No matter how much you know about water and soil and how they work and how to stop erosion. No matter how much planning you do, sometimes it just does not work! I have a client who illegally cleared 17 acres in Wilkes County. It turns out that the slope he cleared is adjacent to high quality waters and is some of the most erodible soil in Wilkes County. With this many strikes against him he hired my firm to get him out of a major regulatory morass. My client is nearly a genius he tried all the traditional methods of erosion control he spent thousands on seeding and stone diversions. He studied it like it was his job. What happened you ask? It did not rain for a month and grass did not grow. The powered soil whistled around in the wind and was bone dry. Almost reminiscent of how the dust bowl folks might have felt. Then it came a huge 2.5 inch thunderstorm rain that washed 18” of soil into the aforementioned high quality waters. Here come the regulators. My client successfully played the agricultural exemption card for one division of denr, but he could not escape the division of water quality, so he called me! It is just a simple case of clearing land and having everything go wrong that could go wrong! No rain, too much rain, poor soil and poor timing! So what am I going to do? We are going to do the same thing that the landowner did! Except I hope it rains on time and not too much.