Developer Filling In PW County Wetlands in violation of Clean Water Act?

So, when I heard our Developer, MASAC, LLC (owned by Robert B. Hart) was planning another construction project on Neabsco Creek, just west of my neighborhood I had to wonder how he was permitted to fill in the wetlands to make a quick buck.  Specifically, how could he have built our neighborhood, the Wawa a block away, and now this new project while leaving the creek so damaged?

Well, it turns out, he simply didn't ask.  Our excellent civil servants in the Department of Environment Quality did an very thorough job of filling my Freedom of Information Act request and it turns out there were NO permits issued to MASAC, Robert Hart or DR Horton (our builder) for placing fill in a wetland related to any of these projects.  Unfortunately for them, per Wikipedia (which is a lot less wordy than the text of the Clean Water Act):
Under sections 301 and 502 of the Clean Water Act,^[35] any discharge of dredged or fill materials into "waters of the United States," including wetlands, is forbidden unless authorized by a permit issued by the USACE pursuant to section 404.^[36] Essentially, all discharges of fill or dredged material affecting the bottom elevation of a jurisdictional water of the U.S. require a permit from USACE. These permits are an essential part of protecting wetlands, which are often filled by land developers. Wetlands are vital to the ecosystem in filtering streams and rivers and providing habitat for wildlife.^[37]

Naturally, my next stop was to our site engineer at Prince William County Development Services (who should have all the required permits on file).  Interestingly, he could not answer my question and referred me to their "wetland staff".  I have not heard from them four days later (though, granted, it was a holiday weekend). 

I will assume MASAC is going to attempt to make the case that we do not live on a wetland.  If we temporarily disregard the reporting from multiple highly reliable sources that have lived across the street for the past 20 years, the soil under the fill in my yard should completely dispell this argument (I have been planting trees for the past week).  One I dig through the fill dirt, the soil becomes orange gley (indicating standing surface water, according to my research), sand, dark gray gley, sand, then polished small river rock.  All within 18-24 inches of the surface. 

The professional at DEQ who is helping me (who shall remain nameless, unless I recieve permission to name him) is planning on coming out to see the situation in the next few days.  I will keep you posted.

PW County Visit

So, last week I had the opportunity to meet with Assistant Environmental Engineer from Prince William County Timothy Hughes.   We had a good walk (other than me falling in the creek) and he took a lot of pictures and made some suggestions. 

The fantastic news is that it looks like the county is going to step up and help!  PW Public Works Environmental Engineer is currently working up a cost estimate to clean up the really big junk on the flood plain.  It will take some paperwork, but they are taking the right steps! 

Thank you Supervisor Frank Principi for getting all the balls rolling!  I'll be updating here as progress continues...

In the meantime I am researching natural ways to deal with excessive algae blooms...we have one on the creek that appears to be killing off the fish...