WQCS00132_Correspondence_20190318

ROY COOPER
Governor
MICHAEL S. REGAN
Secretary
Kim H. Colson
Director
Mr. Chad Simons, Town Manager
Town of Murphy
5 Wofford Street
Murphy, NC 28906
NORTH CAROLINA
Environmental Quality
March 18, 2019
Subject: Emergency Funding Consideration to resolve SSOs at 123 Woodland Drive
Dear Mr. Simons,
Thank you for your inquiry with the Division of Water Infrastructure on January 17, 2019
requesting the situation in the Town of Murphy be evaluated for emergency funding under
§15913-33(a)(4) for repeated sanitary sewer overflows (SSOs) at the manhole located behind US
Forest Service offices at 123 Woodland Drive.
Staff from the Division of Water Resources' Asheville Regional Office have visited the
site and discussions continue with your consulting engineer. We recognize that these SSOs have
been happening for some time and may be more frequent with recent heavier rainfall. However,
there does not appear to be any recent change to the infrastructure that would have increased the
frequency of SSOs. We understand that your consulting engineer continues to evaluate the
situation to fully understand the deficiencies in the lines.
We do not think it is appropriate at this time to file an application for an emergency loan.
Rather, we would like to help you prepare a funding application through our routine funding
program for a rehabilitation or replacement project that will address the SSOs into the Hiwassee
River once the detailed evaluation of this sewer basin takes place to ensure a full solution is
proposed.
We will be glad to provide you or your consultant with any needed guidance on our
priority rating system and in completing an application for funding during our Spring 2019 round
of applications (deadline is April 30th). If the Authority approves the project for funding at the
Authority's July meeting, we will work with you to expedite the funding process by reviewing an
Engineering Report and Plans and Specifications simultaneously to move the project to
construction as soon as possible.
��curouE
mennia,nry
North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality I Division of Water Infrastructure
512 N. Salisbury Street 11633 Mail Service Center I Raleigh, North Carolina 27699-1633
919.707.9160

Mr. Chad Simons, Town Manager
March 18, 2019
Page 2 of 2
If you have questions, please contact Anita E. Robertson, PE, Wastewater Projects Unit
Supervisor at 919-707-9174.
Sincerely,
Kim H. Colson, PE
Director
cc: Joel Storrow, PE, McGill Associates, Asheville
Anita E. Robertson, PE (via email)
Landon Davidson, DWR Asheville Regional Office (via email)
Linda Culpepper, DWR Director (via email)