SW3200601_Add Info_20200923

Farkas, Jim J
From:Farkas, Jim J
Sent:Wednesday, September 23, 2020 12:57 PM
To:Shaw, Della
Subject:SW3200601 - Speedway Substation
Della,

th
I was looking over the additional information you provided on August 25, 2020. Everything looks good except for a few
small issues:

Please correct the following:
- Original Comment 2, Surface Water Areas – The way we define it, surface waters are present on-site if they
appear as a blue line stream on the USGS topographic map (Which appears to be the case with the ephemeral
stream). If you believe that the USGS topographic map is incorrect and that there are no surface waters located
on-site, you can appeal per 15A NCAC 02B .0233(3)(a) via 15A NCAN 02H .1017(10) –
“EXEMPTION WHEN AN ON-SITE DETERMINATION SHOWS THAT SURFACE WATERS ARE NOT
PRESENT. When a landowner or other affected party believes that the maps have inaccurately depicted
surface waters, he or she shall consult the Division or the appropriate delegated local authority. Upon
request, the Division or delegated local authority shall make on-site determinations. Any disputes over
on-site determinations shall be referred to the Director in writing. A determination of the Director as to
the accuracy or application of the maps is subject to review as provided in Articles 3 and 4 of G.S. 150B.
Surface waters that appear on the maps shall not be subject to this Rule if an on-site determination
shows that they fall into one of the following categories.
i. Ditches and manmade conveyances other than modified natural streams unless constructed
for navigation or boat access.
ii. Manmade ponds and lakes that are located outside natural drainage ways.
iii. Ephemeral (stormwater) streams.”
The important takeaway from this is that the on-site determination must be made by our Division, not an
outside consultant. To set up this on-site determination, you should reach out to the Mooresville Regional Office
and they will be able to assist you.

Alternatively, you can account for the ephemeral stream as a surface water and it shouldn’t negatively impact
the project or require any redesigning. There are two items that on-site surface waters impact, the project
area/percent BUA calculations and the required vegetated buffer. With regard to the project area/percent BUA
calculations, the impact of including the on-site surface waters should be negligible since the surface water area
is relatively small compared to the rest of the site and the proposed %BUA is well below the maximum allowable
(24%). With regard to the vegetated buffer, the rules require a 30 foot horizontal buffer landward of all surface
waters. This buffer is essentially a BUA exclusion zone and it does not appear that any proposed BUA is located
closer than 30 feet to the surface waters so this should also be negligible.

Please either:
1) Contact the Mooresville Regional Office to set up an on-site surface water determination. Please
provide me the results of the determination once it has been complete. If the results indicate on-site
surface waters, please see “2)”, otherwise no further action is required to address this item.
2) Redo the project area and percent impervious area calculations (Section IV, 6-8 & Low Density
Supplement) and include a vegetated buffer around the surface waters on the plans.

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- Original Comment 5, Proposed BUA Designation – The table in Section IV, 10 of the Application is filled out
correctly save for the designation of the proposed BUA type. Generally, “Future” BUA is reserved for projects
that are multi-phase or for projects with a planned future expansion (in addition to the main BUA being
permitted). A more appropriate proposed BUA designation would probably be “On-site Road” and/or “On-site
Parking” and/or “On-site Other” (As to be consistent with the information entered in the Low-Density
Supplement

,
broken down by drainage area).

Please correct the table in Section IV, 10 of the Application.

- Original Comment 6, Low Density Supplement, Uniform Lot Size Calculation – The “DF” value used in this
equation is the actual, proposed percent impervious area of the site (Section IV, 8, expressed as a decimal), not
the allowable maximum (24%). This form was designed to be used for subdivisions where there is BUA allocated
to individual lots and BUA allocated to common areas (This form isn’t really designed for this application, but as I
stated in my comment letter, I will allow you to use it if you wish).

There are 2 ways that you can represent this site on the form:
1) You can assume that the entire project area is 1 individual lot and there is no common area. The
equation would look like this: (SA * DF) – (RA: 0) – (OA: 0) = BUA per Lot = 64,902 sf
2) You can assume that there are no individual lots and the entire site is common area. The equation
would look like this: (SA * DF) – (RA: 35,277) – (OA: 29,625) = BUA per Lot = 0 sf

NOTE: The project area (SA) and percent BUA (DF) may change depending on how Original Comment 2 is
addressed so they were left as variables in the above equations. They should be filled in with the appropriate
values in the resubmission.

Please correct the first and second pages of the Low Density Supplement.

Please provide the following:
- 1x hard copy & 1x electronic copy (Uploaded to Laserfiche) of the on-site surface water determination (If
applicable).
- 2x hard copies of the corrected Application pages. NOTE: New original initials/signatures are only required if any
information has changed on the initial/signature pages.
- 1x full electronic copy of the corrected Application (Uploaded to Laserfiche).
- 1x hard copy of the corrected Low Density Supplement pages. NOTE: New original initials/signatures are only
required if any information has changed on the initial/signature pages.
- 1x full electronic copy of the corrected Low Density Supplement (Uploaded to Laserfiche).
- 2x hard copies of the revised plans sheets (If applicable).
- 1x full electronic copy of the corrected plan set (If applicable, uploaded to Laserfiche).

Since these are really minor things, once I get the hard copies, anything else that may have changed from addressing
these issues, and the documents are uploaded to Laserfiche (Provided everything is still in order), we can issue the
permit without doing another formal 30-45 day review.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Jim Farkas
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Environmental Engineer
North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality
Division of Energy, Mineral, & Land Resources – Stormwater Program

512 N. Salisbury Street
1612 Mail Service Center
Raleigh, NC 27699-1612

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