Getting Down and Dirty in the mud with 25 Hewitt Road

On Tuesday, July 22, 2026, we toured the perimeter of the site to get a handle on the mud and storm water situation, see the state of the silt fence(s), and how the area will handle another heavy rain storm.

First though we have to address the elephant in the room - or rather, the three of them. The original failing silt fence has a twin installed paralelling it, and late in the afternoon they began installing a third , heavy duty"super silt" fence.

We hope these are temporary and not considered permanent fixes.

The issue with this approach is that water and mud still needs somewhere to go during a storm. The current three-fence design will funnel all of the mud and rainwater runoff from the property out the middle driveway, and out of cracks in the north and south limits of the property. So all 28 acres of runoff will be concentratred in just a few locations.

The second head scratcher is the use of hay mats in the drainage ditch. During last Saturday's storm, these mats snagged debris and contributed to the drainage ditches overflowing into the street. They put them back again. These are hay mats interwoven with monofilament plastic line. The rocks you see placed on the mats to hold them down will likely make no difference during a heavy storm.

Here is the Southern corner of the property, across from 32 Hewitt Road. The silt fences all have gaps or are sagging, as shown in the picture. This is a guaranteed failure point.

Here is a side-on view of the triple fence system.

The remaining middle driveway of course does not have a silt fence. So it will be the primary avenue for water and mud movement out into the road. It is not clear at all what the silt fences are intended to do in this situation.

We also see more hay bales, identical to the ones that clogged the culvert pipe in previous storms.

Moving to the northern side of the property and running west, we can see the mud held into the primary silt fence and the runnels carved into it already. It should be noted that the triple-silt-fence system only covers Hewitt Road, not the sides of the property or the backs along other houses and properties.

Here you can see the silt fence stakes starting to fail and the fencing getting overwhelmed with mud.

Moving to the area behind 19 Hewitt Road, we see more of that single silt fence failing and being overwhelmed with mud.

This is the mud plain being held back by this flimsy fence.

Here is the Northern fence section behind 19 Hewitt starting to run to the back of the property to the West.

And here is a reverse view looking back from the same spot. As you can see the fence is failing here too.

Moving west, we see water and mud has undermined the fence and is running under it.

A little further west, we see the silt fence being overwhelmed again.

Here is a view from behind the property, looking East towards Hewitt Road.

As we approach the South-Western corner of the property, the mud situation and runoff gets dire.

We have a video of this section with voiceover explaining the location and situation. A major concern here is that the Township has been using grant money to renovate Hewitt Park. The problem is that engineers have found flooding in the soccer fields far worse than it has been historically. This is almost certainly why. We may be prevented from further improving Hewitt Park because it may all just get washed away.

Towards the very corner of the property the runoff situation becomes severe.

This used to be a vernal pool formed from quarrying done here hundreds of years ago. It appears the owner is throwing rocks and debris in the vernal pools.

Moving along to the southern fence line of the property, we once again see the single silt fence failing.

Approaching Hewitt Road, we see mistakes in the silt fence installation.

As we mentioned at the start of this article, the silt fences are not a permanent solution. The issue is that the soil on the site has been severely compacted by heavy earth movers; tons foreign soil has been trucked in; innumerable trees and underbrush have been removed; and no storm water management plan is in place.

As the site sits right now, the silt fences act merely to concentrate the water and mud flow to the middle and ends of the property. They need a comprehensive plan for keeping as much water as possible on site and managing and containing runoff. And the sides of the property and areas behind other houses has only the single failing silt fence to begin with.