Saturday, April 4, 2015

Pinecrest Afloat: Filling Wetlands Floods Area, Fouls Water

Update, A NEW YEAR ::: January 26, 2017 ::::   STILL NO DRAINAGE!  Building of second luxury home inside development OK'd and nearly finished WITHOUT separate stormwater sewers or sufficient drains inside plat. 

Proud Pinecrest Floods Families, Fouls Drinking Water

Cesspool in sumpland, May 6, 2016

May 3, 2016

Desperate for Drainage Pinecrest Breaches Aquifer, 900 Homes on Well Water
One travesty begets another in South Florida 
Village Digs into Aquifer for Stormwater Relief, 
Adds Fouling Drinking Water to Litany of Environmental Blunders

Snap shot: 2008 to present
• Around 2005, five acres of horse pasture / sumpland up for grabs
• Permitted in 2008 for development without drainage upfront
• Desecration: land filled and elevated 
• Flood Number 1 in 2008 
• Flood Number 2 in 2013, after fail safe berm overtopped
• During a Council meeting in December 2014, City banned the term sumpland, sounds too icky
• GREC/ Bindor /Dorsy paid 3M by Village to settle lawsuit, same LCC with big stake in sumpland mansions  (Links in Zika story)
• In June 2015, Miami Herald kills sumpland story
• About same time, Google bounce backs show pinecrest gov rejects pinecrest floods email
• On October 29, 2015, building begins in sumpland, aka Pinecrest Place without drainage beforehand
• Absent stormwater outlet, Pinecrest says drainage will be approved upon occupancy
• On December 5, 2015, Flood Number 3 and MOAT LAND arrive together
• Zika hatchery comes with
• In late 2015, GREC/ Bindor/ Dorsy LLC register indemnifying Homeowner’s Association
• Building continues lickety-split, still minus a positive drainage system
• In early April 2016, developers dig into limestone aquifer for stormwater outlet
• Oops …contaminate groundwater more so? 
• 900 homes in Pinecrest alone remain on well water, a portion already contaminated 
• An ongoing saga without resolve 
• Hurricane Season 2016 begins June 1, a positive drainage system does not exist

An eight year battle in bullets.  Flooding, a Zika tank, plus a breached aquifer on land too valuable to pass up. The pleas for common sense, environmental considerations, plus angst left out. The emails, snail-mails, Village meetings, intimidations, omitted.  

We did not flood during Hurricanes Andrew, Wilma or Katrina, all before the sumpland was destroyed. It had served as a storm water basin for streets above, and protected those below. All before desperate measures.

For full story, documented with startling images, visit:

Pinecrest Floods
http://pinecrestfloods.blogspot.com/

Pinecrest Bans Sumpland
http://pinecrestbanssumpland.blogspot.com/

This is an ongoing sad tale. The Zika story attempts a humorous take.

PS: In case you missed, Nina Burleigh did a superb job in her Newsweek article. "An unusual January storm bent palm trees and turned city sidewalks into creeks as a small group of Miami-area mayors and administrators huddled in Pinecrest, one of Miami-Dade County’s 34 municipalities. They had come at the invitation of Pinecrest’s mayor to discuss rising sea levels, long predicted by climate change scientists and now regularly inundating their towns. The mood in the room was somewhere between pessimism and panic... .”

From the Daily Kos:  Nearly 1 in 3 American mayors think they may already have hurt their own citizens by making cost-saving decisions on critical infrastructure—a startling admission of fearfulness and accountability from the nation’s top urban executives on the heels of the Flint water crisis.  This isn’t an admission of evil.  It’s certainly not bragging.  The guys who are expressing this worry are likely the good mayors—those who have a real concern for the citizens who have trusted them with the responsibility of maintaining services. The mayors that we should be worried about are the other two-thirds, the ones who think they’ve done no wrong.

PSS: Why didn’t DERM know?  Pinecrest used its "Incorporation Powers" to do as it wanted and held off the telling.  Having lost the GREC land case and after shelling out 3 M to Bindor, aka Dorsy, the same LLC with a stake in developing the sumpland, Village delayed filing the mansion construction permitting with Miami-Dade County.


Contact: Hope Marcus
305 815 4726
Pinecrest Floods <pinecrestfloods@gmail.com>
Pinecrest Floods





Updated June 2015. This is the fourth protest site, first was in January 2014, titled Pinecrest Floods. 

Look what illegally clearing sumpland has done.  Some accomplishment.
Add caption

Police: (Left) On the bright side, the police came when called last week, had to because developer began filling without permit. One inside official implied the developer jumped the gun, and admitted the land is "sensitive".  Now that is progress!

Kids: (Right, top) Author's then four-year-grandson with friends in his Nana's  backyard in May, 2008. 

 Bottom: A few months later —October of 2008, the same yard flooded, not as bad as would become in 2013 but a sure beginning. I am unable to fill this space with images, am not a master at blog making but for sure you can see the end result when the sumpland behind our home was filled, the stormwater into streets and all over. The sump was cleared and elevated two feet for crying out loud! Trees and foliage ripped out lickety-split. Truck-loaded away. Varooom!

The sumpland behind forever changed, robbed of its drainage — the very nature of the sumpland with its absorbing burgled, battered, bruised —trees and foliage uprooted, land elevated two feet higher than existing and after a deluge — the evidence.

Worse would come in 2013, a year after a fail safe berm was built. The fail safe berm of 2012 Insufficient in 2013 when it overtopped, flooding an entire neighborhood, let alone our backyard water logged to 80 feet underneath the house.

 And what was the response of Pinecrest? How did city officials react? Their lips pinched, they soured, grimaced, grew persnickety, outright denied! 

Miss Mayor went so far as to outlaw the term sumpland, insisted we call the wetland a horse pasture. True enough to a point, It had been both and great care had been given so the horses hooves would not rot when the rains came. I have a neat image of the horses swishing their tails walking away from behind our yard, our properties adjoin. I took a chance and added it below. The chance being creating this, the blog layout, very little design control. You can't tell where the images and type will fall until you post. And re-post. Regardless, the photos show the aftermath — the watermark on the fence, a five foot pit, berm-encased, overtopped. Where did Miss Mayor suppose that water would go?  

 Pinecrest approved — permitted — the plans without drainage expecting the developer to design and pick up the tab; 4 have tried and failed.

 And stupidly, I didn't know then, in 2008, that filling in wetland was illegal. 

 The city did, our Miss Mayor an environmentalist, awards and accolades. Yet reclaiming the land for use as a passive park and floodplain for the wells and pumps that will come ahead beyond her vision.
Berm overtopped, 2013, the fail safe berm of 2012 not enough.
Doggies play ground, our backyard.

Same area underwater.

 This was the fourth protest site, first was in January 2014, titled Pinecrest Floods.  Thought for sure the city would notice. But, no, so the public shaming continues on this site and others.

Hurricane season 2015 is here!

 Last year, 2014, thankfully a miss, but in 2013, lots of water, no wind. 

 Could you imagine that full lake pictured below without drainage? All the churning with wind? Looks pretty except consider: the lake isn't supposed to be there, wasn't in the plans Pinecrest permitted! 








The sad saga is here in pictures, mostly images on this site, text needed while they load so I'll take you back a bit ... back to when the land behind me was a sump, both sumpland and a horse pasture. When the horses grazed, care was given so their hooves would not rot.

Then the land was sold, had never been filled in. 

 Then the promises we'd be safe because the building code mandated that not a drop of water from a development could encroach on a neighboring property.

And whoa, the buck stopped, literally, new mansion more important than the existing — me and others. I've been living here 35 years, and with all those new households just waiting, we no longer matter. 

A history in images, here goes:
Munching time.
Sweet!
About 2003. Horses where land adjoined on level ground that had not yet been angled into a five-foot pit.

Google Earth, around 2009. 
Huge area elevated and filled, street that now divides, breaks the flow, being mapped out. More clay would be added.








What happens during
What happens during, all that water into my backyard 
to 80 feet under my house. Plumber next day said the pipes had been
 immersed. Called when we didn't have hot water.

Our shed, what happens during, all that water into our backyard and on to neighborhood streets.











Now, if your city ignored the rules —ignored you — put you and others at risk, what would you do?



LAUNCHED:  Pinecrest Floods. January 28, 2014 (Miami-Dade County, Florida 33156)
Fast and dirty for a Pinecrest Village land use meeting, January 28, 2014
FIRST YEAR:  January 28, 2015 (Shame on Pinecrest1)
April 2, 2015.  New site launched: Pinecrest Below the Surface
April 2, 2015.  New site launched: Pinecrest Underwater
April 3, 2015.  New site launched: Pinecrest Florida 33156 Floods
More in the works, more public shaming until ...

Questions? Please contact: pinecrestfloods@gmail.com   

My cell is 305 815-4726.   ( PS: Email preferred, thanks!)

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