20061203 Ver 1_Public Notice Comments_20060627

Tommy Gardner
2904 New Hill-Holleman Road
New Hill, NC 27562
June 22, 2006
Mr. Monte Matthews
Raleigh Regulatory Field Office
6508 Falls of Neuse Road, Suite 120
Raleigh, NC 27615
Dear Mr. Matthews:
I am writing in protest to the Western Wake Regional Waste Water Treatment Facility.
There are plans to locate this facility directly behind my property; that borders my
mother's property that bordered our neighbor, Mr. Seymour's property; and borders my
uncles property next door to my mother. My mother's home is on the old Bright place,
and is a beautiful, preserved historical site.
My family has been in New Hill since the 1800's. My ancestors were founding fathers of
the town, community and church. I live here in a beautiful log home set back in the
woods for the peace, for the quiet, for the privacy, for the natural habitat, and for the lack
of pollution. My four boys were raised here.
My family's quality of life is about to be changed forever. It will never be the same if
you allow this plant to be built in the center of the community and the unincorporated
town of New Hill. It is deeply disturbing and emotionally draining. This concerns me
for a number of reasons:
There are other sites in the same geographic region that will serve the needs of the
towns in meeting the Interbasin Transfer. The Western Wake Partners failed to
adequately evaluate the other sites. Sites that lie on property owned by Progress
Energy were discarded from consideration despite being the top four sites chosen
by the engineers paid to evaluate 29 different sites. There has yet to be a valid
explanation for either the failure to use the four sites on PE property or to justify
the site that was selected. Why not use PE property originally taken from my
neighbors for utility purposes and use it? Why take more of my neighbors land`?
The public was left completely out of the planning for this project. I heard it
rumored one morning after church. (Which incidentally is a historic church, with

a playground, a cemetery, and location of numerous community related
fellowships. Would you want to go there and eat and smell the stench of waste?).
The partners held one public meeting for this project, on June 14, 2005, and that
meeting was held after the site had been selected. There were no public hearings
held, and no forums at which the concerns of the public could be formally heard
and addressed. Within days of the June 14 meeting, the four towns that make up
the partners stopped answering questions from New Hill residents. We were
referred instead to their websites. The elderly in our community don't have
computers. We had no voice, no vote, and no representation.
The site was selected without regard for social, cultural, environmental and
historical factors; adjacent to a historic district. It is also next to many residences,
four rest homes, two churches, two cemeteries, and a playground. Furthermore,
many of the residents impacted directly by the facility (those that are immediately
next to it) are low-income and minority citizens. We citizens have been unfairly
impacted by these types of projects too many times.
I already have a sixty foot Dixie Pipeline easement and the railroad right away down the
side of my property, and utility easements across the front of my property. Please show a
little apathy and respect. I urge you to deny the permit for the Western Wake Regional
Waste Water Treatment Facility until it is moved to a more suitable site.
Sincerely,
Thomas E. Gardner
Cc: New Hill Community Association
P. ~ BOX 68
New Hill, NC 27615
Daniel M. Blaisdell, P. E.
Assistant Chief, Engineering Branch
Construction Grants and Loans Section
North Carolina Division of Water Quality
1633 Mil Service Center
Raleigh, NC 27699-1633
Ms. Cyndi Karoly
North Carolina Division of Water Quality (NCDWQ)
1650 Mail Service Center
Raleigh, NC 27699-1633