20040722 Ver 1_Staff Comments_20090526

Kulz, Eric
From: Homewood, Sue J? 1
Sent: Wednesday, May 26, 2010 6:44 PM
To: Kulz, Eric
Subject: RE: Elk Shoals - Alexander County
Eric,
Here are my notes/comments from the Elk Shoals site:
Overall the buffer looked ok. It was narrow in some areas and it looked like a small portion of the easement had been
mowed in the past, but the easement is well signed now and should grow out over time. No real issues there other than
credit for areas where the buffer is not 50' wide.
UT 2 looked fine, it is a very small channel with few structures but overall, no problems were noted. Same with UT1
except for one failing structure at the very bottom of UT1. Todd saw that one, I didn't get to it since the only way was
through the channel and I didn't have my knee boots on. It sounded like everyone agreed on a quick fix by hand that
could be done quickly and easily and pictures forwarded when it was done.
The upper part of Elk Shoals was just enhancement and looked fine. Until you got to station 21+00. At this point was a
bank failure that was significant. There is a debris jam that is causing it to worsen and a point bar has formed on the
other side. Everyone agreed that there was a very good chance that this could worsen over time, although we didn't
agree on what the best fix would be. From about there, to station 29+00 the stream was not healthy. It was incised
throughout the area, many of the bends had scoured out significantly, there were debris jams and a few trees had fallen
in. At Sta 23+00 (approx.) the root wads were completely gone, scoured out and deposited downstream. This section of
channel showed no diversity, no habitat, pretty much no riffles, mostly a big long incised pool. Below Sta 29+00 had
some small areas of concern but mostly it was ok and worth approving.
Todd said he'd discuss this project with the team. Some ideas that were batted around at the site were EEP/Provider
proposing a fix to the problem areas, which may include loss of some buffer for access, and then continued monitoring.
I suggest a minimum of 2 bankfuls or 1 year whichever is longer. Another idea was to just remove the 900+ feet from
the mitigation credit. My only concern with that is whether the problems showing up in this middle section, if not
addressed, will threaten the stability and health of the rest of the site over the long term.
I'll send pictures in a separate email.
Sue Homewood
NC DENR Winston-Salem Regional Office
Division of Water Quality
585 Waughtown Street
Winston-Salem, NC 27107
Voice: [phone]
FAX: [phone]
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From: Kulz, Eric
Sent: Wednesday, May 19, 2010 2:04 PM
To: Homewood, Sue; Euliss, Amy
Cc: Tugwell, Todd SAW
Subject: Elk Shoals - Alexander County
Sue/Amy:
No one here has been to Elk Shoals. A 2008 monitoring report is available for review on the EEP project documents
website that I forwarded previously. Based on Mac's e-mail, it looks like more recent docs may be posted on the ftp site
by Friday.
I have reviewed the 2008 monitoring report. Attached is a mitigation evaluation form that Tammy and I use for
mitigation projects. I have added some notes based on my review of the monitoring report.
The project overall seems to look OK based on the monitoring report. The project includes some enhancement I, so we
need to make sure the credit totals reflect this. The report talks about a piping cross vane and some bank erosion near
Old Concord Road, but overall the stream appears stable.
Veg looks fine as far a density, but there are issues with kudzu. Apparently over an acre was treated in 2007. We need
to look into this, as follow-up may be necessary.
The biggest issue I see is the buffer widths. Looking at the drawings in the monitoring report, many areas appear just
shy of 50 feet (maybe 40 to 45 feet). This needs to be looked into closely, as the project was designed in 2004. Some
credit reduction may be warranted due to buffer width. Talk with Todd on this one. This will be a fight given the players
involved.
More goodies to come,
Eric
Eric W. Kulz
Environmental Senior Specialist
N.C. Division of Water Quality
401 Oversight and Express Permitting Unit
2321 Crabtree Blvd., Suite 250
Raleigh, NC 27604
Phone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
E-mail correspondence to and from this address may be subject to the North Carolina Public Records Law and may be
disclosed to third parties