The Bladenboro Town Board met on Monday and heard from Dawson Singletary regarding the Bryant Swamp Drainage District. The town recently received a grant from the North Carolina Department of Commerce to be utilized for removal of Hurricane Matthew-related storm debris from the Bryant Swamp Drainage District.
Singletary told the board that he has been documenting issues with the Bryant Swamp Drainage Project for more than 15 years and is prepared to “do what is necessary to stop it.”
Singletary outlined a lengthy history of the issues which he claims have occurred with regards to the Bryant Swamp Drainage Project. He told the board that he learned the town had received funding to clean Bryant Swamp underneath the Bryant Swamp Drainage Corporation’s easement. “The problem is I’ve removed my land from that organization, because they have never been an organization. They signed the original paperwork, but they have never did do the complete job and they never had a meeting. This started back in the late ‘60s and early 70s,” said Singletary.
He said he had cooperated with the town on several occasions to help clean up the area downstream. Singletary said the last “slip and dip” operation in 2005 did not lower the water.
“The problem is when the group that claimed to be the Bryant Swamp Drainage Corporation filed their paper, they filed a plan that would start at the end of the Davis Canal which is approximately the Bladen County line. It is actually maybe 100 yards inside of Bladen County. It’s the high-water mark of Big Swamp in the county line in that area,” said Singletary.
He said the Davis Canal was originally dredged by Butters Lumber Company so they could have a dry dock. The original plan, according to Singletary, called for a 32-foot wide canal starting at the end of the Davis Canal. Singletary alleged that the work outlined in the plan was never performed.
He alleged he has lost fish in years past, lost trees in years past and lost the ability to mitigate the run back in 2005 or 2006 for a half-million dollars. Singletary reiterated his belief the town had obtained the grant in 2005 and did not perform the work.
The “slip and dip” grant was not supposed to be utilized for drainage-type work, according to the parameters of the grant, said Singletary. He said he gave Mayor Rufus Duckworth a copy of the paperwork. He said he also gave Mayor Duckworth a copy of the permit for spraying for the Clean Water Act.
He also discussed a fish kill that occurred several years ago involving a chemical spill at the plant behind his home. He said he documented there was a fish kill while environmental officials said there was no fish kill.
He said he has been documenting the issues with the Bryant Swamp Drainage District and told the board he would take whatever action needed to stop it (the cleaning of Bryant Swamp).
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