details?
Let's see, there was the story about how the pond came to be. The original story, as told to me when we first started discussing the problem, was that the previous owner had the dam rebuilt 'cause it was deteriorating. The new story is that the county and prior owner agreed to have the pond built by the county to alleviate flooding of the road on the far side of their property. I have a hard time believing that for a couple reasons: the higher level of water behind the dam actually contributes to more frequent flooding of the road on this side of their property; and the amount of water flowing under the far road is the same amount once their pond fills. At most it might keep the far side road from flooding for the first rain of the year.
I'd written him basically a cease and desist letter months ago. For the following few months my wife and I would acknowledge his presence by waving, etc. when we'd see him - he'd never return the courtesy. The last time we were driving in different directions, closing at about 15mph. He saw us. He deliberately turned his head away. Seems he told his wife that we were/are the ones who won't acknowledge him.
He's blaming our pond for the flooding. Not possible. There is some minor seepage from our pond, just enough to keep the ground wet at the base of the berm. Certainly not enough to flow 100 yards downstream and create a 2' deep pool that then flows under the road and into his pond.
If the seepage from my pond flowed that much water the pond would be empty in less than a day.
He's awaiting a report from Soil Conservation on what to do. Hard to believe, since they told me the problem is none of their business and they're not going to do anything about it. Two agents from Soil Conservation told me that on 3 different occasions.
And, unrelated to this, he's bragged in the past about how many CHL's he'd been instrumental in having revoked.
You have just angered a proven dishonest cop, in a small TX town firmly entrenched in the good ole boys network. I'd make sure I have comprehensive camera coverage of both your property and every part of your vehicle for the nigh inevitable planting of drugs/murder weapons/child porn. You've just made an enemy of what is basically a large and powerful criminal organization that is part of the .gov and is assumed to be telling the truth in court unless documented otherwise. Prepare for war my friend.
Here I'd been worrying about things like harassing traffic stops and such. You are correct, he can do quite a bit more than just that.
As for selling, it'd be hard to sell with part of the property flooded and other parts inaccessible due to the flooding. We didn't see it when we bought the place, that entire area was seriously overgrown. Two large trees had fallen in that area and I didn't find them until almost a year after we moved in.
DW has been looking at other properties online lately, mainly 'cause she'd like to be closer to a city. May end up being that we'll full-time it in the motorhome again for a while.
