulations and laws.

I would appreciate any consideration you can give to improve the prevention of Sediment Run-off,

Charlie White

621 Montevista Rd.

Union Hall, VA 24176