3424_CORR_20170630

PO Box 12339 Telephone: [phone]
Winston-Salem, NC 27117 www.abbeygreen.com Fax: [phone]

June 30, 2017

North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality
Winston Salem Regional Office
450 West Hanes Mill Rd.
Suite 300
Winston Salem, NC 27105

Originals to SH by mail

Attention: Susan Heim

Subject: Response to June 27th, 2017 letter and request for an extension to resolve.

Dear Ms. Heim,

Addressing your letter of June 27th, 2017 giving a status of corrective measures in progress
toward resolving Notice of Violations, and in requesting specific timeframes for resolution,
Abbey Green offers the following response:

For seven years NC DEQ worked closely with Abbey Green to further the benefits of recycling.
We at Abbey Green are highly motivated to protect the environment as part of our operations.
We appreciated the Section’s openness to our methods, which have led to over 200,000 tons of
debris being recycled and diverted from the state’s landfills. This represents almost 400,000
CY of landfill volume which can be saved for other purposes.

The Section has worked with Abbey Green over these years regarding 1. The south site aging
of Trommel Overs in the production of soil and 2. The handling and loading of Processed
Residual open to the weather. As such, DEQ (both Inspections and Permitting) closely
cooperated with the permit reissue on April 13th, 2016. The Section fully agreed to these two
important processes which are very specific in our permit and Operating Plan. Therefore we are
not in agreement with your findings in your inspection reports regarding the open NOVs and
again as stated in your latest letter of June 27th.

After your January, February, and April inspections (reports issued on March 22nd and April 4th)
it became clear to Abbey Green that DEQ has materially changed their interpretation of the
regulations which will require a significant departure from our traditional business to
comply.

We hold DEQ has materially altered the ground rules, which are core to how we operate.
Additionally at the time of your first quarter 2017 inspections, we were in process of making
major changes to our site to move the wood grinding, expanding soil production, and moving
our concrete crushing operations. Your findings have caused our operation to be injured both in
lost opportunity cost to further our business interests and in additional operating cost. These
costs are material to our business. We fear additional injury, and we are putting the State on
notice to our right to seek injunctive relief of this new regulatory posture through the
administrative court system.
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PO Box 12339 Telephone: [phone]
Winston-Salem, NC 27117 www.abbeygreen.com Fax: [phone]

However, we do not wish for our relationship to become further adversarial. We believe a better
path to success is a cooperative approach to resolve DEQ’s concerns. We hope the Section
would understand the time frames imposed to respond, especially in your findings of late March
and early April, are too aggressive, especially in light to the potential operating costs and capital
cost impacts which are material to our ongoing business and viability.

Therefore, we formally request an extension of time as you have requested in your June 27th
letter to address your largest concerns and the open NOVs associated with those.
Summarizing these would be:

1. A reduction of the total storage volume of the material on the South Site in the aging of
Trommel Overs. Additionally, Abbey Green will address the Section’s concern regarding
the character of this material. This will address the Section’s assertion that this material
does meet the definition of Trommel Overs; specifically the size and the amount of the
contamination present in the material. (NOVs 6, 7, and 8 March 22) The resolution of
this probably will require additional capital expense and changes to handling and
screening processes.

2. A plan and capital improvements to assure that Processed Residual and Unprocessed
C&D will not be left open to the weather or that water which comes in contact with either
will be directed to the sanitary sewer. (NOV 1 March 22)

3. A resolution to the disagreement of permitted activities on the Leased Site (NOV 1 April
4)

4. Modifications to our permit and Operations Plan to address these issues.

Specifically, we propose the following timeframes, process and conditions with the final outcome
to be a Memorandum of Understanding to be signed by both parties.

Progress report, proposed actions and time frames:

1. South Site
a. Abbey Green has communicated our goal to have all material on the South Site
screened and moved by June 30, 2017. Abbey Green has continued to process
soils on days when conditions permit. We have learned that deck screening
results in a higher yield of soil from Trommel Overs. We now fully expect to
achieve greater than a 95% yield from this process. However we have faced
several unforeseen challenges:
i. The Section caused us a several week delay because we were unsure of
where to place processed soils because of the disagreement concerning
wood processing on the Leased Site. Until the Section agreed to allow us
to store Clean Wood on the Leased Site, this was a problem for us.
ii. The screen plant purchased using Abbey Green and RBAC funds
required an engine replacement. This resulted in a three week delay.
iii. The extremely wet weather since mid-April has resulted in only 8 days
where the material was dry enough to screen. We have been pleased in
our progress on those few days, however we do not yet have enough
data to estimate the time to complete. Realistically however we would
anticipate that a preliminary goal to resolve would be December 31, 2017
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PO Box 12339 Telephone: [phone]
Winston-Salem, NC 27117 www.abbeygreen.com Fax: [phone]
iv. Abbey Green will give periodic updates on our progress to Susan Heim
v. Abbey Green will submit a written plan by August 11, 2017 which will give
milestones and a timeframe goal to finish the project.
b. Regarding the character of Trommel Overs
i. Abbey Green will submit a plan in capital improvements and modifications
to the permit/Operations plan by November 10, 2017. This will probably
include capital improvements to our sort line and line screening which
may require additional civil work and structure additions. This process will
require support from Permitting, probably Ming-tai Chao, in an interactive
discussion prior to final submission of the plan
ii. DEQ accepts the permit changes by November 24, 2017 and shortly
afterward issues the permit modification.
iii. Depending on the agreed resolution, we hope a goal of resolution of the
Section’s concern by December 31, 2018 is possible.

2. Regarding Processed Residual and Unprocessed C&D will not be left open to the
weather or that water which comes in contact with either will be directed to the sanitary
sewer. This will probably require capital improvements including additional civil work
and structure additions
a. Abbey Green will submit a plan in capital improvements and modifications to the
permit/Operations plan by October 31, 2017. This process will require support
from Permitting, again probably Ming-tai Chao in an interactive discussion prior
to final submission of the plan.
b. DEQ accepts the permit changes by November 15, 2017 and shortly afterward
issues the permit modification.
c. Depending on the agreed resolution, we hope a goal of resolution of the
Section’s concern by April 30, 2018 is possible.

3. Regarding grinding of only Clean Wood in the production of boiler fuel and mulches and
the crushing of concrete on the Hans Holding Leased Site:
a. Written permission by the Section to grind only Clean Wood on this site until
December 31, 2017. This would be in the areas defined by the drawings
approved by Forsyth County under Zoning Permit Z1700441. Clean Wood is
defined by our operational manual Section 2.1.3. For clarity this excludes
Engineered Wood 2.1.4.
b. Abbey Green will file a permit modification by November 7, 2017 to clearly state
the use of this site. However a “line in the sand” for us is including the land
owner, Hans Holding LLC, to be adjoined to the permit. We would consider a
side letter where Hans Holding acknowledges use of the site for permit purposes
as long as it be clear that Hans Holding is indemnified for alleged breaches of
Abbey Green’s permit by DEQ.

Requested Conditions:

A. All permit changes would be in response only to those items which are currently in
discussion on the five NOVs that are now currently open listed above. The Section
would wait until the next formal permit review to request additional changes to our
permit.

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PO Box 12339 Telephone: [phone]
Winston-Salem, NC 27117 www.abbeygreen.com Fax: [phone]
B. The State not request “interim” solutions of changes to procedures defined in our permit
of April 13, 2016 until such time as we have finally resolved Section concerns. This
does not imply Abbey Green would not take appropriate care in its operations prior to
final resolution.

C. A separate written indemnification of liability to Hans Holding LLC from the State
specifically for the NOV 1 April 4 finding that Abbey Green began grinding on this site
without a permit.

We seek to enter into discussions to resolve our differences at your earliest convenience.
Would you be prepared to have a first conversation July 5th?

Sincerely,

Randall Baker
Vice President and General Manager