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Tyrone searching for answers at Lake Pendleton

By MICHAEL BOYLAN
mboylan@TheCitizenNews.com

Residents of the Lake Pendleton Homeowners Association in Tyrone have been concerned with silt in the upper end of Lake Pendleton, especially since the lake had been dredged fairly recently. The homeowners association approached the town of Tyrone with their concerns and Barry Amos, the town manager, began an investigation of Lake Pendleton, the two tributaries that feed into it and the three construction sites adjacent to the tributaries: the Dublin Downs subdivision, the Millbrook subdivision and the expansion of the Sandy Creek school complex.

Town attorney Brad Sears drafted a letter that was sent to the Fayette County Board of Education and Scarbrough and Rolader Development, LLC, citing Amos’ findings.

The letter states, “in the tributary from Handley Road which enters Lake Pendleton under Pendleton Drive we did find evidence of sediment in the creek. The only upstream development occurring is the Dublin Downs subdivision.”

The letter went on to state that there was no evidence of sediment in the area of the western fork, which is fed from the Millbrook subdivision area, but Amos stated in a recent interview that he now believes construction in the area may be contributing to the problem. The letter continued, stating the “northeastern fork did contain sediment and that the tributary, which begins in the Jenkins Road area, had construction at the Sandy Creek school complex going on and no erosion control measure were observed.”

According to Mike Satterfield, the facilities service director for the Board of Education, they had silt fence up during the initial phases of the construction project and that after receiving the letter from Tyrone their engineers did a thorough analysis of the situation, walking the creek and the tributaries.

“They took photos and completed a report, which showed that we weren’t contributing to the problem but that other developments were,” said Satterfield. He added that one reason he was certain the construction project at Sandy Creek did not contribute was because they had enlarged the detention pond at the school before beginning the project and that for silt to go from their project in to Lake Pendleton it would have to go through the detention pond first.

At the time Amos was interviewed, he had yet to receive a response from the developers at Dublin Downs. He said that the next step would be to get a soil scientist to do a study of the area.

Silt in Lake Pendleton is a concern because it could partially block culverts and becomes a safety concern if there is flooding.

Erosion control has been added to Tyrone’s agenda for their town council meeting, which will take place Thursday at 7 p.m.