Rehoboth Conservation Commission sets July 22 deadline for Rocky Run Brook farm compliance plan

REHOBOTH — June 17, 2014 — Rehoboth Conservation Commission sets July 22 deadline for manure management plan at Rocky Run Brook cattle farm. The commission spent the bulk of its June 17 meeting on an enforcement case at 83 Plain Street, where cattle paddocks built within the 200-foot riverfront area of Rocky Run Brook — which feeds Swansea's municipal water supply — are generating manure-laden runoff the commission says poses a contamination risk. Wetland scientist Brandon Fanniff, representing property manager Susie Lopes, presented aerial photographs showing a third to a half of an unpermitted north paddock falls within the outer riparian zone, and acknowledged that clean stormwater draining downhill from Plain Road is entering the paddocks and compounding the problem. Commissioners gave Lopes until July 22 to complete a manure management plan, assess whether the north paddock can be relocated outside the commission's jurisdiction, and propose a stormwater diversion measure — warning that failure to produce a plan would push the matter into formal Notice of Intent proceedings. In a separate action, the commission voted to refer a year-old enforcement order against property owner Vieira on Plain Street to the state Department of Environmental Protection after Vieira refused to remove an unpermitted driveway built in a resource area, with the chair citing precedent and fairness to applicants who had followed proper filing procedures.