NC0025496_Remission (Decision)_20231115

North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality  Division of Water Resources
512 North Salisbury Street  1617 Mail Service Center  Raleigh, North Carolina 27699-1617 -- 919.707.3616

ROY COOPER
Governor
ELIZABETH BISER
Secretary
R ICHARD E. ROGERS, JR
Director
November 15, 2023
CERTIFIED MAIL # 7019-1120-0001-4877-5508
RETURN RECEIPT REQUESTED

Richard Haynes, City Manager
City of Charlotte - Sugar Creek WWTP
PO Box 617
Lincolnton, North Carolina 28093 -0617

Subject: Your Request to Remit Civil Penalties
for Case # LV-2023-0089
NPDES Permit NC0025496
Lincolnton WWTP, WPCS Grade WW-2
Lincoln County
Mr. Haynes:
The Division of Water Resources (DWR or the Division) has considered your information submitted in support of
your request to remit civil penalties in the subject case. In accordance with NCGS 143-215.6A(f), the Division
has granted partial remission of 25% (excluding enforcement costs), i.e., the initial penalties, totaling $4,683.03
[$4,500.00 civil penalties plus $183.03 Enforcement Costs], have been reduced.
It follows that your outstanding balance [$4,500 - $1,125 = $3,375 plus $183.03] = $3,555.03 is now due and
payable. If you choose to pay this reduced penalty, send payment to the address below within thirty (30) days of
receiving this letter. However, two (2) response options are available to you:

1) You may pay this balance. If you decide to remit the balance, please make your check payable
to the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ). Send payment to:
Attention: Wren Thedford
NCDEQ/DWR/SWPS/Point Source Branch
NPDES Permitting Unit
1617 Mail Service Center
Raleigh, North Carolina 27699-1617
Note: If your payment is not received within thirty (30) days of this letter, your request for
penalty remission, with its supporting documents (together with DWR’s recommendations),
will be delivered to the North Carolina Environmental Management Commission’s (EMC’s)
Committee on Civil Penalty Remissions (the Committee) for final agency decision.

OR you may…

2) Request to make an oral presentation to the EMC Committee explaining why your request for
remission meets one or more of the five statutory factors you previously addressed. If you so
desire, you must complete and return the enclosed Request for Oral Presentation form within
thirty (30) days of receiving this letter.

Please mail completed form [attached] to:
Attention: Bob Sledge
NCDEQ / DWR / NPDES / Point Source Branch
1617 Mail Service Center
Raleigh, NC 27699-1617
Your request for an oral presentation and its supporting documents will be reviewed by the EMC Chairman and, if
it is determined that there is a compelling reason to require your oral presentation, the Commission will notify you
by certified mail of a date, time, and place to present. Otherwise, the final decision on your request for remission
will be made by the Committee based on the written record.

Thank you for your continued cooperation in this matter. If you have questions about this transmittal, please
contact me at [[e-mail]].

Sincerely,

__________________________
Joe R. Corporon, P.G.
Compliance and Expedited Permitting Unit

Enclosed: Request for Oral Presentation form
Attached: Case LV-2023-0089 Remission Summary for Signature – signed;
Civil Penalty Assessment (CPA)_20230316

ec: Enforcement Case File LV-2023-0089
DWR Mooresville Regional Office (MRO), attn. Wes Bell, Andrew Pitner.
Central Files: [Laserfiche]

STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT COMMISSION
COUNTY OF LINCOLN ) DEQ Case Number LV-2023-0089
IN THE MATTER OF ASSESSMENT OF
CIVIL PENALTIES AGAINST: ) REQUEST FOR ORAL PRESENTATION
City of Lincolnton, Lincolnton WWTP
Richard Haynes, City Manager )
I hereby request to make an oral presentation before the Environmental Management Commission’s
Committee on Civil Penalty Remissions in the matter of the case noted above. In making this request, I
assert that I understand all of the following statements:
• This request will be reviewed by the Chairman of the Environmental
Management Commission and may be either granted or denied.
• Making a presentation will require the presence of myself and/or my
representative during a Committee meeting held in Raleigh, North Carolina.
• My presentation will be limited to discussion of issues and information submitted
in my original remission request, and because no factual issues are in dispute,
my presentation will be limited to five (5) minutes in length.
The North Carolina State Bar’s Authorized Practice of Law Committee has ruled that the appearance in a
representative capacity at quasi-judicial hearings or proceedings is limited to lawyers who are active
members of the bar. Proceedings before the Committee on Remissions are quasi-judicial. You should
consider how you intend to present your case to the Committee in light of the State Bar’s opinion and
whether anyone will be speaking in a representative capacity for you or a bu siness or governmental entity.
If you or your representative would like to speak before the Committee, you must complete and return this
form within thirty (30) days of receipt of this letter.

Depending on your status as an individual, corporation, partnership or municipality, the State Bar’s Opinion affects how
you may proceed with your oral presentation. See www.ncbar.com/ethics, Authorized Practice Advisory Opinion 2006-1
and 2007 Formal Ethics Opinion 3.

• If you are an individual or business owner and are granted an opportunity to make an oral presentation before
the Committee, then you do not need legal representation before the Committee; however, if you intend on
having another individual speak on your behalf regarding the factual situations, such as an expert, engineer or
consultant, then you must also be present at the meeting in order to avoid violating the State Bar’s Opinion on
the unauthorized practice of law.
• If you are a corporation, partnership or municipality and are granted an opportunity to make an oral
presentation before the Committee, then your representative must consider the recent State Bar’s Opinion and
could be considered practicing law without a license if he or she is not a licensed attorney. Presentation of facts
by non-lawyers is permissible.

If you choose to request an oral presentation, please make sure that signatures on the previously submitted Remission
Request form and this Oral Presentation Request form are: 1) for individuals and business owners, your own signature
and 2) for corporations, partnerships and municipalities, signed by individuals who would not violate the State Bar’s
Opinion on the unauthorized practice of law.

Also, be advised that the Committee on Civil Penalty Remissions may choose not to proceed with hearing your case if the
Committee is informed that a violation of the State Bar occurs.
This the day of , 20 .

SIGNATURE TITLE (President, Owner, etc.)

ADDRESS
TELEPHONE ( )
DIVISION OF WATER RESOURCES
CIVIL PENALTY REMISSION FACTORS

Case Number: LV-2023-0089 Region: Mooresville County: Lincoln
Assessed Entity: City of Lincolnton WWTP Permit: NC0025496

(a) Whether one or more of the civil penalty assessment factors were wrongly applied to
the detriment of the petitioner:
Permittee [not asserted]:
DWR Response:

(b) Whether the violator promptly abated continuing environmental damage resulting
from the violation:
Permittee Asserts: The heavy rainfall event occurred caused the solids wash out and resulted in the
TSS exceedance. It was the only day with a significantly high TSS of the month, which should prove
that they promptly abated the solids washout. The only other operational strategy they could have
employed would have been to cut off two of their main lift station influent pumps and let the flow
stabilize to the WWTP at around 5 MGD. However, that would have caused several sanitary sewer
overflows (SSO) within their collection system. The permittee chose not to implement that strategy as
the SSO would have had a far greater environmental impact. They believed they made the right
decision in that situation and the event was beyond their control. Without this one-day rain event
occurrence and TSS exceedance, the facility would have been compliant with their NPDES permit for
December 2022.
DWR Response: It is the permittee’s responsibility to ensure that both the collection system and
wastewater treatment facility are properly operated and maintained at all times. The City would have
been in violation of unpermitted discharges and subject to potential civil penalties if the SSOs were
chosen to be created instead.

(c) Whether the violation was inadvertent or a result of an accident:
Permittee Asserts: The City of Lincolnton and surrounding areas experienced a 3.5-inch rainfall
event that inundated the WWTP with a massive amount of Infiltration & Inflow from December 15 to
December 16, 2022. The facility sustained a flow rate of 11 MGD for a period lasting about 4 hours
and a period above 6 MGD for several hours before and after the 11 MGD rain event. The WWTP
has a design flow of 6 MGD with all treatment units in proper working order, but one of the two
clarifiers was out of service, as noted in the annual plant inspection.
With the heavy rain event and one clarifier left, the facility experienced a solids washout for the
clarifier. They tried cutting the blowers off that supply air to their aeration basin in hopes of keeping
the solids from overloading the final clarifier, but the duration of the high flow rate pushed solids
from the aeration basin into the clarifier. The high flow rate was too great for the solids to settle out,
and thus the solids washed over the weirs and into the effluent. The washed-out solids were captured
by the effluent sampler and resulted in the TSS reading of 843 mg/L for December 16, 2022.
DWR Response: The inoperable final clarifier has been out of service since early 2021. Both
clarifiers are well over 20 years old and the City started the application process for emergency
funding in 2022. The City is attempting to secure funding to rehabilitate both final clarifiers since
both units have been in operation for the same period of time. It is the permittee’s responsibility to
ensure the wastewater treatment facility is properly operated and maintained at all times.

DocuSign Envelope ID: 7782862B-268D-44C0-B9B9-4FE0841A5D66

(d) Whether the violator had been assessed civil penalties for any previous violations:
Permittee [not asserted]:
DWR Response:

(e) Whether payment of the civil penalty will prevent payment for the remaining
necessary remedial actions:
Permittee [not asserted]:
DWR Response:

CPA $4,683.03 [$4,500.00 civil penalties plus $183.03 Enforcement Costs]

DECISION (Check One)
Request Denied
Full Remission Retain Enforcement Costs? Yes No

Original Penalty (without Enforcement Costs) $4,500.00
Partial Remission (25% or) -- $1,125.00
_______________________________
Subtotal $3,375.00

Retaining Enforcement Costs $183.03
_______________________________
Total Revised Assessment $3,555.03

for Richard E. Rogers, Jr. Date

Based upon the …findings of fact and conclusions of law, …the Mooresville Regional Office
(MRO) …makes the following civil penalty assessment against the City of Lincolnton WWTP:

$1,125.00 1 of 1 violations of G.S. 143-215.1(a)(6) and Permit No. NC0025496, by discharging
wastewater into the waters of the State in violation of the Permit Monthly Average for
Solids, Total Suspended - Concentration

$3,375.00 1 of 1 violations of G.S. 143-215.1(a)(6) and Permit No. NC0025496, by discharging
wastewater into the waters of the State in violation of the Permit Weekly Average for
Solids, Total Suspended - Concentration

$4,500.00 TOTAL CIVIL PENALTY

$183.03 Enforcement Costs

$4,683.03 TOTAL AMOUNT DUE

DocuSign Envelope ID: 7782862B-268D-44C0-B9B9-4FE0841A5D66
11/2/2023