WQCS00143_NOV-2020-DV-0333 Response_20200804

Theresa Coletta, Mayor
Jeanne Martin
Town Clerk
Heather Hockaday
Town Administrator/Attorney
July 30, 2020
Mr. Landon Davidson
Town of Burnsville
NC Department of Environmental Quality
Asheville Regional Office
Division of Water Resources
2090 US 70 Highway
Swannanoa, NC 28778-8211
Subject: NOV-2020-DV-0333
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
o azmu
+` AUG 0 3 2020
Water Quality Regional Operations
Asheville Regional Office
On June 4`h, 2020, the Town of Burnsville had a Sanitary Sewer Overflow (SSO) on Westover Dr near PNC
Bank. The cause of the SSO was due to a blockage in the line that would not break free. The Town called
Mountain Environmental to come up with their largerjetting machine and had a by-pass pump in route
from Xylem. This lasted for 630 minutes and resulted in the loss of 126,000 gallons of raw sewage.
On June 18th, 2020, The Town of Burnsville had a Sanitary Sewer Overflow (SSO) at the Bakers Creek
Pump Station. The cause of this was due to pump one impeller being jammed and pump two had a
pinhole in the elbow which created the dry well to flood shorting out the system. We had Mayland and
Carolina Pumper bring their pump trucks while we worked to fix the issue along with instream sampling.
This lasted for 315 minutes and resulted in the loss of 9,000 gallons of raw sewage.
On June 201h, 2020, The Town of Burnsville had a Sanitary Sewer Overflow (SSO) at the intersection of E
Main St. and 19E Bypass. This was due to a force main break, we had Hyatt Pipeline come and start
digging while wgpcalled in the pump trucks. The pump trucks pumped from OMC Pump Station and
hauled to the manhole near the McDonalds in town. This lasted for 2,760 minutes and resulted in the
loss of 180,000 gallons to be discharged into Little Crabtree Creek.
On June 27th, 2020, The Town of Burnsville had a Sanitary Sewer Overflow (SSO) at the intersection of E
Main St. and 19E Bypass. This was due to a force main break that was closer to highway 19, we had
Hyatt Pipeline come and start digging while we called in the pump trucks. The pump trucks pumped
from OMC Pump Station and hauled to the manhole near the McDonalds in town. This lasted for 570
minutes resulting in the loss of 156,750 gallons of raw sewage to be discharged into the Little Crabtree
Creek.
P.O. Box 97 • Burnsville, North Carolina 28714 • Phone [phone] • FAX [phone] • www.townofburn8ville.or8

On June 281h, 2020, The Town of Burnsville had a Sanitary Sewer Overflow (SSO) at the OMC Pump
Station. Pump 1 went down with a broken impeller, and a large hole blew out on the elbow where pump
two sat. Along with this after working on the pumps we found that the force main was broken
underneath of US 19E Bypass. We had pump trucks running while repairs were being made.
Unfortunately, we were unable to fix the line under the road so we had Xylem and Hyatt Pipeline run
bypass pumping for a temporary fix until we can get the funds in order to run a new force main from the
OMC Pump Station to the new line. This lasted for 1,740 minutes and resulted in losing 424,500 gallons
of raw sewage into the Little Crabtree Creek.
The Town had 200 linear feet of new force main put in, this was before the break underneath the road.
Once we found out that the line broke underneath the road we had a bypass pump installed to abandon
the broken line and to stop the SSO. Currently, the Town and McGill are waiting on approval from the
State and from the Council to appropriate funding to running a new force main. It is looking like it should
all be approved in the upcoming week and we can begin work to have a new force main along with a
new OMC Pump Station.
Sincerely,
Dillon Lundy
Public Works Director
Town of Burnsville