The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has told Southern Environmental Law Center attorney Nate Hunt that it will conduct a site visit of the farm pond that local farmer Tony Townley built earlier this year on property he owns on Aycock Road just west of its intersection with Matthews Road.

Hunt had written to the Corps on June 26 expressing concern about the pond built on Frazier Creek.

Hunt asked the Corps to “investigate this pond and the other ponds constructed by Mr. Townley in the past five years to ensure that his activities fall within the Clean Water Act’s farm pond exemption.”

Kevin Thames of the Corps responded to Hunt’s email message and indicated that the Corps will schedule a visit to the Townley pond on Aycock Road but did not specify the time of the scheduled visit.

In the meantime, the Corps had determined that a 59-acre lake that Townley has proposed to build on 1,400 acres he bought last year in Morgan County also is exempt from the Clean Water Act under the farm pond exemption.

For details on the Corps response to Hunt's letter and on the new lake that Townley proposes to build, go to Oconee County Observations.