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.....

[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.

[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?

[MudCat08]

Hope they get him. People will do anything as long as nobody catches them.

[privateer]

Good work Andy, Wrong on so many levels...

[Chrisper4694]

i've also seen areas that guys claim are their private property but when you look it up on the tax property map you can clearly see it's not private area. most people are just pieces of crap. i'm at the point where i don't trust anyone or believe anything anyone says anymore.