20061203 Ver 1_Public Notice Comments_20060705 (3)

June 30, 2006
Mr. Dan Blaisdell, P.E.
Assistant Chief, Engineering Branch
Construction Grants and Loans Section
North Carolina Division of Water Quality
1633 Mail Service Center
Raleigh, NC 27699-1633
Ms. Cyndi Karoly
North Carolina Division of Water Quality
1650 Mail Service Center Q~~ D
Raleigh, NC 27699-1650 ~~~
D
Mr. Monte Matthews ,uL ~ 5 2006
Raleigh Regulatory Field Office
6508 Falls of Neuse Road, Suite 120 ~~N~wSTEO~~~gTMitA~H
Raleigh, NC 27615 WEttN~
Dear Messrs. Blaisdell & Matthews,
Ms. Karoly:
This letter is in response to the Western Wake Partners draft EIS to
construct a sewage plant in New Hill.
The June 30 edition of The News & Observer reports that Cary's latest
sewage spill dumped 7.9 million gallons of raw sewage into Swift Creek, Lake
Wheeler, and Lake Benson.
7.9 million gallons of raw sewage that is now polluting the Triangle area,
and Cary wants to blame it on a large amount of rain. Well, excuse me, but the
other towns within Wake County had the same amount of rain, and I have not read
or heard about them having a sewage spill.
Rather than Cary blaming others, they should look into their own
management of the situation and place the blame exactly where it lies, with Town
of Cary employees.
The timeline of the referenced News & Observer article states:
Mi~vvwKP.Uy • 3020 Olw~i~"uirwv2o~a.~L • ~1p~c; NC 27502

JUNE 16: Engineers monitoring the pump station project for
Cary say a wall in the excavated hole is crumbling. They send the
contractor, Laughlin-Sutton Construction Company, an e-mail
saying that the "slope failure ... presents a concern for the
ongoing work."
So Cary notices a problem on June 16 and sends the contractor an email
stating the "slope failure presents a concern for the ongoing work". Now that is
really managing a potential problem.
Sending the contractors an email shows no concern on Cary's part. Does
no one in Cary care enough to pick up the telephone and demand an immediate
meeting at the site to show the contractor the problem?
Does no one in Cary care enough to follow-up on the problem to ensure it
is being managed? The next entry in the timeline is June 23, a full week later.
What took place during that week? Why were not meetings called, discussions
held, and the problem resolved? Did Cary employees think their one email had
fixed everything?
In my opinion, the Town of Cary is the direct cause of the sewage spill
because they took no action to resolve the problem other than sending one email.
This is incompetence at its highest, and clearly shows the Town of Cary is
incompetent at managing sewage plants and their resulting sewage spills.
A raw sewage spill of this magnitude also calls into question the Western
Wake Partners plan of building a regional sewage plant. If one sewage plant in
Cary can spill 7.9 million gallons of raw sewage, imagine the amount of raw
sewage a regional plant will spill.
The Western Wake Partners should not be allowed to build a regional
plant, but must be required to treat sewage in their own towns, close to where the
sewage is generated, then pump treated effluent to a discharge facility. Had this
been done, Cary's 7.9 million raw sewage spill would have only spilled treated
effluent, and the damage to the environment would have been minimal.
Sincerely,
~,~ ~ -~
Attachments
MivvtvKe~,Ly • 3020 OLi~v~~a.Ywv2aad~ • ,4pe~w, NC 27502

newsobserver.com
http://www.newsobserver.com/ 102/v-print/story/456211.htm1
Published: Jun 30, 2006 12:30 AM
Modified: Jun 30, 2006 05:33 AM
Cary spill totals 7.9 million gallons
The town raises its estimate of the sewage that polluted Swift Creek and two
lakes
DAVID BRACKEN AND TOBY COLEMAN,
Staff Writers
Cary now reports that about 7.9
million gallons of sewage
spilled into Swift Creek while
engineers struggled to deal with
a broken pipe at a pump
station.
The revised total makes the
spill the third-largest in the
Triangle in the past decade.
The spill has closed Lake
Wheeler and Lake Benson to
boaters and fishermen for a
week. Raleigh officials continue
to test both lakes for bacteria
but say the earliest they could
open is Saturday.
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BIGGEST N.C. SEWAGE SPILLS
SINCE 1995
1. Roanoke Rapids, 14 million gallons,
September 1999
2. Raleigh, 9 million gallons, December 2002
3. Laurinburg, 8 million gallons, February 1998
4. Durham, 8 million gallons, May 2006
5. Cary, 7.9 million gallons, June 2006
N.C. DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENT AND
NATURAL RESOURCES, TOWN OF CARY
TIMELINE
Earlier Cary had estimated the
spill, which began last Friday
night and ended Wednesday
morning, at just over 3 million
gallons. Officials said Thursday
that the fleet of tanker trucks
the town brought in to haul
waste around the trouble spot
could not keep up.
"The trucks didn't haul all the
waste," said Susan Moran, a
Cary spokeswoman. "We were
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newsobserver.com
able to divert 68 percent, but
not all of it."
The potential damage to two
popular recreation spots has
angered nearby residents and
regular users of the lakes. The
spill started after mudslides
caved in a hole contractors had
dug in an expansion project at
the pump station.
A look at other large sewage
spills in the Triangle over the
past decade shows that they
occur for many reasons and
that operators are rarely fined
for problems they may
encounter.
Just last month, the city of
Durham reported an
8-million-gallon sewage spill. A
21-inch sewer line collapsed in
a remote area behind the Nello
Teer Quarry, and officials didn't
find out until a resident reported
it 13 days later.
Susan Massengale, the public
information officer for the
state's Division of Water
Quality, said the agency agreed
with Durham's conclusion that
most of the sewage spilled into
a wooded area and only a small
amount reached the Eno River.
http://www.newsobserver.com/ 102/v-prinbstory/456211.htm1
JUNE 14: Remnants of Tropical Storm Alberto
flood the Swift Creek pump station on Holly
Springs Road. A hole where the town plans to
put an addition to the pump station fills with
water.
project for ary say a wa m e excava a o e
is crumbling. They send the contractor,
Laughlin-Sutton Construction Company, an
e-mail saying that the "slope failure ... presents
a concern for the ongoing work."
JUNE 23: About 5:15 p.m., after a heavy rain, a
wall of the excavated hole collapses and twists
an underground pipe out of place. Cary's
emergency system begins to call town utility
workers.
JUNE 23: About 7:30 p.m., sewage begins to
spill into Swift Creek at a rate of 200,000 gallons
an hour as workers scramble to reconnect the
pipe.
JUNE 24: In the morning, Raleigh parks officials
decide to close Lake Benson and Lake Wheeler,
two recreational lakes fed by Swift Creek, until
bacteria tests can be done. They have remained
closed to boaters and anglers since.
JUNE 24: About noon, crews reattach pipe to
pump station. The fix doesn't hold, and the pipe
blows off again. Sewage shoots across Holly
Springs Road momentarily, then resumes spilling
into Swift Creek.
JUNE 24: That evening, to try to stem the spill,
Cary officials hire a fleet of tanker trucks to haul
sewage. Truckers pick up wastewater at the
pumpstation, drive a couple of miles downstream
and pour it back into the sewer system through
open manholes.
JUNE 25: Cary's leaders determine that they
cannot replace the pump station's broken pipe
because the soil around it is too unstable. They
begin searching for temporary pumps that will
allow them to pipe sewage around the pump
station while they build a new pipe.
JUNE 28: At 5:15 a.m., the sewage spill ends as
the town starts piping sewage through a
temporary system that bypasses the broken
Swift Creek pump station.
TOWN OF CARY
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newsobserver.com
Steve Miller, assistant
superintendent for Durham's
water and sewer maintenance
division, said beaver dams
nearby helped contain the spill.
The cleanup effort has involved
pumping out the waste,
removing soil and checking the
rest of the line for problems.
The Division of Water Quality
has yet to determine what
action it will take against
Durham, Massengale said.
http://www.newsobserver.com/ 102/v-prinbstory/456211.html
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Other large spills in the Triangle Refinance Now
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weather. The largest in the past LowRates.Low.com
decade occurred in December
2002 in Raleigh. An ice storm cut power to one of the city's lift
stations, which ultimately caused 9 million gallons of sewage to
reach Walnut Creek. In March 1998, a pump station in southwest
Durham County failed and quickly flooded with sewage, leading to a
6-million-gallon spill.
Glen Whisler, the Durham County engineer, said the pump station
was in a flood-prone area and has been closed. Whisler said his
biggest concern is the collection of fats and grease in sewer pipes,
which reduces their capacity and causes blockages.
In September 2005, a deer carcass stuck in a sewer line in
Clayton's system, resulting in a 1.8- million-gallon sewage spill into
Little Creek. The town wasn't fined.
"We're not really sure how it got in there," said Byron Poelman,
Clayton's public works superintendent.
In recent years, Massengale said, the state has tried to tie regular
maintenance requirements to its permit process for sewer
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http://www.newsobserver.com/ 102/v-prinbstory/456211.htm1
operators. As sewer lines age, she said, they become more
susceptible to damage from shifting ground or tree roots.
As for fines, Massengale said that in the past, the division didn't
levy fines if an operator responded quickly, because it was trying to
encourage the reporting of spills.
Last year, the state took the rare action of fining both Elizabeth City
and Wilmington more than $50,000 because of sewage spills.
Massengale said the division is starting to demand that sewer
systems do more to address problems before spills bring them to
light.
Staff writer David Bracken can be reached at 829-4548 or
[e-mail].
© Copyright 2006, The News & Observer Publishing Company
A subsidiary of The McClatchy Company
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