From the Center Post Dispatch (Teresa L. Benns):
Baca Grande property owner Terrell Tucker filed a civil lawsuit last August over construction of dams on Cottonwood Creek running through the Baca Grande Subdivision and now is considering a class action suit. According to Tucker, the Army Corps of Engineers (ACE) now apparently admits there was a violation of the Clean Water Act violation last year when a 75-foot long, 18-foot wide road was constructed on property owned by Chuck and Esther Grant adjacent to Tucker’s property. The almost seven-foot deep road was built by dredging an estimated 330 tons of earth from Cottonwood Creek, which runs through Tucker’s property and that of his neighbors, the Mathesons. Tucker and other property owners protested at that time that they had not been properly notified concerning the variance to construct the dam. Later another culvert was erected on Lot 183 in the subdivision.
The Mathesons and Tucker last year described the creek as “desecrated” by the road construction, noting that frogs, toads, lizards, ducks and other wildlife species have been adversely impacted by the dredging and the placement of the culvert. Tucker said the original POA covenants were established to, “preserve the natural environment and to encourage the protection of environmentally sensitive areas such as wetlands, wildlife corridors and stream beds.”
More Coyote Gulch coverage of the Rio Grande Basin here.