First, a bit of background:
My wife & I purchased our 5 acres east of Dallas a bit over 4 years ago. It's an understatement to call the condition of the property a jungle, it was more of a combination jungle and landfill. There were weeds over 10' tall, 8 year old trees with the tops bent to the ground because the vines had pulled them over, piles of trash both buried and above ground, old/trashed boats - a real mess.
Because of this we were unaware that a portion of the property is flooded for most, if not all, of the year. We didn't become aware of the problem until about 1 1/2 years ago, when I'd finally gotten that portion of the property (mostly) cleared. The only time I'm aware of this area being dry was during last summers' drought. The problem is caused by a neighbor. This neighbor lives across the street, east of us. He also recently purchased the 5 acres south of us on our side of the street.
There is a drainage creek that starts somewhere to the west of our property, meanders east along the south fence line staying mainly on our property but it does cross onto his southern property and back onto ours again. The creek also has a large bend in it that cuts off approx. 1/4 acre of our property; we can't access that area without either going off our property and onto his, then back onto ours or by building a bridge across the 2 1/2 feet deep creek or wading the creek. The creek then crosses under the county road onto his eastern property where he has a dam across the creek, creating a large pond on his property. The county road runs north/south between his eastern property and ours, and has a drainage ditch alongside of it, on our property.
The problem is that the overflow pipes on his dam are too high, by about 2 1/2 feet. This causes the water to back up under the county road and flood not only the creek on the southern edge of our property, but also a large area of our property near the road (about 50 yds x 15 yds) and about 100 yards of the drainage ditch along the county road. The high water level also contributes to the county road flooding during any moderate to heavy rain.
I've talked with the neighbor about the situation 4 or 5 times. His answer each time has been to accept responsibility, say he'll remedy it, but can't do it right now - for various reasons, whatever seems appropriate at the time. He has said that the overflow pipes were that way when he bought his property; the previous owner had the dam rebuilt and the contractor installed the pipes incorrectly.
I've sent letters to and/or talked with numerous state and federal agencies, every response but one has been that I'd need to take him to court. The one more positive response has been from the County Commissioner; he's indicated that, because the road is being impacted, he'll do something about it. The problem there is that he's running for reelection, he even stated that it wouldn't look good for him to be taking one of his constituents to court during an election year.
I recently sent the neighbor what basically amounted to a "cease & desist" letter which he ignored.
The only lawyer I talked to said it would cost at least $250 for a "cease & desist" letter from him and if we went to court it would require a $5,000 retainer and $250 per hour. Way out of my ability to pay.
There are numerous reasons I'd like to get this resolved: it's a breeding ground for mosquitoes, it's killing my trees (two of which fell onto the power lines 2 winters ago), I can't access part of my property, I can't maintain my property as I'd like, and I've gotten injured as a direct result of the flooding while trying to work around that area. That mud is slippery, when mixed with power tools, things can go wrong in a hurry.
One more complication is that we live in the county just outside of a small town - about 1,300 people. The neighbor is a LEO on the local force. He's told stories of his work that have my wife & I concerned about retaliation. I'm considering a GPS data logger, just in case. Since I'm (now-a-days) a careful driver, any ticket(s) would be bogus & proof would be nice.
