WQCS00143_Remission (Request)_20200915

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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:
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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 [phone] • FAX [phone] • 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