Chapter 5 - THE LAND BENEATH ELEVEN MILLION GALLONS
Grant’s plan was not illegal by itself.
That mattered.
Developers are allowed to ask what land might support if conditions change.
They are allowed to seek zoning guidance.
They are allowed to imagine subdivisions where reservoirs currently exist.
The problem was everything around it.
Heather chaired an HOA with eighty-four families downstream.
She had used HOA money to pursue litigation against the dam.
Her husband’s private company hoped to profit from the land exposed if that litigation succeeded.
And, according to the records we were collecting, the neighborhood she represented might face greater flood risk from the very removal she was demanding.
Conflict of interest was no longer theoretical.
Priya requested HOA financial records.
Heather initially refused.
Then twenty-seven homeowners signed the request.
The records showed Cascade Meadows had spent $86,000 on dam-removal litigation and consulting.
Another $19,000 went to a company called Green Valley Watershed Strategies.
The company address was a post-office box in Burlington.
Maren searched the corporate records.
Its managing member was Dr. Paul Rennick.
Heather’s expert witness.
“That’s normal,” I said. “Expert firms get paid.”
“Look at the invoices.”
Green Valley billed the HOA for environmental modeling.
But another set of payments came from Lynn Valley Development Partners.
Same months.
Different descriptions.
Site feasibility consulting.
Heather’s expert had been paid by the HOA to argue for dam removal and by Grant’s company to study the development created by that removal.
Sarah nearly smiled when she saw it.
“Did he disclose the second relationship?”
“Not in his expert declaration.”
“Now we have something.”
The next court hearing became very different.
Sarah did not accuse anyone of conspiracy.
She asked Dr. Rennick simple questions.
“Were you retained by Cascade Meadows HOA?”
“Yes.”
“Were you also retained by Lynn Valley Development Partners?”
His lawyer objected.
The judge allowed it.
Rennick admitted he had performed preliminary site work.
“Did that work concern acreage currently inundated by Mercer Reservoir?”
“Yes.”
Heather sat perfectly still.
“Did Mrs. Lynn disclose to you that her husband owned Lynn Valley Development Partners?”
“Yes.”
“Did you understand that dam removal could create developable land for that company?”
Rennick hesitated.
“Yes.”
Then Sarah placed Appendix F before him.
“Had you seen this document before your testimony?”
Rennick looked at it.
His answer was careful.
“I had seen references to historic attenuation assumptions.”
“That was not my question.”
Long pause.
“Yes.”
Maren beside me stopped breathing for a second.
Sarah continued.
“Why did your removal model exclude the subdivision’s original reliance on reservoir storage?”
Rennick shifted.
“Because I regarded the historic assumption as outdated.”
“Did you conduct a new downstream survey?”
“No.”
“Combined snowmelt-rain model?”
“No.”
“Full culvert capacity analysis?”
“No.”
The judge looked angry now.
Not because our side had won.
Because she had been given an incomplete technical picture.
The removal order was stayed pending full review.
Heather stormed out of the courthouse.
In the parking lot, Priya confronted her.
“You knew?”
Heather stopped.
“Knew what?”
“That our drainage plan depended on the dam.”
Heather’s expression hardened.
“You bought homes beside a river, Priya. Water is part of the landscape.”
“That isn’t an answer.”
“No. It’s reality.”
Then Heather walked away.
Priya stared after her.
May you like
For the first time, the woman who had led Cascade Meadows for two years no longer looked like its protector.
She looked like someone who had calculated what eighty-four homeowners could afford to lose.
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