India Brook Mendham:

[AndyS]

B.C. got a call from one of our members that was hiking along India Brook in Mendham Twp. earlier today. He came across what is clearly an illegal diversion in a C-1 wild trout stream. I took these photos and others and called in to WARN-DEP and got case # 1909-30-1227-17 and DEP Enforcement is alerted and looking into it.
Before B.C. left, a black pickup truck came down a dirt road on the other side where lots of fresh, new No Trespassing signs have been placed and he was shouting to me from across the river. I explained I was on the phone with the DEP because what I was seeing was multiple clear violations of NJ laws. Long story short, he knows he's screwed and while he denied even having any heavy equipment on site, I could hear an excavator working maybe 200 feet into the woods. Tree removal, illegal diversion ditch, fill in NJ Open Waters, working without proper DEP Land Use Regulation permits, without county soil conservation district permits, and doing all of this in a C-1 trout stream with spawning trout closures between September 15 and March 15. That's just for starters. The bridge abutments are historic as well.....

[AndyS]

The reason the new landowner drove down is that he has cameras installed and he could see me walking along the river, but B.C. remained only on the public (town) land. This is in India Brook Natural Area in Mendham Twp.

[NJSquatch]

Someone making moonshine?

[FASTEDDIE29]

Hmmmmmm that dude better leave my favorite little creek alone. Friggin’ people up there have money and think they can get away with everything.....

[Drossi]

Originally Posted by FASTEDDIE29

Hmmmmmm that dude better leave my favorite little creek alone. Friggin’ people up there have money and think they can get away with everything.....

Money breeds Entitlement, stupidity, and *******ry.

[Adrenalinerush]

So he did it because he had money? Really?

[thmyorke1]

So the coordinates,
40 47.47,-74 37.156

point to the stretch of india brook that's right in the park. Ive been to that spot myself just last winter. So do plenty of hikers. I remember some private property on the east side there. but no divergence I have no idea why they are diverting it. But I think the park used to be some operation (mining, logging, or water treatment?) in the past, and there were old divergents and structures that are still sort of left over. That's why you see the wall in the third picture, but that divergent is clearly new.
You can see in the third picture, it would normally flow to the right, towards the camera. But looks really bad and dried out. The divergent is in the background of the third picture, as it comes around the wall a bit.

Hope the brookies and browns are ok. Water was low enough already.
Who knows why the guy diverted it, and even thought it was a good idea to do it like that and get away with it.

[buzzbaiter]

Originally Posted by AndyS

new No Trespassing signs have been placed and he was shouting to me from across the river. .

I'd be shouting back because that's not a crime(not yet I think we still have free speech until the libs take that away) unlike what this fool did. Unfortunately this ahole will probably get heavily fined, blame the trout and "accidentally" have some sort of fuel leak killing a lot of them. I don't put it past anyone anymore to react like that. We live in a "message" world and to quote a line from the movie Heathers "the extreme always seems to make an impression"

[akoop]

Just an update to this. I was hiking on Sunday near India brook and came across this location. The ditch he dug is still there and is not filled in. Thee is a small pile of rocks where it meets India Brook keep water from entering it but one good storm and that will be breached. There is some straw thrown down on the sides of the ditch I guess to try to get vegetation to start growing.

Here is a photo.

[FASTEDDIE29]

Thanks for the update man. The brook is in fine shape. Wonder what the criminal is up to these days and if he’s been to court for his actions yet.