Sort of reminds me of the Cedar Point Chaussee incident... Wetlands filled without permit By KRISTINA SMITH Staff writer, Port Clinton News Herald July 28, 2007 MARBLEHEAD -- Bay Point resort owners removed vital wetlands and put anti-erosion material along the Lake Erie shoreline without required state and federal permits, a spokeswoman said. Bay Point filled an acre of wetlands this spring without permission from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers or the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, said Dina Pierce, OEPA spokeswoman. The area removed was considered a Category 3 wetland, which is the most valued of the three categories the agency uses to classify marshes, Pierce said. "They're very scarce at this point for wetlands," she said. "It's especially vital because you have your migratory birds. (Wetlands) are really critical to the ecosystem." Bay Point is the site of a planned cluster housing development. Owners Bay Point Acquisitions -- which includes partners Florida lawyer Charlie Papy, Florida engineer Nasir Alam and John Murphy of Chicago -- have not set construction dates. Bay Point manager Brooke Brown did not return a message seeking comment left Wednesday. Alam was not available Thursday, and Papy and Murphy could not be reached. Pierce said she did not know why the resort filled in the area and added the erosion material or if its housing project would be affected. Brian Swartz, biologist for the Corps's monitoring and enforcement section in Oak Harbor, said he could not discuss the specifics because it is an ongoing enforcement issue. "If they are going to go forward, they'd have to find a way of doing that while preserving the wetland," Pierce said. The resort's consultant, Hull and Associates of Dublin, had until Wednesday to submit an after-the-fact application for the work the complex already completed or a plan to restore the area, Swartz said. A firm spokeswoman was not available for comment Thursday. Hull and Associates has asked for an extension to file the paperwork next month, Pierce said. The Army Corps will decide whether to grant the extra time, she said. "The consultant is in the process of submitting that information," Swartz said. "We're just going to continue working with them." Pierce said it is highly unlikely the state would approve allowing the retroactive permit, however. "The only way we will allow a Category 3 wetland to be destroyed is if it's in the public interest," she said. Public interest includes removal for building roads, bridges or schools, she said. In the case of the erosion material, a permit could be granted if Bay Point can prove it has an erosion problem. The state then must approve the materials it uses to solve the issue, she said. She said she did not know what items the resort placed along the shore. E-mail Kristina Smith at [log in to unmask] http://www.portclintonnewsherald.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070728/NEWS01/707280305 ______________________________________________________________________ Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society. Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list. Additional discussions can be found in our forums, at www.ohiobirds.org/forum/. You can join or leave the list, or change your options, at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS Send questions or comments about the list to: [log in to unmask]