Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I live in conway SC and behind our houses there is a canal. this canal was dug with the intent to connect to the waccamaw river and that plan was scraped so they now call it a drainage ditch. it has 2 ends and doesn't flow untill it is over full, then it spills over into the drainage ditch along the road. In the survey for my property it's called an easment. With this being said the neighbor who lives on pitch landing rd pumps water out of the canal in to a pond on his property drying up the canal killing the fish in it that we stock in it. The back end of the canal butts up to wetlands.I thought it was not legal to put a fence in a body water that is shared by others let a lone pump the water from it. any help on this matter would be helpful..thanks
Contact the appropriate authorities -- some areas have conservation / natural resources officers to police this sort of thing beyond the normal zoning officials.
yeah this sounds illegal in several different ways, although state law varies. the local jurisdiction (town, township, etc.) would be a good place to start.
Not only may it be illegal, but it may also violate the terms of your easement thereby giving you recourse for a civil suit for damages (the cost of the fish). HOWEVER, you need to do 3 things:
1. READ YOUR DEED - specifically the easement.
2. Contact your local fish and wildlife dept: 800-277-4301
3. Hire a lawyer
Of course, you could also tell your neighbor you are unhappy with him killing your fish by draining the ditch and ask him to stop. If you read your easement (it might be "of record" meaning filed in the town hall at the Recorder of Deeds Office), and it states that the ditch cannot be divided or emptied, you could give him a copy showing him exactly how he is violating that agreement.
More than likely it is illegal and he may get into trouble with local and/or state authorities. Definitely report the situation to your local authorities first rather than go with the lawsuit, which means everyone loses but the lawyers.
start with who owns the land...
and if privately owned... what easements or covenants exist.
If publicly owned (town? state? Corps of Engineers?)... drop a dime.
The canal is on the back part of everyones property who owns a house on the east sid of the road. It is a subdivison that never became. I mean after the builder could not go foward with his palns to connect to the river he scrap the project so people could buy the remaining plots and build what ever they wanted. the road is still private and the problem doesn't live in the so called sub. if you google steamer trace rd conway sc you can see the canal and the pond that gets filled by canal. as for the covenants they are no more, it has been over 25 years and they ended. and we have no HOA.
While "covenants" may have expired, sometimes "restrictions of record" are placed on the property before subdivision and these restrictions - if there are any - will follow the land in perpetuity in most cases. It would behoove the owners to take a trip to the Recorder of Deeds office and try to find out that information. It is more than likely reflected on the deed with these words: "subject to restrictions of record" but I have seen deeds where the words were left off while the restrictions still follow.
There is also another way that restrictions are placed on real property and that is with zoning.
Of course, one can sit and speculate all night into tomorrow, but without doing a land search, one will never know for sure.
I may be blind and/or not looking at the right thing but in your photo is the "fence" you're referring to on the right side of the picture?
If that is what you are talking about that looks like a silt fence and is designed to keep crud from running into the main water stream.
Please correct me if I am wrong...
it is a silt fence. but all along the fence he has no trespassing signs and there is no crud in the water the canal as I call it is really a long pond. no water runs in or out of it except the water this guy pumps (steals)out of it into another pond on his property draining the canal and killing the fish
.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
