Hewitt Road Flooding Saga Continues

Not all storm water mitigations work

We've been documenting the on-going issues on Hewitt Road for awhile now. Two weeks ago we documented storm water issues with the new culverts under the three (!) driveways installed at the site. Last week we showed two of the three driveways being ripped up in an attempt to mitigate the storm water issues. We wrote at the time "It is not clear what exactly Mr. Pangea hoped to achieve by removing the culvert pipes but leaving the rest of the site as it is. The storm water runoff situation from the 28 acre property itself still exists". In fact, the situation was likely made worse by last week's actions.

In addition to removing the culvert pipe, the property owner bulldozed dirt up to the silt fences along Hewitt Road, and repeatedly ran his heavy earth movers all over the site. Late in the week he completed the work by seeding the ground (again) and laying hay mats over it. Crucially, it was not just hay but matts interwoven with plastic netting. This was used to line not just the previous driveway areas, but also portions of the drainage ditch as well.

This is what happened when those mitigation efforts met a few torrential downpours that occurred on Saturday, July 18, 2026. We have a series of videos documenting the issues.

Northern portion of Hewitt Road flooding

Silt fence failure at previous Northern Driveway site

Mud flow collapses Silt Fence, floods across Hewitt Road

Closeup of Silt Fence Failure and erosion

At the Southern end of Hewitt Road, where the other driveway was removed, there were a number of decorative haybales that were swept over the silt fence and into the drainage ditch. They began blocking the culvert pipe under Hewitt Road.

Hay Bales Partially Block Ditch, Culvert pipe

The runoff from the property is full of this light colored sediment. This dirt does not resemble native soil from the area at all.

Closeups of the silt fence failures at the southern driveway location

We took a quick peek over the silt fence to see what was going on on that side. What we saw was a river of mud barely being held back, with a secondary stream running along the fence, and of course breaching the fence in several locations. The net result of the bulldozing earlier in the week plus the silt fence was to create a giant mud slide situation with no where for the mud or water to go. The net result was the morass bulging the silt fence until it burst, channeling the water from several acres into just a few critical spots.

Silt fence barely holding back a mud river

A closeup of the middle driveway area and silt fence failures

The force of all that water at some point forced several of the hay bales to clog the culvert pipe that runs under Hewitt Road, backing up the entire flow.

The runoff is also impacting the Alpaca farm down the road.

Hewitt Road Flooding by the Alpaca Farm

Many thanks to the West Amwell Police Department, who fielded a non-emergency call from the author and cleared the Hay Bales from the culvert pipe.

It seems the hay mats used contributed to the flooding issues. Several of the mats were found in the drainage ditch, impeding the flow and catching sediment, and had to be dragged out to open up the water flow again.

According to Mayor Robin Deal, the property owner is accumulating DEP, West Amwell Township, and County violations from his ongoing activity and seeming total lack of permits. The situation may be exacerbated by the fact that the property owner owns his own construction company, and seems to be using his own equipment and his own employees for this work. As such, this is "free" work for him beyond the cost of diesel and his raw wholesale labor costs.

Luckily Saturday's storms only lasted a short time here in the Township, and the WAPD's quick action might have saved worse flooding happening from the last storms of the evening. But the site remains a storm water powder keg for the neighborhood.