In a thorough, favorable opinion, U.S. District Court Judge Thomas D. Schroeder ruled against Clayton Property Group’s motion to dismiss Sound Rivers’ Lick Creek case last week.
“This is an encouraging step in our legal effort to stop the sediment pollution in southeast Durham,” said Neuse Riverkeeper Samantha Krop.
In September of 2023, the Southern Environmental Law Center filed a lawsuit on behalf of Sound Rivers to stop the sediment pollution of Martin Branch, Hurricane Creek and Lick Creek, and ongoing violations of the Clean Water Act from Clayton Property Group’s development of a large residential subdivision in southeast Durham. Lick Creek is a tributary of Falls Lake, a major source of drinking water for Raleigh residents.
At the time the lawsuit was filed, Sound Rivers had documented more than 16 instances where Clayton Properties Group, Inc. violated its Clean Water Act permit at its Sweetbrier residential construction site – a 616-lot subdivision on a 216-acre site in Durham. Numerous water samples adjacent to and downstream of the construction site in Lick Creek showed, and have continued to show since, that the developer has consistently discharged sediment at concentrations 20 times greater than permit limits, which is illegal under the Clean Water Act and in excess of North Carolina’s turbidity standard.
Shortly after the lawsuit was filed in September, Clayton Property Group filed a motion to dismiss the case.
“With Judge Schroeder’s ruling, the Lick Creek lawsuit can now move forward, which is good, because the pollution of Lick Creek, and Falls Lake, has only continued since we filed it,” Samantha said.
This article was first published by Sound Rivers.
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