20170359 Ver 1_WRC Comments_20170424

Strickland, Bev
From: Leslie, Andrea J
Sent: Monday, April 24, 2017 2:32 PM
To: john vilas [e-mail]); Jon Swaim
Cc: Moore, Andrew W; 'Elliott, William A CIV USARMY CESAW (US)'
Subject: Grandfather GCC - special considerations
Hi John and Jon,
I wanted to summarize our concerns and ideas about the Grandfather Golf & CC (GGCC) dredging
project. I'm poised to send NCWRC's official comments on the 404/401, but thought it would be wise to work
out some ideas about turbidity monitoring with you beforehand. Due to the quality of the downstream
resource (excellent wild Brown and Rainbow Trout fishery, rare and endemic Grandfather Mountain Crayfish)
and because you have requested to work within the trout moratorium, we'd like some specific measures
incorporated to minimize risk to the Linville River. We worked out some of measures during our
conversations in Fall 2015 for the dam repair project. Most of these ideas were also discussed on our site visit,
but we didn't talk about turbidity monitoring. Here are our key recommendations:
• We'll allow GGCC to work during the Rainbow Trout Moratorium/ latter half of the Brown Trout
moratorium—January 1- April 15.
• As the spoil site is to be placed on a steep hillside that is already fashioned into a plateau by spoil,
geotechnical analysis should be performed of the spoil site to ensure that it can hold the spoil
anticipated. In addition, a sediment and erosion control plan for the spoil site should be developed,
including measures (in addition to silt fences) that will keep sediment on site.
• Oversight of project activities should be overseen by McGill staff. I recommend a daily site visit during
dredging activities.
Flows must be maintained in the Linville River at all times, with a minimum of 2 cfs.
As the project will be performed during the trout moratorium, we ask that GGCC monitor turbidity
with a turbidity meter during project activities. My thoughts are that at a minimum, this should be
done at least 2x/day during dredging. Turbidity readings could be reported daily to McGill and shared
with NCWRC if over a certain threshold, which could be related to some background level. Can you
come up with some specific guidelines here?
Andrea
Andrea Leslie
Mountain Habitat Conservation Coordinator
NC Wildlife Resources Commission
20830 Great Smoky Mountain Expressway
Waynesville, NC 28786
828-558-6011; 828-400-4223 (cell)
www.ncwildlife.org

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