20001116 Ver 1_Staff Comments_20010621

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June 21, 2001
Memorandum To: John Dorney
From: Todd St. John
Subject: Old Stage
Wake County
DWQ# 001116
Michael F. Easley
Governor
William G. Ross, Jr., Secretary
Department of Environment and Natural Resources
Kerr T. Stevens
Division of Water Quality
15A NCAC 2H .0502(c) states, "The director may request, and the applicant shall furnish, any
additional information that may be found necessary for the proper consideration of the application."
The rule continues (d), "if the applicant considers that it is not feasible or is unnecessary to furnish
any portion of the information required by Paragraphs (a) and (b) of this Rule, applicant shall submit a
detailed statement explaining the reasons for omission of any such information." Further .0507 (e)
states, "Notification of Unapproved Application. In the event that the Director denies the application
for certification or for any reason is unable to approve the application, the Director shall also notify the
applicant by certified or registered mail, return receipt requested, specifying the in such notification
the reasons for denial or inability to approve; and a copy of the notification shall be mailed to the
appropriate federal licensing or permitting agency and EPA."
Based on the above rules, we requested information under.0502(c), namely a plan to fix the
degraded stream mitigation and an adequate stream mitigation plan for the proposed impacts. These
items were not provided. We simply received an explanation as to why they were not to be provided.
Paragraph .0502(d) says that they can do this in some cases, namely items included in paragraphs
(a) and (b), but the requested information is not of the type covered in paragraphs (a) or (b).
Therefore, an explanation as to why they will not provide the information is unacceptable since the
information requested is of the type included in paragraph (c). Therefore, the application is still
incomplete since paragraph (d) only accounts for omissions of information required by paragraphs (a)
and (b).
think we clearly asked for the information and it was clearly not provided. Simply responding
to our request does not constitute providing the information as I explained above. Therefore, I believe
we can say that we are unable to approve the application since the applicant refused at least twice to
provide us with the information that we requested and the rules say they must provide under
paragraph (c). As such, I believe we can state to the applicant that we are unable to approve (as
opposed to deny) the application under paragraph .0507 (e) per Coleen's request. So, I guess I do
agree with Coleen.
North Carolina Division of Water Quality, 401 Wetlands Certification Unit,
1650 Mail Service Center, Raleigh, NC 27699-1650 (Mailing Address)
2321 Crabtree Blvd., Raleigh, NC 27604-2260 (Location)
919-733-1786 (phone), 919-733-6893 (fax), http://h2o.enr.state.nc.us/ncwetiands/