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PUBLIC HEARING
Cape Fear River
Dublin, NC, August 14, 2008, 6:30 p.m.
Hearing Officer:
Ed Beek
Good Evening. I would like to call this public hearing to order. My name is Ed Beck,
and I am the Surface Water Protection Supervisor in the Wilmington Regional Office.
have been designated by the Director of Water Quality as the hearing officer for today's
hearing.
This hearing is being held under the authority of the North Carolina General Statutes,
Chapter 143. In accordance with the General Statutes, public notice of this hearing was
published in the July 15th, 2008 edition of the North Carolina Register. In addition,
printed notices of this hearing were requested to appear in 2 local newspapers, which are
the Bladen Journal, and The Fayetteville Observer. Notices were also sent to those
people who have requested to be placed on the Water Quality Rule -Making
Announcements mailing list and Division of Water Quality Rules e-mail list, to staff of
local governments with jurisdiction over land adjacent to the waters proposed to be
reclassified, and to other persons who may wish to learn more about the proposed
reclassification, including staff of local interest groups, industries, environmental
organizations, companies, and state agencies.
The purpose of today's hearing is to obtain public comments on the proposed
reclassification of a segment of the Cape Fear River. In a moment, Elizabeth Kountis, a
Division of Water Quality staff member, will review this proposed reclassification for
you. There is additional information available at the registration table that describes the
proposal. The intent of this hearing is to solicit your comments on the proposed
reclassification including any economic and social costs and benefits of the proposal.
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A written report of this hearing will be prepared that will include a relevant comments,
questions and discussions. For this reason this hearing is being a I recorded. Written
comments received by September 15th, 2008 will also be include as part of the record.
Based on the public comments received by September 15th, and input and review of the
comments by the Division of Water Quality staff, we will make a recommendation to the
Environmental Management Commission. The recommendation may be to adopt the
proposed reclassification, to adopt a modified version of the proposal which may be more
or less stringent than the current proposal, or to take no action and retain the classification
currently in effect. Then the Environmental Management Commission will make its
decision by considering our recommendation, the written record, and any concerns of
other commission members. The Environmental Management Commission may adopt
our recommendation, modify it, or reject it. If the Commission wishes to adopt a rule that
differs substantially from what has been published in the North Carolina Register and
proposed this evening, it must first publish the text of the proposed different rule and
accept comments on the new text.
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At this time, I would like to recognize government officials that are here:
I would like to also recognize members of the Division of Water Quality's Planning
Section staff that are here:
• Alan Clark — Chief, Planning Section
• Jeff Manning — Supervisor, Classification and Standards Unit
• Sandra Moore — State Standards Co -coordinator, Classification and Standards Unit
• Nikki Remington — Surface Water and Groundwater Standards, Classification and
Standards Unit
• Matthew Faerber — Classifications, GIS and Mapping, Classification and Standards
Unit
• Gary Kreiser — Groundwater Variance and Rulemaking, Classification and Standards
Unit
• Nora Deamer — Cape Fear River Basin Planner, Basinwide Planning Program Unit
Other Department of Environment and Natural Resources staff here today include:
• Pete Caldwell — Supervisor, Intensive Survey Unit, Environmental Sciences
Section, Division of Water Quality
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Elizabeth Kountis will now give an overview of the proposed reclassification.
(Betsy's presentation)
Thank you, Elizabeth.
The Environmental Management Commission is very interested in all comments
pertaining to the proposed reclassification, whether they are in favor of or opposed to any
provisions of the proposed reclassification. All interested and potentially affected persons
or parties are encouraged to make comments on the proposal presented today. Please
know that your comments enable the Commission to act in the best interest of the public.
Please also remember that the intent of this hearing is to solicit your comments on the
proposed reclassification. It is important that you keep your comments concise and
relevant to the proposed reclassification. It is critical that we have time to get all your
comments on the proposed reclassification and will hear them first. Then if you have
other comments that you believe should be voiced to the staff or the Hearing Officer, we
will try to give additional time at the end of the hearing or stay here after the hearing to
hear those comments.
Comments will now be accepted. I will call on speakers in the order that you registered
for this hearing. When your naive is called, please come up to the microphone, and
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clearly and slowly state your name and any affiliation with an organization you may be
representing. If you have written copies of your comments, we would appreciate
receiving a copy of them. We may question speakers, if necessary, to clarify or learn
more about matters as they arise. After all the registered speakers have had an
opportunity to comment, anyone who did not register to speak or desires additional time
to speak will have the opportunity to comment. Please remember that Division of Water
Quality staff will be available after the hearing to address any additional questions or
comments that you may have.
<<<(if n lnrgp n.ijrnher ofneonle have reauested to speak, i.e.
# People who wish to speak
**Time limit per speaker
1-20
None
21-30
4 minutes
31 +
3 minutes
insert the following if necessary) Because a large number of people have requested to
speak, it will be necessary to impose a time limit of _ (** see above choice of 3 or 4)
minutes. A member of the Division of Water Quality staff, (person's name),
located here next to me (look at and nod at that person) will be timing the comments and
will hold up a sign indicating when you have one minute remaining to speak. We
appreciate your cooperation with this time limit so that everyone who wishes to speak is
able to do so.)>>>
I will now call on the first speaker.
(call speakers in the order that they registered)
Are there any additional comments?
If there are no more comments, then this hearing is declared as closed. The hearing
record will remain open until September 15th, 2008. This means that any time between
today and September 15th, anyone can submit written comments to Ms. Kountis, and
these written comments will be made part of the public record. As I mentioned earlier,
after the comment period ends on September 15th and Division of Water Quality staff
provide a review of those comments and their input, we will make a recommendation to
the Environmental Management Commission, and then the Commission will make a
decision regarding the reclassification. The proposed effective date for the final State
rule pursuant to this hearing process is estimated to be May 1, 2009. Thank you for
coming to this hearing.
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