Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutWQCS00143_Remission (Request)_20200915JVVUJiI,II LI IVGIV'.!G IV. PIVVV I'fL V-.:/LVJ-TV II . - I JUSTIFICATION FOR REMISSION REQUEST Case Number: DV-2020-0090 Assessed Party: Town of Burnsville Permit No.: WQCS00143 County: Yancey Amount Assessed: $16,187.32 Please use this form when requesting remission of this civil penalty. You must also complete the "Request For Remission, Waiver of Right to an Administrative Hearing, and Stipulation of Facts" form to request remission of this civil penalty. You should attach any documents that you believe support your request and are necessary for the Director to consider in evaluating your request for remission. Please be aware that a request for remission is limited to consideration of the five factors listed below as they may relate to the reasonableness of the amount of the civil penalty assessed. Requesting remission is not the proper procedure for contesting whether the violation(s) occurred or the accuracy of any of the factual statements contained in the civil penalty assessment document. Pursuant to N.C.G.S. § t43B-282.1(c), remission of a civil penalty may be granted only when one or more of the following five factors apply. Please check each factor that you believe applies to your case and provide a detailed explanation, including copies of supporting documents, as to why the factor applies (attach additional pages as needed). (a) one or more of the civil penalty assessment factors in N.C.G.S. 143B-282.1(b) were wrongfully applied to the detriment of the petitioner (the assessment factors are listed in the civil penalty assessment document); (b) the violator promptly abated continuing environmental damage resulting from the violation (i.e., explain the steps that you took to correct the violation and prevent future occurrences); (c) the violation was inadvertent or a result of an accident (i.e., explain why the violation was unavoidable or something you could not prevent or prepare for); (d) the violator had not been assessed civil penalties for any previous violations; (e) payment of the civil penalty will prevent payment for the remaining necessary remedial actions (i.e., explain how payment of the civil penalty will prevent you from performing the activities necessary to achieve compliance). EXPLANATION: See ct c l�� 42 E��,�7 SE j 5 2020 UU 1ter QuL3!ity ' egionad Operations As'nevlile r egional Office In the Matter of Assessment Of Civil Penalties Against Town of Burnsville Burnsville Collection System Permit No. WQCS00143 Case No. DV-2020-0090 September 14, 2020 Explanation of Justification for Remission Request: EXPLANATION: SEP 15 2020 VVater Quality R Asheville F� As to each of the system failures listed in the NOVs between June 4, 2020 through June 28, 2020 the Town acted immediately with efforts to contain and stop spillage and limit environmental impact as swiftly as possible. Please see attached letter from the Town's Public Works Director Dillon Lundy to Landon Davidson, DEQ's Asheville Regional Office, summarizing each incident listed and the steps the Town immediately took to abate the impact of the spills. The Town incurred significant costs to address the breaks and failures of the pump stations. Since April 2020 the Town of Burnsville has spent $18,040.00 in engineering fees directly related to repairs, upgrades or replacement of the OMC Pump Station. The Project has been bid out 3 times with no bid coming in within budget to date. The project has since been revised by the engineers and is scheduled to bid again on September 17, 2020. To date the Town has paid $103,434.80 for repair work to Hyatt Pipeline and pumping trucks and a temporary by-pass pumping systems in addressing the serious failures of the Bakers Creek Pump Station and the OMC Pump Station and the East Main Street/Highway19E force main breaks. This amount does not include the significant amount of overtime paid to Town Forces to work on the breaks and failures as they occurred in a chain reaction. Additionally, on September 11, 2020 the Town remitted to North Carolina DEQ-DWI $16,128.00 in closing costs for a loan to make emergency repairs to both the force main and OMC Pump Station, and has received Division approval to borrow an additional $336,000.00 which is awaiting approval from the LGC to address the issues specifically with the OMC Pump Station. There will be additional closing costs associated with this increased debt. The Town has paid this year the sum of $4,611.96 for violations this year stemming from a failure of the force main in the same area in April. These issues were thought to be resolved with repairs paid for by the Town at the time; however, in June another break occurred setting off a chain of breaks further down the line and ultimately under Highway 19 E a four (4) lane road owned and maintained by NC DOT which bypasses the business district of Town. The broken line has been abandoned and new line under the road is being installed at this time. For the above listed reasons the Town respectfully request a full remission of all civil penalties charged in connection with these violations. There,sa Coletta, I'layor Jeanne Martin Town Clerk Heather Hockaday Town AdmmistratorlAttorney July 30, 2020 Mr. Landon Davidson Town of Burn8ville 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, Councilor,5: Judy Buchanan Deni8e Collier Ru&Sell Fox bunnie MCInto8h On June 4th, 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 larger jetting 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 20th1 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 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 2,760 minutes and resulted in the oss 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 (828) 682-2420 • FAX (828) 682-7757 • www.toWnofbura,sville.org 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