20080737 All Versions_Other Agency Comments_20080820

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UNITED STATES ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
REGION 4
i ATLANTA FEDERAL CENTER
;F \ar 61 FORSYTH STREET
+144 PROSATLANTA GEORGIA 30303-8960
August 20, 2008
Colonel Jefferson Ryscavage
District Engineer
Attn Richard Spencer, Project Manager
USAED-RG, Wilmington
P O Box 1890
Wilmington, NC 28402-1890
Subject North Carolina Department of Transportation Fayetteville Outer Loop (TIP
Nos U-2519 and X-0002 B and C), Action ID No 2008-01413
Dear Colonel Ryscavage
This is in response to the Public Notice for the North Carolina Department of
Transportation's (NCDOT) Fayetteville Outer Loop (FOL) (TIP Nos U-2519 and X-
0002B and C), dated August 8, 2008 The proposed project runs from I-95 South of
Fayetteville to NC 24/87 in Cumberland and Robeson Counties Sections X-0002B and
C and U-2519 DA and E of the project have a final design, while Sections U-2519 AA,
AB, BA, BB, CA, and CB are in preliminary design Construction is only considered at
this time for the sections where a final design has been completed Total impacts from
the project are estimated to be 48 43 acres of wetlands (34 84 acres rnverme, 13 59 acres
non-rnverme), 13,232 linear feet of stream, and 3 67 acres of ponds These impacts are
located in the Cape Fear (03030004) and Lumber (03040203) river basins As
compensation for the wetland and stream impacts (including all sections regardless of
stage of design), NCDOT proposes to debit wetland and stream credits from the existing
Privateer Farms Mitigation Site, at a 1 5 tol ratio The Privateer Farms Mitigation Site is
located in Cape Fear 03030005
The U S Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Region 4 Wetlands
Regulatory Section has reviewed the Public Notice, other documents on file, on-line
monitoring reports for the Privateer Farms site, and wetland assessment forms (North
Carolina Wetlands Assessment Method, or NCWAM) for both the FOL wetland sites and
the Privateer Farms site Kathy Matthews of the Wetlands Section staff participated in a
field meeting at the Privateer Farms site on September 18, 2007, and in a second meeting
on September 20, 2007
The Privateer Farms site is a three or four year old forested mitigation site, which
has generally shown successful wetland and stream restoration The site monitoring will
not be completed, nor deemed successful by the agencies until at least five years of
monitoring have been completed However, it appears that the site is on track to be
successful after the five year monitoring period The site is located in the Middle
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Atlantic Coastal Plain Ecoregion (Carolina Flatwoods Subecoregion), Cape Fear
cataloguing unit (CU) 03030005, while the FOL impacts are located in Southeastern
Plains Ecoregion, Cape Fear CU 03030004 and Lumber CU 03040203 In addition, some
of the stream impacts-are-located-mthu-Sand u ecoregion o e Sou eastern
Plains
EPA supports the North Carolina Interagency Review Team (IRT) requirement
that, in general, all mitigation should be provided within the same 8-digit CU In the
past, we and the other regulatory agencies have allowed compensation to be provided
outside of the 8-digit CU, along with higher ratios of mitigation
The Privateer Farms site is one of the larger wetland and stream restoration sites
in North Carolina Although it is located in a different watershed and ecoregion, it is
relatively close to the impact sites, and only six miles from the boundary of the Cape Fear
03030004 CU At this time, there are no constructed wetland and stream mitigation sites
in Cape Fear 03030004, which could be used for the FOL impacts, and this site is
considered "surplus" mitigation The use of this site for project-specific mitigation is
considered to be one step toward relieving the surplus in the Cape Fear 03030005 CU
Finally, NCDOT has stated that the site was historically planned as project-specific
compensation for the FOL impacts
NCDOT and its contractors used NCWAM to assess 31 of the wetland impact
sites for the proposed FOL, and three areas of the wetlands on the Privateer Farms site
Most of the wetland sites along the FOL rated as high, with only one medium, and two
low assessment scores However, 1/3 of the sites rated medium or low for the habitat
sub-function, which NCDOT states is typically because the trees are not mature In this
instance, this 1/3 of the sites is similar to the Privateer wetlands, which rate high for
water quality and hydrology sub-functions, but low for habitat because the trees are not
mature We note that although 1/3 of the wetland impact sites also rated low or medium
for the habitat sub-function, 20 (2/3) of the sites rated high for habitat sub-function, and
18 (60 percent) rated high for all three sub-functions Further, after examination of the
hydraulic design drawings for X-0002B, X-0002C, U-2519DA and U-2519E, it appears
that by acreage, at least 85 percent of the impacts associated with those sections of the
FOL are high quality wetlands (NCDOT did not rate all of the wetland impact sites, and
we assume the unrated sites are medium quality) EPA does not have specific wetland
impact acreage for sites along U-2519 CA or CB, but 84 percent of the sites rated on
those two sections are high quality
Likewise, NCDOT and its contractors used the draft version of NC Stream
Assessment Method to assess two stream reaches along the proposed FOL right-of-way,
and also assessed the restored stream at three locations on the Privateer Farms site. One
VOL site (stable stream with a mature buffer), rated high, and the other (without a mature
buffer and with a disturbed streamside area) rated low The Privateer Farms stream
reaches all scored high overall, but scored low for the habitat sub-function mainly due to
lack of mature stream-side area and in-stream habitat types
2
Given all of the considerations stated above, EPA believes that it is appropriate to
use portions of the Privateer Farms site to compensate for the wetland and stream impacts
from the proposed FOL project However, we do not believe that a mitigation ratio of 1 5
tots appropnate-Fnr-wetland-impacts; irneritt a ra io o -2-1- These ra io
recommendations take into account that the mitigation site has been constructed and is, to
date, demonstrating successful restoration It also takes into account the overall
NCWAM rating of high quality However, it also accounts for the out-of-CU, out-of-
ecoregion location of the mitigation, and temporal loss of mature forested wetlands
The NC IRT has not determined how to deal with the issue of mitigation sites that
rate high overall, but have a low score for the habitat sub-function due to immature
(though successful) plantings There is a temporal loss associated with impacts to mature
(or relatively mature) forested wetlands, when replaced with a newly planted site EPA
typically recommends a 2 1 ratio to account for this temporal loss, which can last decades
beyond the five year monitoring period Until the IRT comes to an agreement on how to
address this issue, EPA recommends that the mitigation ratio for constructed wetland
mitigation sites remain generally at 2 1 or higher
Thank you for the opportunity to comment on this project If you have any
questions or comments, please contact Kathy Matthews, of my staff, at 919-541-3062, or
matthews kathy@epa gov
Sincerely,
n ?_J
Thomas C Welborn
Chief
Wetlands, Coastal and Nonpoint Source Branch
cc USFWS
NCDWQ
NCWRC
NCNHP
NCDOT/PDEA