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HomeMy WebLinkAbout20210903_R-HoffmanFrom: Raymond Hoffman To: NCMininaProaram; Parr, Adam Subject: [External] Hood Creek Soils Mine Date: Friday, September 3, 2021 10:00:12 AM Attachments: Response to public comments.pdf CAUTION: External email. Do not click links or open attachments unless you verify. Send all suspicious email as an attachment to Report Spam. Good morning Adam, Attached is our follow-up response letter for the meeting on August 28th We are working on edits and revisions to the plans, calculations and application from the comment letter received, dated July 21. Thank you. Raymond Hoffman, P.E. President/Owner 205 Walnut Street Statesville, NC 28677 704-464-6800 i AM ENGINEERING IMM&VA7TL! WAir! MtMOW �f HNA ENGINEERING ®PLLC INNOVATIVE WASTE SOLUTIONS September 3, 2021 VIA a -mail DELIVERY Mr. Adam Parr Assistant State Mining Engineer NCDEQ, Division of Energy, Mineral, and Land Resources Department of Environmental Quality 1612 Mail Service Center Raleigh, North Carolina 27699-1612 RE: Hood Creek Soils Co., LLC —Public Meeting Comments Mr. Parr, HNA Engineering, PLLC is submitting this letter on behalf of the Hood Creek Soils Co., LLC, as a follow-up to the comments received from the neighboring property owners via the webex meeting on Thursday, August 26, 2021 and to also clarify some recent correspondence with NCDEQ. We appreciate the opportunity to respond and clarify, for the record, to each of the opposing neighbor's comments presented on Thursday evening's meeting. Mr. Mark Parsons presented that he is a long time resident, living at 1231 Bryant Road. His residence is over 3,000 feet from our closest property line with 7 or 8 additional properties between the two locations. On two occasions, Mr. Parson's called regarding mud on Bryant Road. This was a result of unloading equipment at the existing construction entrance on Bryant Road, so the new construction entrance could be constructed on Hoods Creek Road, as requested by many of the neighbors during the County Planning Board meeting held in April, 2020. On both occasions, the contractor provided a water truck within 30 minutes and removed the mud from the road to Mr. Parson's satisfaction. Mr. Parsons also mentioned the landfill being 2-miles away. This has no relevance to our mining application. Mr. Parsons mentioned that the roads in the area are small. We have contacted the NCDOT, Boone Division regarding the capacity of the roadways to handle the anticipated truck traffic. 206 Walnut Street, Statesville, NC 28677 P: 704.464.6800 HN,� ENGINEERING PLLC INNOVATIVE WASTE SOLUTIONS NCDOT indicated that the roadway design can handle the anticipated weights and volume of traffic. We anticipate that during construction projects at the nearby landfill, 10-15 tandem axle dump trucks will be required to move material from the site. These projects historically require 3-4 months to complete and would occur every 2-3 years on average. Regardless of this project being approved for a permit, the same amount of truck traffic will be required for construction to occur at the landfill. The benefit of our project is that we are located within 1-mile to the landfill entrance and other soil or rock sources are over 6-miles and further depending on the material and supplier location. Caldwell County's Planning documents recommend projects based on limiting the amount and/or distance for truck traffic... Mr. Parson mentioned this as a high risk with little reward project. Excavation of soils and rock removal, when performed according to permit conditions and industry standards, will reduce the amount of risk to the public and the environment. This property was previously timbered and has already had 5 acres of material removed from it under previous property ownership. The erosion control features, already in existance, need to be maintained. Areas that were excavated, under previous property ownership, were stabilized to some degree with vegetation and berms. Hood Creek Soils Co. has submitted a reclamation plan that includes hiking and biking trails when work is completed at this site and has reached out to the City of Lenoir, Parks and Recreation Department to determine if they would have an interest in developing these. Hood Creek Soils Co. has contracted with a company to perform roadside litter pick-up and to maintain E&S features on the site. During their first roadside event on March 17, 2021, 28 bags of trash were removed, several tires and pieces of furniture were removed along with 4 crack pipes. In cooperation with Caldwell County and the nearby landfill owner, these items were disposed of in the landfill at no charge. Many of the neighbors in the community stopped the crew to comment on their progress and to show their appreciation for this work. Mr. Parsons also noted that he is opposed to blasting. Any rock blasting that will be performed during our operations will be one in a controlled fashion, by professional, subcontracted blasting firms. Plans will be developed in advance of these blasts and will typically include the location within the mine site, area, depth, drill pattern, amount of blasting material to be used and monitoring at the property boundary and for any offsite locations that may be required. We do not have plans for any large scale blasting but do anticipate that some smaller blasting events will likely be required for various purposes. Kristie Parson (Mark's wife) was concerned that the area is impoverished due to the nearby landfill. Our project has nothing to do with the landfill, which was sited by the County in the 1990's and operating since 1998. As mentioned above, Hood Creek Soils Co. has already completed one roadside litter event and will continue these forward as part of our overall Hood Creek Soils Co. Public Meeting Responses September3, 2021 ENGINEERING PLLC INNOVATIVE WASTE SOLUTIONS operations. Creating jobs for this area will also help area residents that may be unable to find work due to skill level requirements or that have shut down due to the Covid pandemic. Mrs. Parsons mentioned kids playing. Our operation will be wn an 84-acre parcel that will include buffers to screen most of the operation from the general public. We don't anticipate any issues with kids playing. Mrs. Parsons also commented on traffic. Previous soil removal operations used Bryant Road as their point of entry and from what has been mentioned, daily blocking of traffic on Bryant Road occurred by Preston Contractors (previous property owner's contractor). Hood Creek Soils Co. heard these issues at the Planning Board meeting last year, and has moved the new facility entrance onto Hoods Creek Road. There will be no impact to Bryant Road from our operations when permitted. Mrs. Parsons expressed concern about structural damage to homes and blasting effects on drinking supply wells. As mentioned above, any blasting planned for the site will have a detailed blasting plan created to insure that no off -site disturbances occur to structures or drinking water wells. Mrs. Parsons also expressed concerns about trash. Hood Creek Soils Co. is also concerned about the amount of trash we have seen in front of our property and have started with litter pick- up as mentioned above. We will continue this service as part of our operations and will work with NCDOT to expand the area that we maintain. We understand that the Parson family maintains Bryant Road and appreciate that they want to keep their community clean, as do we. Mr. Jimmy Bryant owns the closest house to the Hood Creek Soils Co. property, on the corner of Bryant and Hoods Creek Road. His daughter lives in the home, while he and his wife live several miles away. He expressed his concerns about flying rocks from another rock quarry operation near his current residence. He mentioned something about the seismigraph not detecting or not working properly. In most cases, when a blasting event occurs, the seismigraph is set some distance from the blast area, or possibly on the property line, with many blasts having no impact or being non -detectable due to the minimal size of the blast. As for the flying blast rock, many blasting operations prefer to occur before the soil overburden has been removed to help direct the blast force down into the rock, versus allowing it to escape upward, which tends to throw the rocks. Controlling these blasts can easily be done by keeping the soil in place or by pulling a tire or blast blanket over the area. Our operation will not have large areas of blasting and would likely push a layer of soil over the rock to be blasted to keep from throwing any rocks into the air. Hood Creek Soils Co. Public Meeting Responses September3, 2021 UN ENGINEERING INNOVATIVE WASTE SOLUTIONS Mrs. Sharon Bryant (Jimmy's wife) expressed her concerns about being a disinfranchised community because of the landfill and mentioned something about Environmental Justice (EJ) prevents this from being a permittable site. We agree that this area does appear to be in need of some assistance. Hood Creek Soils Co. is committed to hiring locally, qualified candidates for work at the mine site. As for the Environmental Justice concern, we have completed several EJ studies/reports for other solid waste projects across the state and at this time, based on a preliminary review of Census Data for this area, would likely not be an issue for this type of facility or for the community that it would involve. Mrs. Bryant also recommended that blasting should include a 1000 foot buffer. As mentioned previously, any blasting that may occur on this site will be done by professionals in a controlled manner. The 300 foot minimum required buffer for the mining limits to an off -site residential structure have been met. The previously excavated and now stabilized area, Phase 1, was the closest area to this residence. Mrs. Bryant also mentioned dusts, breathing difficulties and black lungs. Fugitive dusts will be controlled from leaving the property which will mostly be a result of truck traffic on interior dirt roads. These will be controlled through wetting of the roads, using stone w/ fabric roads, reducing speeds and establishing or maintaining vegetation. The black lung reference is more likely associated with coal mining. Mrs Bryant also mentioned the blocking of Bryant Road which may have been an issue under previous property owners. The new facility entrance on Hoods Creek Road should eliminate this concern. She also mentioned water (sediment) running into streams. We will address this in our E&S plan which will include sediment basins, traps, silt fence, water bars, diversion berms and vegetation. As mentioned previously, the previous soil removal operation installed two sediment traps, several berms and vegetation, all of which could use some level of continued maintenance to keep up their performance. Mrs. Bryant also mentioned that mining has occurred without a permit. NCDEQ also issued a Notice of Violation on July 30, 2021 for mining without a permit. Our response on August 241 2021 was that no mining has occurred on this property to date during our ownership of the property. A new, permitted facility entrance has been constructed, existing internal timber haul roads have been improved to move equipment and materials away from Hoods Creek Road and Bryant Road into the facility and that some maintenance of existing E&S features (from the previously permitted Borrow Permit operation) are the only activities that have occurred. In various communications between Land Quality and DEMLR throughout the months of May, June Hood Creek Soils Co. Public Meeting Responses September3, 2021 kZA ENGINEERING PLLC INNOVATIVE WASTE SOLUTIONS and July it has been determined that a mining application is indeed the correct permit to obtain and the application is currently under review. No other work is being done on the property at this time. Joyce McCormick is a resident of the County but not within the area of the proposed mine site. She mentioned poor access and narrow roads as concerns which we've addressed previously. She also mentioned the environmental impacts of strip mining, habitat destruction, dust, ground water/surface water contamination, loss of forest and erosion as her concerns. Many of these have been addressed previously above. This property was timbered by the previous property owners. As part of our operations, areas will be reforested to help prevent erosion, to return the property back to a forested condition faster and to provide better habitat for the numerous wildlife species that appear to be present already onsite as observed by the numerous and various paw prints throughout the property. Areas around the streams will be protected and will remain as undisturbed buffers. Mr. Ronnie Hendricks is a local waste water worker that mentioned many of the surface waters in this area are already listed as impaired. We were able to locate an impaired water quality report from the NCDEQ, for Lower Creek, dated November 2004, that list this Creek as impaired based on Total Suspended Solids (TSS). Greasy Creek does drain into the Lower Creek, but appears to be in good condition with little or no impairment. TSS is usually a result of disturbed surfaces and unprotected flow paths into receiving bodies of water. Our operation will protect any blue line streams within the property and reduce the movement of soils/sediments from leaving the site, through the use of undisturbed buffers, silt fence, brush barriers and sediment basins/traps as required. Mr. Hendricks also mentioned that people would need to move during blasting. operations. We do not anticipate any blasting events that would require people to move from their homes. He was also opposed to the virtual meeting due to a lack of internet in the area. The area has also been a dumping ground by hosting a Regional Landfill nearby. Though there are many benefits to the County and its' residents fo hosting a landfill, including free residential disposal, host fees paid to the County, commercial, residential and industrial development due to low cost disposal option, parks, recycling, stable jobs, ancillary jobs/markets, etc., that is beyond the scope of our mining project. Sedimentation concerns, which we've addressed previously. Mr. Bobby Miller, adjoining land owner, with property that is immediately adjacent to our proposed mining footprint. His concern is that the. property is too small to mine. Hood Creek Soils Co. is not a large mine company. Our application is to mine an area of approximately 25 acres of the total 84 acre parcel or approximately 30%. He is also concerned about a fresh Hood Creek Soils Co. Public Meeting Responses September 3, 2021 UN, ENGINEERING PLLC INNOVATIVE WASTE SOL=ONS water spring on his property. Hood Creek Soils Co. will work with Mr. Miller to monitor and protect this spring from damage or impacts from our operation. We suspect that the area where this spring is located is close to the area that was previously excavated by the previous owner, which would put our future operations further away from this location with less liklihood of any impacts. Mr. Miller also expressed concerns about noise pollution. Our operation will only work during daytime hours and mostly during times that the nearby landfill is requiring soils or rock for their construction. The location of our mining operation, at its' closest point to Mr. Miller's residence is over 1,100 liner feet and will be on a slope that faces away from this residence. There should be no impacts to Mr. Miller from noise. In the event that a rock crusher is operating on -site, we will position it in a location that minimizes noise from traveling away from the site using soil berms and natural vegetation buffers. Our planned operation will be on the west facing slope, away from any residences that are adjacent to this site. Mr. Miller also refered to items 2 and 4 on the NCDEQ sheet, page 2 of 4. Item 2 is regarding unduly adverse effects on potable ground water supplies, wildlife or fresh water, estuariane or marine fisheries. As NCDEQ mentioned during their response to these items, they have received no negative comments back from their corresponding agencies regarding these items. Item 4 is in regards to a direct or substantial physical hazard to public health and safety. Our operation will be protective of public health and safety as a requirement of the various permits that will be required. Mr. Miller also mentioned that he would prefer a paper mill be sited on the property and that the 20-foot depth of excavation limit be guaranteed. Having driving by many paper mills, I would be concerned that the odors, noise, truck traffic, dust and 24-hour operation associated with these types of operations would be fas less desirable than our proposed mine site. We have not considered a paper mill for this site though the County's Economic Development website does encourage industries associated with wood products to be a target sector. The 20-foot depth is anticipated to be the depth to reach bedrock in many locations on the site. We do not anticipate going deeper than this. Jenny Wheelock is the City of Lenoir Planning Director and she provided information regarding some of the local, ETJ requirements. She mentioned that 39 acres of the 84 acres is within the City ETJ. Most of these 39 acres are on the west side of Hoods Creek Road and are not included within the mine footprint. A section of the property, east side of Hoods Creek Road, 250-feet from centerline for the road will adjoin the mine limits. Our front entrance on Hoods Creek Road will cross through this portion of the ETJ and will comply with local zoning, Hood Creek Soils Co. Public Meeting Responses September3, 2021 FiNF, ENGINEERING INNOVATIVE WASTE SOLUTIONS Y landscaping and screening requirements. The entire portion within the proposed mining limits will be under the County jurisdiction. The County Commissioners have already approved this parcel as a future industrial node location as part of their Comprehensive Land Use Plan, created by the Western Piedmont Council of Governments and approved in January 2020. Ms. Wheelock pointed out that her review of the plans indicate that some revisions will be required to keep the mine limits and associated activities outside of this ETJ. We will revisit the plans to make any necessary revisions. In conclusion, we do not see that any of the comments mentioned during the webex meeting that meet the conditions 1-7 for cause for permit denial by the NCDEMLR. We are including our responses to each of these, along with this letter. We will address the NCDMLR additional items from the July 21, 2021 coorespondence, and revise the plans and narrative accordingly for resubmittal. We appreciate your time and timely review of these documents and if you have any questions or require additional information, please let us know. We look forward to working with you on completing this permitting project. Sincerely, Raymond Hoffman, P.E. President — HNA Engineering, PLLC Co: Dan Wall —Hood Creek Soils Co., LLC Chris Anderson — Hood Creek Soils Co., LLC Hood Creek Sails Co. Public Meeting Responses September3, 2021 Hood Creek Mining Permit (7) reasons for denial of permit... 1. That any requirement of this Article or any rule promulgated hereunder will be violated by the proposed operation; • The mining operation will be set-up to follow the Rules. 2. That the operation will have unduly adverse effects on potable groundwater supplies, wildlife, or fresh water, estuarine or marine fisheries; • The mining operation will have minimal, if any impacts on potable groundwater supplies and will not go deeper than surrounding, perimeter road elevations. The mining operation will include numerous buffers, including 50-foot stream buffers, 300-foot property line buffers, a 250-ft ETJ encroachment area and will impact approximately 25-acres of the total 84-acre property for minimal disturbance to wildlife. There are no known fisheries that will be impacted. 3. That the operation will violate standards of air quality, surface water quality, or groundwater quality which have been promulgated by the Department; The mining operation will operate within the standards of air quality, surface water quality and groundwater quality. For air quality compliance, rock crushing operations, on a temporary basis and below 300,000 tons per year are exempt from permitting as noted in the March 31, 2003 NCDEQ, Air Quality letter, subject Portable Crusher Exemption from Permitting. Surface water protections will include undisturbed buffers, silt fence, diversion berms, sediment basins and temporary sediment traps between excavated/disturbed areas and onsite streams or wetlands. 4. That the operation will constitute a direct and substantial physical hazard to public health and safety or to a neighboring dwelling house, school, church, hospital, commercial or industrial building, public road or other public property, excluding matters relating to use of a public road; • The mining operation will not be a substantial physical hazard to public health and safety or to a neighboring dwelling house, school, church, hospital, commercial or industrial building, public road or other public property. This facility will be operated to keep any excavated areas to a maximum slope of 3:1 or less (no high -walls) and will include natural barriers and fences/gates to prevent unauthorized entry. We will maintain a minimum required buffer of at least 300-ft to any dwelling house. There are no known schools, churches, hospitals, commercial or industrial buildings within the 300-ft buffer distance. The public roads, Hoods Creek Road and Bryant Road will not be impacted and will be kept clean of mud as part of our daily operations when trucks are hauling materials out. 5. That the operation will have a significantly adverse effect on the purposes of a publicly owned park, forest or recreation area; • The mining operation will have no significant adverse effects on a publicly owned park, forest or recreation area. The closest public park appears to be Broyhill Walking Park. The closest State Park appears to be Tuttle State Park. Both area significant distance away from this operation. 6. That previous experience with similar operations indicates a substantial possibility that the operation will result in substantial deposits of sediment in stream beds or lakes, landslides, or acid water pollution; The mining operation will include undisturbed, vegetated buffers between excavated/disturbed areas and onsite streams. In addition, silt fence, brush barriers and sediment basins/traps will be utilized to prevent substantial deposits of sediment from entering stream beds or lakes. Landslides will be prevented by excavating in small areas and maintaining 3:1 slopes throughout the process. Acid water pollution will not be a factor as no washing of materials using chemical agents will be employed at this site. or 7. That the applicant or any parent, subsidiary, or other affiliate of the applicant or parent has not been in substantial compliance with this Article, rules adopted under this Article, or other laws or rules of this State for the protection of the environment or has not corrected all violations that the applicant or any parent, subsidiary or other affiliate of the applicant or parent may have committed under this Article or rules adopted under this Article and that result in: a. Revocation of his permit, • At no time has the applicant, parent or other affiliate had a permit revoked b. Forfeiture of part or all of his band or other security, • At no time has forfeiture of part or all of a bond or other security occurred c. Conviction of a misdemeanor under G.S. 74-64, or • At no time has there been a conviction of misdemeanor d. Any other court order issued under G.S. 74-64, or • At no time has there been a court order issued e. Final assessment of a civil penalty under G.S. 74-64 • At no time has there been a civil penalty assessed.