20070168 Ver 2_Staff Notes_20091218

111C,
NC Division of Water Quality
401 Oversight and Express Permitting Unit
December 18, 2009
Memorandum
To: Cyndi Karoly
Ian McMillan
File
From: Eric Kulz
Subject: DWQ # 20070168v3
Comments on Individual Permit Application - Grandview Peaks
McDowell County
Application prepared by ClearWater Environmental Consultants
Reviewing this made me furious. The consultant is not even trying to make viable excuses for the
lakes. They are total amenities. The application says that. Sorry... venting.
Section 8.0, Page 13. Project Purpose - "..to provide residential housing". Clearly the property is
not inhabitable without the amenity lakes.
Page 17: "The proposed lakes will not be located in streams that contain migrating or spawning
fish...." Really? How do they know this? Did they inform the fish?
Page 17 - "............ if water quality parameters measurements are found to be unsatisfactory by
the DWQ, the applicant will submit a contingency plan to return water quality parameters to
satisfactory levels." How will they do this? That would be great to know, because then we can fix
all of the other lakes that are messed up.
Page 32 "Construction of the impoundments is the only option that meets the project purpose".
This is inconsistent with their stated project purpose in Section 8.0 " The basic project
purpose.....is to provide residential housing".
Mitigation Issues:
Applicant proposes to do a combination of on-site preservation and paying into EEP.
The total mitigation need is 7,580 stream credits. They are proposing preservation of 62,000 LF
of stream at 9:1 to provide 6,885 stream credits, and paying the balance to EEP for 695 feet. The
2003 Interagency Stream Mitigation Guidelinets indicate the ration for preservation is 10:1. At
10:1, preservation would yield 6,200 stream credits. Combined with the proposed purchase of
695 credits, they still have a deficit of 685 credits. The total credits obtained from EEP should be
1,380 credits.
North Carolina Division of Water Quality; 401 Oversight and Express Permitting Unit
1650 Mail Service Center; Raleigh, NC 27699-1650
2321 Crabtree Blvd., Raleigh, NC 27604-2260
Telephone: [phone]; Fax: [phone]
http://ncwat6rquality.org/wetlands