WQCS00143_NOV-2020-DV-0088_20200330

Theresa Coletta, Mayor
Jeanne Martin
Tome Clerk
Heather Hockaday
Town ddministratorlAttorney
March 23, 2020
Town of Burn8ville
Mr. Landon Davidson
NC Department of Environmental Quality
Asheville Regional Office
Division of Water Resources
2090 US 70 Highway
Swannanoa, NC 28778-8211
Subject: NOV-2020-DV-0088
Sanitary Sewer Overflows
Collection System Permit No. WQCS00143
Burnsville Collection System
Yancey County
Dear Mr. Davidson,
Councilors:
Judy Buchanan
Denise Collier
Russell fox
Bunnie McIntosh
WaleAfp�' L ;;ions
MAR 3 0 2020
Water Quality Regional Operations
Asheville Regional Office
On February 6`h, 2020, The Town of Burnsville had a Sanitary Sewer Overflow (SSO). The cause of this
was due to the heavy rain which then resulted in flooding and the OMC Pump Station could not keep up
with the high flows. The dry wells ended up filling up with water and shorting out the pumps, resulting
in the OMC Pump Station to fail and overflow.
The OMC Pump Station was down for 9.5 hours. The maintenance crew was alerted, and they
responded in a timely manner. They used three sump pumps to try and keep the dry wells and flow
down so that the OMC Pump Station would not overflow. Unfortunately, the pumps overheated and
with the high levels of water they shorted out. We then proceeded to buy a new sump pump and dried
out the other sump pumps to get them back up and running, we were able to get the dry well pumped
out and the OMC was back online with in this time frame. With the OMC Pump Station down we lost
360,000 gallons of raw sewage which was immediately reported to Tim Heim.
The Town has been working with McGill Associates, the Town's engineering firm to reconstruct the OMC
Pump Station which is on track to be completed by the end of November of the this year. This includes a
whole new pump station, building, pumps, and grade work. We have also made sure to have extra sump
pumps on hand if this situation arises again.
Sincer ,
Dillon Lundy
Public Works Director
P.O. Box 97 • Burnsville, North Carolina 2874 • Phone [phone] • FAX [phone] • anvw.townofburnsville.org