20061203 Ver 2_Public Hearing Info_20090414

Western Wake Partners Project
Public Notice
US Army Corps PUBLIC NOTICE
Of Engineers
Wilmington District
Previous Issue Date: December 18, 2009
Previous Deadline for comment: January 19, 2010
Comment Deadline Extended to: February 9, 2010
Corps Action ID #: SAW-2005-20159
COMMENT DEADLINE EXTENDED: The comment deadline for Western Wake
Regional Wastewater Management Facilities Final Environmental Impact
Statement (FEIS) has been extended from January 19, 2010 to February 9, 2010.
This is because several inconsistencies were noted between the printed copy of the
Western Wake Regional Wastewater Management Facilities FEIS and the web
version. These problems have been corrected. All changed sections in the FEIS are
noted in red on the FEIS download page;
www.saw.usace.army.mil/wetiands/proiectslww-wtp . Any written comments
pertinent to the Final EIS and permit application, as outlined below, must be
submitted to this office, Attention: Henry Wicker, 69 Darlington Avenue,
Wilmington, North Carolina 28403 or by E-mail to:
Henry.M.Wicker.Jr(&USACE.Army.mil by 4:15 p.m., February 9, 2010.
Questions can be directed to Mr. Wicker at telephone [phone], Wilmington
Regulatory Division.
Previous December 18, 2009 public Notice
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (COE), Wilmington District Regulatory Division has
been reviewing a request for Department of the Army authorization, pursuant to Section
404 of the Clean Water Act from the Town of Cary, acting as the lead agency for the
Western Wake Regional Wastewater Management Facilities Project Partners (Partners),
to construct regional wastewater pumping, conveyance, treatment, and discharge facilities
to serve the Towns of Apex, Cary, Holly Springs and Morrisville, as well as the Wake
County portion of Research Triangle Park (RTP South) (service area), North Carolina.
The Towns have cooperated together to develop the proposal and permit request for the
Western Wake Regional Wastewater Management Facilities (Western Wake Facilities),
and it is anticipated there will be 3 additional permit requests from the individual towns
for construction of other projects related to the Western Wake Facilities. All anticipated
future permit requests have been described in the FEIS for the proposed project. Future
requests for Department of the Army authorization for the other related projects will be
submitted once final plans for those projects have been completed. Figure 1 depicts the
complete project.
This request for Department of the Army authorization consists of the construction of a
regional wastewater system that includes the construction of influent conveyance
facilities, a new water reclamation facility (WRF), and new effluent conveyance facilities
in western Wake County and Chatham County, North Carolina to serve the Towns of
Apex, Cary, and Morrisville and RTP South. The proposed WRF site is north of US I
4nd just south of Old US 1 between New Hill-Holleman and Shearon Harris Roads. The
WRF would be constructed in two phases to a proposed treatment capacity of 30 million
gallons per day (MGD). The effluent line will leave the WRF in Wake County and enter
Chatham County, continuing to the discharge point located on the Cape Fear River
downstream of Buckhorn Dam in Chatham County. See Figure 2 for a representation of
this permit request.
Notice to Release Final Environmental Impact Statement
This notice is to inform interested parties of our issued December 18, 2009 Notice to
release the Final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for this project, which can be
found on the Federal Register website. A link to this website is located on the
Wilmington District Regulatory homepage at
www. saw. usace. army. mil/wetlands/proiects/ww-wtp.
The Final EIS discloses information on the project as a whole, which includes the
Western Wake Facilities addressed in this permit request along with the 3 related projects
which will be addressed in future permit request from the Towns of Apex, Holly Springs
and Cary.
Applicants: Town of Cary
c/o Stephen J. Brown, P.E.
Public Works and Utilities Director
400 James Jackson Avenue
Cary, North Carolina 27513
Authority
The Corps will evaluate this application and decide whether to issue, conditionally issue,
or deny the proposed work pursuant to applicable procedures of Section 404 of the Clean
Water Act.
Location
The WRF and the influent conveyance lines of the proposed project will be located
entirely within the wastewater treatment service area of the Towns of Apex, Cary, Holly
Springs and Morrisville, as well as RTP South, North Carolina. The effluent conveyance
line and outfall will be constructed in part within Wake County and Chatham County.
Existing Site Conditions
Site conditions of the project area vary from developed residential, commercial and
industrial areas within the Towns and rural areas outside of the town limits. The
construction of the wastewater facility and associated structures (sewer lines, pump
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stations, discharge structures) will have impacts in these urban and rural areas and will
also have impacts to a variety of landscapes including stream crossings.
Applicant's Stated Purpose
The Project is being implemented by the Partners to provide wastewater service for
planned growth and development and to comply with regulatory mandates issued by the
North Carolina Environmental Management Commission (EMC) and the Department of
Environment and Natural Resources (NC DENR). The Towns of Apex, Cary and
Morrisville, and RTP South obtain their drinking water from Jordan Lake in the Cape
Fear River Basin and discharge treated effluent to locations within the Neuse River
Basin. Obtaining water from one basin and discharging it to another river basin is known
as an interbasin transfer (IBT), and it requires a certificate from the EMC. In July 2001,
the EMC granted the communities their IBT certificate but placed a requirement in it to
return wastewater to the Cape Fear River Basin after 2010. Thus, these communities
must construct wastewater transmission and disposal facilities in order to comply with the
terms and conditions of the IBT certificate issued by the EMC.
The Town of Holly Springs currently discharges wastewater into Utley Creek of the Cape
Fear River Basin. The North Carolina Division of Water Quality desires to limit the
amount of effluent discharged to Utley Creek; therefore, any increase in discharge from
this treatment facility is conditional upon the ability of Holly Springs to utilize the outfall
structure listed within this proposal.
Project Description
This project will be a regional wastewater pumping, conveyance, treatment, and
discharge project to serve the Towns of Apex, Cary, Holly Springs and Morrisville, as
well as RTP South (service area), North Carolina.
The proposed action is to build a regional wastewater system that includes the
construction of influent conveyance facilities, a single WRF, and effluent conveyance
facilities to serve the Towns of Apex, Cary, and Morrisville and RTP South. The
proposed WRF site is north of US 1 and just south of Old US 1 between New Hill-
Holleman and Shearon Harris Roads. The WRF would be constructed in two phases to a
proposed treatment capacity of 30 MGD and a discharge capacity of 38 MGD. The
discharge point will be located on the Cape Fear River downstream of Buckhorn Dam in
Chatham County. The Town of Holly Springs Utley Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant
(WWTP) has received a Finding of No Significant Impact to expand to 6 mgd and will
share the 38-mgd outfall to the Cape Fear River.
The proposed project includes the following infrastructure:
• West Cary Pump Station (WCPS) expansion
• West Cary Force Main (Influent Pipeline) - West Cary Pump Station to West Reedy
Branch Gravity Sewer
• West Reedy Branch Gravity Sewer (Influent Pipeline) - West Cary Force Main to
Beaver Creek Pump Station
• Beaver Creek Pump Station (BCPS)
• Beaver Creek Force Main (Influent Pipeline) - Beaver Creek Pump Station to Western
Wake WRF
• Western Wake WRF
• Effluent Pump Station located on WRF site, Force Main, and Outfall
It should be noted that this permit application only applies to the infrastructure
elements above.
In addition, there are three projects related to the facilities listed above. It should be noted
that the Western Wake Facilities, outlined above, would be functional without the
following pipeline projects from Apex, Cary and Holly Springs. The three projects are:
• Apex Beaver Creek Gravity Sewer
• Cary Green Level Force Main and Gravity Sewer/ Cary Indian Creek Force Main and
Gravity Sewer
• Holly Springs Effluent Force Main - Utley Creek WWTP to the Western Wake WRF
Effluent Pump Station
The connection of the related projects to the Western Wake Facilities is depicted on
Figure 1. The Apex and Cary gravity line projects are not included as part of this
application and will be permitted independently in the future depending on the capacity
needs for these lines. The Holly Springs effluent line is being permitted in parallel to this
project, but is being done so independently by the Town of Holly Springs.
The following provides a detailed description of the wastewater flows through the
Western Wake Facilities. Wastewater flows from Cary, Morrisville, and the Wake
County portion of Research Triangle Park (RTP South) will enter into the system at the
West Cary Pump Station (PS). Wastewater flow from Apex will enter the system along
the alignment of the West Reedy Branch Gravity Sewer and at the Beaver Creek PS.
Wastewater flow from Holly Springs will enter into the system at the Effluent PS located
at the Western Wake WRF. The combined effluent from the Partners will be discharged
to the Cape Fear River downstream of Buckhorn Dam.
As disclosed in the Notice, any written comments pertinent to the Final EIS and permit
application, as outlined above, must be submitted to this office, Attention: Henry Wicker,
69 Darlington Avenue, Wilmington, North Carolina 28403 or by E-mail to:
[e-mail] by 4:15 p.m., January 19, 2010. Also, copies of
the Final EIS will be placed on the Wilmington District Regulatory homepage
www.saw.usace.army.mil/wetlands/projects?ww-wtp. Questions can be directed to Mr.
Wicker at telephone [phone], Wilmington Regulatory Division.
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REGIONAL WASTEWATER MANAGEMENT FACILITIES
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!December 2
REGIONAL WASTEWATER MANAGEMENT FACILITIES
December 2009
Figure 3
Proposed Prqject Facilities
Included in 404 Application
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Approximate scale in mite
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West Ready Bmnck Gravity Sewer LJ Cary
Western Wake Beaver L__ Holly Sprigs
Creek Gravity Sewer Morrisville
• • • Beaver Creek Force Main if-' Coony Boundary
• WOstem NAka Effluent Font Main _ altenons y Hlyrnvay
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Western Wake Partners Project
Public Hearing Transcript
WESTERN WAKE REGIONAL WASTEWATER
MANAGEMENT FACILITIES PROJECT
PUBLIC HEARING
APEX TOWN HALL
73 HUNTER STREET
APEX, NORTH CAROLINA
April 14, 2009
6:05 p.m.
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OFFICIAL ATTENDEES
Lieutenant Colonel Christian Sulit
Deputy Commander, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
Wilmington District
Henry wicker
Project Manager, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
Justin McCorcle
counsel, District Army Corps of Engineers,
Wilmington office
Evan Kane
North Carolina Division of water Quality
Cyndi Karoly
North Carolina Division of water Quality
Dan Blaisdell
North Carolina Department of Environment and National,
Resources
Monte Matthews, Raleigh Regulatory Field office
Ranae McDermott, RMR, CRR, Stenographer
Vivian Tilley & Associates
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CONTENTS
PAGE
opening and Introductions
Lieutenant Colonel Christian Sulit ................ 5
NC Division of water Quality 401 Certification
Evan Kane ......................................... 7
Cyndi Karoly ...................................... 8
Engineering Report Presentation
Ken Bruce, Brown and Caldwell ..................... 12
Presentation on National Environmental Policy
Act and section 404 of the clean water Act
Henry wicker ...................................... 18
Presentation on Environmental Impact Statement
and Proposed Project
William Kreutzberger .............................. 23
Public comment session
mayor Keith Weatherly .............................
Tim Gauss .........................................
Mayor Dick Sears. .. ............................
Mayor Harold weinbrecht ...........................
Elizabeth Rooks ..................................
Joe Durham ........................................
Dr. Karl Thor. ...............................
Rev. Portia Rochelle ..............................
Mick Noland.. ...................................
Catherine Heath ...................................
Brian Brice.... .................................
Christopher Brook .................................
Robert Sears ......................................
Paul Barth ........................................
Edna Horton .......................................
Elaine Joyner .....................................
Rev. James Clanton ................................
Johnnie Judd ......................................
Louis Powell ......................................
Anne King .........................................
Brent Miller ......................................
Loretta Young .....................................
Cal Nordt .........................................
Jeff Leary ........................................
Thelma Gardner ....................................
Vickie Gardner ....................................
Berry Credle ......................................
John Moore ........................................
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Speakers Continued PAGE
Elizabeth Moore (audio tape) ...................... 86
Randel sink ....................................... 87
Carolyn sink ...................................... 90
John Brubaker ..................................... 92
Kate Hanser ....................................... 94
Larry Elmore... ................................. 96
Dr. David Bristol ................................. 100
Dr. Susan Bristol........ ....................... 103
Ltc. (Retired) Preston Ruth ....................... 105
Richard Heiman .................................... 107
Wayne Womble ...................................... 109
Phyllis Womble .................................... 111
Wallace Womble .................................... 113
Shirley Rodaway ................................... 114
Ed Ridpath........................................ 116
Jackie Holcombe ................................... 119
Bob Kelly ......................................... 121
Closing Remarks ................................... 125
(Hearing concluded at 8:42 p.m.)
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LTC. SULIT: Ladies and gentlemen, good
evening and welcome to the western wake Regional
Wastewater Management Facilities Public Hearing. My
name is Lieutenant Colonel Christian Sulit. I'm the
Deputy Commander for the Wilmington -- United states
Army Corps of Engineers, Wilmington District.
we're here tonight to -- to continue to
fulfill our responsibility pursuant to the National
Environmental Policy Act in section 404 of the Clean
water Act on the possible proposed project.
The purpose of this meeting tonight is
to provide you the opportunity to comment on the Draft
Environmental Impact -- Impact statement and the clean
water Act permit application. This public hearing will
also fulfill other state Public Hearing mandates as
required by the state Environmental Policy Act and the
Division of water Quality section 401 Certification
process.
The applicant for this project is
western wake Partners, which is a combination of four
towns: Cary, Apex, Holly Springs and Morrisville.
Steve Brown,. the Public works and utilities Director
for the Town of Cary, is a Project Director for the
western wake Regional Wastewater Management Facilities.
25 1 And who is here with us here tonight are town
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representatives from the Town of Apex.
And the western wake Partners Policy
Advisory Committee chair is mayor Keith Weatherly.
Sir, are you --
MAYOR WEATHERLY: Here.
LTC. SULIT: Right there. Thank you.
From the Town of Cary, Mayor Harold
weinbrecht. Sir, welcome.
From the Town of Holly Springs, Mayor
Dick Sears. Sir, welcome.
speaking for mayor Jan Faulkner from the
Town of Morrisville, Mr. Tim Gauss. I apologize if I
butcher people's names tonight.
And I'm not sure if Liz Rooks is here.'
Liz is -- back there, ma'am -- is the executive vice
president for Research Triangle Park. Thank you for
coming.
Our third-party contractor assisting the
corps of Engineers in developing the Environmental
Impact Statement are CH2MHill represented here by
Mr. Bill Kreutzberger.
where are you, Bill? There you go.
And is Ruth here, Ruth Swanek? Ma'am.'
And CDM, I'm not sure if Kelly Boone is
here?
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UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: I'm here for
Kelly.
LTC. SULIT: All right, sir.
The lead State Agency for the state
Environmental Policy Act throughout this process has
been the construction Grants and Loan section of the
North Carolina Department of Environment and National
Resources. Mr. Dan Blaisdell is the chief of that
section.
Dan, you're here.
MR. BLAISDELL: Yes.
LTC. SULIT: Evan Kane and Cyndi Karoly
are here tonight representing the North Carolina
Division of water Quality. Evan will be the state's
hearing officer and Cyndi will be the state's hearing
clerk for tonight's public hearing.
Evan and Cyndi, are you -- will now
explain the rules and this process for you.
MR. KANE: Good evening. My name is
Evan Kane. I'll be the hearing officer representing
the North Carolina Division of water Quality,
specifically related to the application for the 401
water Quality certification for this project. I'm the
Groundwater Planning supervisor in the Aquifer
Protection section of the Division of water Quality.
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The purpose of DwQ's participation in
this hearing is to solicit water quality-related
comments from all interested parties regarding the
proposed fill of streams and wetlands associated with
this project. The Public Notice issued by the corps ofl
Engineers for this project describes permanent impacts
including 509 linear feet of streams and 1.8 acres of
wetlands, along with temporary impacts to 1,924 linear
feet of streams and 6.8 acres of wetlands.
The Division of water Quality decided tol
join the Corps at this hearing in order to gather
public comments related to this project. Please
realize that as hearing officer for the 401 water
Quality Certification, I can only consider comments
that are directly related to wetland and stream impacts
expected to result from this project.
Before we proceed, I'll ask Cyndi Karoly
to explain the 401 Certification process as it relates
to this project.
MS. KAROLY: okay. I'll briefly
describe the 401 water Quality certification process.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
determines when a Federal 404 Permit will be required
for projects involving fill-in waters or wetlands in
the united States. This particular project requires an
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Individual 404 Permit from the corps as described in
their public notice issued March 13th, 2009. According
to the clean water Act, each federal permit (such as
this 404 permit application) for a project with
potential to affect water quality must have a section
401 water Quality Certification from the State.
In North Carolina, the 401 Certification
Program is administered by the Division of water
Quality within the Department of Environment and
Natural Resources. A 401 Certification is a
Certification by DWQ that the wetland and stream
impacts involved in a project will not violate any
relevant water quality standards and regulations.
According to the clean water Act, a
Corps 404 Permit cannot be issued until a 401
Certification is issued or waived. DWQ's review
procedures for these certifications are outlined in the
401 wetland Rules, which are regulations passed by the
Environmental management commission and became
effective October of 1996.
The basic review process is as follows:
DWQ must first determine whether significant existing
uses are present in waters or wetlands. Next, DWQ must
determine whether the project will result in removal or
degradation of groundwaters or surface waters or
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whether existing uses are protected; whether the
project results in cumulative impacts; whether the
project provides for protection of downstream water
quality standards through storm water control; and,
finally, whether the wetland and stream mitigation
plans (where required) will replace the existing uses
of impacted streams and wetlands.
For Individual Permits such as this one,
our rules require that DwQ will not duplicate the
site-specific application of any guidelines used for
review by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The
provision for DwQ to consider corps requirements during
our review was adopted to reduce duplication during the
permit review process between the Corps and DwQ.
okay.
MR. KANE: As the Corps conducts the
hearing this evening, I will be taking notes on
comments that are presented. written comments
regarding the 401 Certification can also be sent to the
following address: Evan Kane, care of Cyndi Karoly,
North Carolina Division of water Quality, 2321 Crabtree
Boulevard, suite 250, Raleigh, North Carolina, 27604.
or by e-mail to [e-mail]. That's
[e-mail].
it also can be faxed to 919-733-6893,
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although we strongly recommend regular mail or e-mail
over fax due to unreliably -- unreliability of faxes.
This mailing address is also posted on signs at the
sign-in desk and Ms. Karoly left business cards with
her contact information at the sign-in desk.
The hearing record for the 401
Certification will remain open until 5 o'clock p.m. on
May 14th, 2009, for this purpose. Anyone wishing to
submit a written statement is welcome to do so by that
time.
After that time, I will evaluate all thel
regarding the 401 Certification to Ms. Coleen Sullins,
Director of the Division of water Quality.
If Ms. Sullins decides to issue the
certification with recommended conditions, the Partners
will have to obtain the 404 Permit from the U.S. Corps
of -- Army Corps of Engineers before filling wetlands
or waters.
If the Director decides to deny the
Certification, the Partners will either have to modify
their plans to make them acceptable to the Division of
water quality or appeal the decision through the North
Carolina office of Administrative Hearings.
Any conditions that the Division of
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water quality includes in a 401 Certification will
become conditions of the 404 Permit as well. If we
determine that additional information is necessary to
make an informed decision on the application, the
applicant will be requested to provide that
information.
LTC. SULIT: Okay. Thank you, Evan and
cyndi.
This public hearing is also being
utilized by the Construction Grants and Loans section
to provide a public forum for comment on the
engineering report for the wastewater facilities.
Mr. Ken Bruce of Brown and Caldwell will
now present a broad presentation on the engineering
report.
Ken.
MR. BRUCE: Thank you, sir.
Good evening. The Towns of Apex, Cary,
Morrisville and Holly Springs have been working
together in partnership for years to ensure adequate
wastewater treatment capacity for the future of western
and southwestern wake county. As a result of these
efforts, the Department is proposing to build the
western wake wastewater Regional Management Facilities
Project.
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As mentioned, a portion of the project
is planned to be funded through the state Evolving Fund
administered by the construction Grants and Loans
process, an engineering -- engineering report was
required to be prepared and submitted to CG&L.
The purpose of this engineering report
is to document the current and projected future
situations of the service area. I'll summarize the
alternatives analyzed including present worth of those
alternatives. I'll share information regarding the
anticipated users charges as a result of the project
and the funding sources anticipated to cover the cost
of the project as well as summarize the public
participation in environmental impacts of the proposed
project.
Brown and Caldwell on behalf of the
Partners prepared the engineering report. It
summarizes and refers to the work of other engineering
consultants engaged on the project including those
listed here. The engineering report is now available
for public review and comment.
The purpose of this presentation is to
provide an overview of the engineering report
specifically touching on the project's purpose and
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need, the Partners' proposed project, costs associated
with building new facilities, the interlocal agreements
that are in place amongst the Partners resulting in
cost sharing between them, the anticipated funding
sources, the effect of -- of the project on typical
residential customer user fees as well as share
information on the project timeline and contacts and
sources for more information.
The purpose and need of the project is
really to solve three main issues. The first:
Interbasin transfer. The Town of Apex, Cary and
Morrisville and RTP South obtain water for drinking
purposes from 7ordan Lake in the Cape Fear River Basin
and discharged to the Neuse River Basin. obtaining
water from one basin and transferring it to another is
regulated by the State as an interbasin transfer.
An IBT certificate, Interbasin Transfer
certificate, issued in 2001 to the Towns of Apex, Cary,
and Morrisville in -- in wake County on behalf of RTP
south includes a condition requiring that they begin
returning a portion of the transferred water back to
the Haw or Cape Fear River Basin after 2010.
second, the Town of Holly springs
wastewater Treatment Plant discharges to Utley creek, a
tributary to Harris Lake and the Cape Fear River Basin.
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The North Carolina Department of Environmental and
Natural Resources has recommended that the Town remove
its wastewater discharge from Utley Creek and
participate with the Towns of Apex, Cary and
Morrisville in a Regional wastewater management Program
to address standard requirements associated with the
nutrient enrichment in Utley Creek.
And, third, the population of the
Partners' wastewater service area is projected to
increase to approximately 430,000 people by the year
2030. The influx of people and businesses will
generate increased wastewater flows resulting in the
need for expanded wastewater collection, treatment and
disposal facilities.
The Partners' proposed project consists
of a regional wastewater management system consisting
of raw wastewater, conveyance pipelines and pump
stations, a regional water reclamation facility,
treated water conveyance pipelines and a discharge to
the Cape Fear River below Buckhorn Dam.
The Partners' preferred location for the
water reclamation facility is site 14 in the New Hill
area of Apex. The facilities are expected to -- are
estimated to cost all told approximately $328,000,000.
The Partners have entered into an
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interlocal agreement. This interlocal agreement is for
the design, construction, ownership, management and
operation of the western wake Regional Management
Facilities. The agreement defines many provisions
including the basis of cost sharing. Based on this
cost sharing, each partner's contributions to the
project is -- is summarized here.
Funding sources will consist of a loan
from the SRF program of -- anticipated to be $70
million, local funds, general obligation bonds and
revenue bonds. The approximate breakdown of those,
again, are shown here.
The debt that will be incurred to
finance the project will be paid back through user
fees. A typical residential customer can anticipate
combined water and sewer users -- user charges. A
typical customer that would consume 5,000 gallons of
water per month are expected to change for each of the
Partners as indicated in this table.
The project's timeline has had several
opportunities for public involvement. we're currently
in -- in one of those now with the Draft EIS. This
process will continue for the next several months.
There will be another process associated with the NPDES
permit process, which will also include another public
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comment period and public hearing. And that is
anticipated to occur sometime this summer, in the
summer of 2009. It is anticipated that the permitting
and approval process will conclude somewhere in the
summer of 2009/early fall 2009 and the project will
proceed into construction. The project has a
three-year construction duration and is projected to be
online by the spring of 2013.
For more information, again, you can
contact Steve Brown, Director of Public works and
utilities, Town of Cary, or visit the western wake
Partners' website at westernwakepartners.org. Comments
on the engineering report can be submitted to Jennifer
Haynie with North Carolina Division of water Quality
Construction Grants and Loans Section.
Thank you.
LTC. SULIT: Thank you, sir.
Okay. I would like to introduce some
more people here. Justin Mccorcle is our Wilmington
District Corps office counsel and worked closely with
the Regulatory Division throughout the development of
this Environmental Impact statement for this project.
Monte Williams (sic) from the Raleigh
Regulatory Field office will be our timekeeper tonight.
on the far end there, Ms. Ranae
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McDermott, is our stenographer recording tonight's
comments. And when you do speak, please speak -- speak
clearly so she can record you accurately.
Mr. Henry wicker is our Project manager
within the Wilmington District, Regulatory Division,
and has been responsible for guiding this project
through the development of the Environmental Impact
statement and the 4 -- Section 404 permit process.
Henry will now briefly explain the
project and Environmental Impact statement and permit,
process.
Si r.
MR. WICKER: Good evening. As the
colonel stated, I am the corps Project manager for the
western wake Partners proposal. Along with the
colonel, I, too, would like to thank you all for coming
to participate in what we consider one of the most
important parts of this process; that is receiving
public comment.
Briefly, I would like to give you an
overview of the permitting process and how it relates
to the western wake Regional wastewater management
Facilities Project.
Basically, there are three federal laws
that frame our permit -- our current permitting
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process. These are Section 10 of the Rivers and
Harbors Act, which encompasses navigable waters;
Section 404 of the clean water Act, which encompasses
all waters of the U.S; and the National Environmental
Policy Act, which is called NEPA, which is the parent
act for most of the environmental laws and ensures
consider -- consideration for environmental issues and
federal actions.
The regulations that enter into the
permitting process for Section 10 and section 404 are
the same regulations. The process is basically the
same.
Authorization requirements are triggered
when there is a discharge or placement of fill or
dredge material in navigable waters and/or waters of
the U.S. -- excuse me. I'm sorry -- with respect to --
the permit requirement is designated as a federal
action. In this case, this -- in the case of this
project, the mechanized land clearing and filling of
streams and wetlands for the construction of proposed
Regional wastewater management Facilities requires a
Section 404 Permit. The present proposal does not
require a section 10 Permit.
when a decision is made that a permit is
required, our office will then determine to what degree
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or scope of the evaluation will be. under NEPA, which
again ensures consideration of environmental issues,
the scope of the project or federal action will require
the preparation of an Environmental Impact Statement if
the action will significantly affect the quality of the
human environment. Significant effects includes both
beneficial and detrimental effects.
In this case, we are currently reviewingi
the project pursuant to the National Environmental
Policy Act and the Environmental Impact Statement
procedures. As discussed earlier, the National
Environmental Policy Act procedures have been
coordinated with the state of North Carolina's
Construction Loan and Grants section to ensure there isl
no duplication of effort and that both the National
Environmental Policy Act and the State Environmental
Policy Act processes have been satisfied. This
coordination streamlines the process and saves time.
Tonight's hearing will provide the
wilmington District with information that will be
considered during our evaluation of the Draft
Environmental Impact statement and the western wake
Partners' application for a Department of the Army
permit. Comments tonight, as well as written comments,
will be used to add, delete or modify any necessary
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changes for the preparation for the Final Environmental
Impact Statement.
okay. Thank you.
Once the Final Environmental Impact
statement is prepared, it will be used to supplement
our documentation for the permit decision. If you need
additional -- additional information, you may visit our
website or contact me or Ruth Swanek. This contact
information is also on the agenda you picked up tonight
as you came in prior to the meeting.
The decision to issue a Department of
Army permit is based upon the evaluation of probable
impacts including secondary cumulative impacts and the
project impacts on the public interest factors. A few
of these factors include conservation, economics,
esthetics, fish and wildlife values, flood control,
safety, navigation, and the general needs and welfare
of the public.
Evaluation of these probable impacts
that the proposed project may have on the public
interest requires careful weighing and balancing of the
expected benefits against foreseeable detrimental
impact.
This slide represents a tentative
timeline for the release date of the Final EIS and
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permit decision. And so I just wanted to make sure
people had an idea of what the time frame is going to
be for the final -- final process of this project.
okay. This last slide here, I just
wanted to stick this in here because there are hard
copies of the Draft EIS Permit application and the
engineering -- engineering report at these locations.
we want to make sure the public has an opportunity to'
review these documents and comment.
So if you want to review the hard copy,
if you don't have access to a computer, you can get --
you can get a hard copy. Go to these areas and sites
and look at the documents at those places.
Criteria pursuant to Section 10, 404 and
the National Environmental Policy Act must be
considered in a decision whether to issue a permit
including the relative extent of the public and private
purpose and need of the proposed work and the
practicability of using reasonable alternatives and
methods to accomplish the needs of the project.
For this project, there were many
alternatives evaluated. Five were carried forward to
the final evaluation. All alternatives are evaluated
in terms of practicability, which is defined in terms
of cost, available technology and logistics in light of
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the overall project purpose.
This is the -- this is the importance of
defining the overall basic project purpose. Each
alternative is evaluated in relationship to the
purpose. Some alternatives fall out due to
practicability, costs, or are so logistically difficult
to accomplish where the technology is not there for the
applicant to pursue.
The Corps' job to evaluate each
alternative -- the Corps' job is to evaluate each
alternative and determine which one is the least
environmentally damaging and practicable alternative.
That is the process for Section 404 and
the National Environmental Policy Act.
I'll now have Bill, he's going to do --
of CH2Hill give a brief PowerPoint presentation on the
proposed project and the alternatives that we
considered in the Draft EIS.
MR. KREUTZBERGER: Thanks, Henry.
I'm going to give a very brief overview
of the -- of the EIS -- the development process for the
EIS and the document itself. what I'm going to cover
is basically a very brief background on the prior state
Environmental Impact Statement, the Scoping Meeting of
the Project Delivery Team process, and then an overview
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of the EIS.
There was a -- a previous State EIS
process. It was started in early 2005. There was a
Draft EIS prepared and a public hearing was held in
June 2006. site issues related to the facility delayed
the process and that process was superseded by the NEPA
process owned by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
The next thing I want to briefly talk
about is the Scoping Meeting. The Scoping meeting for
this NEPA EIS was held on April 19, 2007. There were
written comments from 45 people and organizations. The
major topics are listed here including impact -- impact
on the New Hill community, environmental justice, the
site selection process, potential spills, alternatives
analysis, discharge location and Chatham county issues.
I'll briefly touch -- touch on the
Project Delivery Team process. The -- the corps of
Engineers use the Project Delivery Team approach to
build components of the EIS. There were nearly monthly
PDT meetings that occurred starting just a month after
the Scoping meeting. we had 12 total going from may
2007 to June 2008. The membership included a number of
state and federal agencies, the project partners, other
local governments in wake and Chatham -- Chatham
counties, and many interested citizens, including New
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Hill community members.
Some of the issues that were addressed
by the Project Delivery Team included the purpose and
the need for the project, development of alternatives
to the proposed project, including the overall
wastewater management alternatives, discharge
alternatives and site alternatives and then
environmental justice review.
Now, I briefly want to go over the Draft
EIS. These are the contents of the EIS, the -- the
various sections of the document. I only included two
appendices here, but we have about a dozen appendices.
But two of -- of these, a lot of people are in need of
identification of the alternative sites and
environmental justice.
The purpose and need is a very critical
component to the project. Ken Bruce went over the
purpose and need as part of the -- the engineering
report. The purpose and need for the EIS is -- is --
is the same purpose and need. Again, interbasin
transfer requirements dictate a return of reclaimed
water back to the Cape Fear River Basin. The Utley
Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant discharge has been
required to be relocated as earlier requirements in the
finding of no significant impact by the -- by the
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state, and then population growth and wastewater
treatment capacity are key issues of the need for
additional capacity to handle the growth.
Now, the -- this is a little bit of a
complicated slide, but I just want to go over it
because it talks about how we identified alternatives
to the proposed project. And we started with
management options up here as the Partners got together
and decided whether they were going to have a single
facility or multiple facilities to meet their needs.
Another key component of the process is
where they could discharge reclaimed water. They had a
number of alternatives, including Jordan Lake, Harris
Lake and different locations in the Cape Fear River.
The state only issued a potential speculative permit
and it's for one location, and that was the Cape Fear
River below Buckhorn Dam.
In terms of the wRF site alternatives,.
we started off with 30 potential sites. Three sites
were selected through a screening analysis -- I'll talk
about that briefly in a slide to -- to also be used for
detail analysis with the Partners' proposed site 14.
Pump station and pipelines: we then
sort of knew where the discharge was, knew where the
site locations were, where the service areas were. The
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pump stations and pipelines pretty much were put in
place to minimize environmental impacts. And then
there was some -- also some issues as to how the
outfall for the river would be -- would be -- would be
constructed.
And that's how we ended up with the --
with the Partners' proposed project and three
alternatives. And Henry mentioned once more -- one
more, which is the no action alternative, which is also
evaluated as a part of the EIS.
In terms of the -- the site
alternatives, as we went through this process with the
Project Delivery Team, our goal was to identify two to
five potential sites for detailed analysis. we went
through a process where we did an initial screening and
intermediate -- and an intermediate screening to get us
down from 31 sites that had been developed as part of
the SEPA product -- process. we -- we screened those
down to 13 sites that we did a more detailed analysis
based upon GIs and we ended up with three sites --
three alternative sites. And we have a pretty good
consensus in terms of those slides -- sites with the
Project Delivery Team.
The alternative sites -- Ken Bruce
showed you the proposed project. These are the
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alternative sites, both their location and a -- a
layout. These -- these figures are from the EIS.
Alternative A, which is site 19 which is
just south of US 1, that site is about 60 to 70 percent
on private -- on private property and the other
30 percent is on Progress Energy land.
Alternative B, site 21/23, this site is
principally Progress Energy property and that's closer
to Harris Lake.
And then Alternative C, just what we
call site 30, that's also between old us 1 and us 1,
but southwest of the proposed project site.
Henry mentioned the list of interest
factors. when we organized the Environmental Impact
statement, we had to consider both public interest
factors for the NEPA process as well as those that are
traditionally used in the state Environmental Policy
Act. so we came up with this list of -- of -- of
interest factors, which are included in both section 3
and section 4 in terms of existing conditions and
environmental consequences of the proposed projects.
Each of those is evaluated in a subsection.
In terms of the environmental justice
evaluation, we went through a -- a process where we
identified potentially affected low income and/or
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minority communities. we then looked at potential
beneficial and adverse effects and made a determination
whether those adverse effects fall disproportionately
on the identified communities. The last step was if
there were disproportional effects, then we would
consider mitigation or modification, denial of the 404
Permit.
And throughout that process, there was
public participation where the Partners ran an outreach
program as well as the PDT process was part of that
public participation as well.
The direct impacts are summarized in the
EIS in a couple of places. we've done it in several
ways. we have a qualitative summary that's both in the
Executive summary and in section 2 that sort of just
qualitatively indicates the impacts of how they -- they
compare between alternatives.
Then we also in section 2, Table 2-6, a
table that more quantitively compares the impacts. The
impacts of the project alternatives are generally
similar to the site layouts and design elements to
avoid and minimize impacts.
Again, written comments on the EIS can
be sent to Henry wicker. we've also gotten information
on comments on -- on the other processes going on
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tonight. Those are all listed in the handout.
And with that, I'll turn it back over to
the intercessor.
LTC. SULIT: Thank you, sir. Thank you,J
Bill.
we're going to get to the commenting
process now. I would like to explain the process.
As I stated earlier, this is your
opportunity to provide comments of the Draft EIS and
permit application. we have a comment drop-box where
you entered at the sign-in table if you would like to
leave written comments instead of speaking tonight.
Also, I would like to remind you that you can send in
written comments until April 20 (sic), 2009, to the
corps of Engineers.
If you signed up to speak tonight in the
sign-in tables, I would like to remind you, please talk
clearly into the microphone so Ms. McDermott can hear
you and record your comments correctly.
Also, let me be clear on the purpose of
this public hearing. Tonight is not a question-and-
answer session. It is our job to listen. It is your
job to make comments and tell us -- tell us what you
think.
Each person will get two minutes -- two
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minutes, please -- to make their comments. Monte will
signal when you have 30 seconds left to speak and then
the buzzer will go off and your two minutes is up.
Please limit your comments to two minutes so we have
equity of -- of -- of time for everybody.
we will take the recorded comments from
tonight and the written comments we receive by April
29th and consider them as we address your concerns in
the EIS and the permit application process.
Before you make your spoken comments,
please state your name and who you're representing
prior to your statement for an accurate record.
You've got more cards? okay.
what's going to happen is I'll -- I'll
announce the first speaker and then the person on deck
so that person can be prepared to come to the front.
At this time, we're going to start with
our elected public officials starting with the Town of
Apex, Mayor Keith Weatherly. Sir.
MAYOR WEATHERLY: Thank you very much,
colonel Sulit, and your fine team from the U.S. Army
Corps of -- Corps of Engineers who have brought us to
this public meeting tonight.
Thank you very much, Mr. wicker and
Mr. Blaisdell, from the Department of Environment and
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Natural Resources. we appreciate your diligent work on
the Draft Environmental Impact Statement and we
appreciate having the opportunity to comment on it
tonight on behalf of citizens of Apex and the Partner's.
I am the chairman of our -- of our partner and I'm glad)
to see my fellow mayors here tonight.
I particularly want to thank the
citizens -- the private citizens who have participated
in this project, the community -- the community
engagement meetings, and the federal and state
officials that also helped, too, with engaged community
support and other issues involved with this process.
Most of us who have been involved with-
this project are familiar with the history. It is
several years in the making. No one from this area is
a stranger to the growth and economic development that
we have seen over the last number of years, which has
caused obviously us to need an increased capacity for
wastewater treatment.
Through a strong suggestion from the
State Department of Environment and Natural Resources,
the -- the communities of Apex, Cary, Holly Springs
and -- and Morrisville decided to partner, make a truly
regional project out of this. And, certainly, that is
a good decision and -- and then I think it is a model
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for regional cooperation, certainly, in this area and
then throughout the state.
Not only did our need for increased
capacity, but also the need to satisfy our interbasin
transfer situation, which is the project we're in,
we'll satisfy, and we're glad to do so with the
culmination of the construction phase of this project.
The Draft Environmental Impact Statement)
being considered tonight is obviously a result of many,
many months of work by the Project Delivery Team and it
was developed to allow input from appropriate state,
federal and local officials as well as citizens and
other interested parties.
The engineering report, which is also
being considered tonight, represents sound engineering
and cost management by the project engineers, project
partners. And we believe very strongly that the
Partners' preferred site represents the most cost
effective and environmentally sound alternative that
meets the needs of our local communities and is clearly)
supported by the Draft EIS and engineering report.
This project is a critical need for our
communities. western wake County, with our economic
development, needs increased capacity. As I said
before, Apex is certainly in need of that additional
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capacity as we have been -- knew that we would come to
this point for a number of years.
Approving EIS and ultimately the project
will allow for continued quality economic development
for the communities represented by this project and and will provide jobs and municipal services to the
town's urban service area. The project provides
reasonable and predictable utility rates for our
customers for many years to come.
And, finally, the project will allow, as
I said, us to comply with the requirements of the
interbasin transfer certificate. It's been a
long-standing commitment of our -- of our town to our'
downstream partners, and we're happy to comply with
that with the issuance of this permit and the
construction of our facility.
Again, thank you very much for your
diligent effort over many months, and we appreciate
everybody that had a part in this process.
LTC. SULIT: Thank you, sir.
From the Town of Morrisville, speaking
on behalf of mayor jan Faulkner, Mr. Tim Gauss. Sir.'
MR. GAUSS: Thank you very much for the
opportunity to address you on behalf of the Town of
Morrisville and Mayor Faulkner. Let me just read these
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comments into the record, if I could, please.
Comments of the Town of Morrisville in
support of the western wake Regional wastewater
management Facilities.
I apologize for conveying these thoughts
in writing. The Town of Morrisville's regularly
scheduled town council meeting is scheduled for 6:30
p.m. this evening and the conflict prevents my
attendance at this public hearing.
As you know, the Towns of Apex, Cary,
Holly Springs and Morrisville have been working in
partnership for years to lay the foundation of a
successful future for all our communities by ensuring
adequate provision of water and wastewater treatment
capacities for the region. The Town of Morrisville
fully supports this effort.
The Town recognizes that a regional
approach to water resource issues makes sense from the
perspective of growth management, environmental
protection and economics. The specific purposes which
the western wake Regional wastewater management
Facility are intended to meet are timely to provide
regional wastewater service capacity to meet existing
and forecasted demands in western and Southwestern wake
county; to comply with the state's regulatory mandates
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associated with the interbasin transfer of waters; and
to address the state's requirements associated with
nutrient enrichment in Utley Creek.
In addition, the potential environmental
impacts of the project have been evaluated over the
past 22 months in a manner that has been both rigorous
in its research and analysis and open in its citizen
participation process.
All stakeholders and members of the
public have had opportunities to be educated and to
provide important input. The proposed project has been
studied per the requirements of the National
Environmental Policy Act under the direction of the
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in coordination with the
State Department of Environment and Natural Resources.
I understand the Draft Environmental Impact statement
does not find significant adverse impacts which cannot
be mitigated.
Morrisville's participation in this
regional effort signals our recognition of the
interdependence of the region; that the welfare of all
of our citizens is best served when the common purpose
and expertise are combined in a collaborative effort to
addressing emerging issues.
Thank you for consideration of the
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Town's comments.
LTC. SULIT: Thank you, sir.
MR. GAUSS: Signed Jan Faulkner, Mayor.
LTC. SULIT: I appreciate it, sir.
Mr. Dick Sears, mayor from Holly
springs, please, sir.
MAYOR SEARS: Thank you, colonel.
Ladies and gentlemen, Dick Sears, Mayor
of Holly Springs.
First, the Town of Holly Springs is a
partner in the western wake Regional Center. And
because of that, we would like to express our
appreciation for the support and the guidance that has
been provided by the various state and federal agencies
during this process. This has been going on for quite
some time. without their assistance and knowledgeable
oversight, this critical project could not have gotten
to this point.
secondly, we're very pleased with the
new innovative and regional -- I repeat "regional" --
approach in addressing critical environmental
protection that was developed by the Partners in
concert with the state of North Carolina for this
specific project, the development of a comprehensive
and a far-reaching secondary and cumulative Impacts
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Mitigation Plan, which is called SCIMp -- I kind of
like that word -- for each Partner community. we are
pleased to be involved in this environmentally
progressive initiative.
Finally, I would like to encourage
consideration of the state for funding of this regional
project from both state and federal levels. Overall
the project is an excellent demonstration of municipal
cooperation to achieve regionally coordinated programs
that have been encouraged by the State for many, many
years. This project is most deserving of your
consideration. Thank you very much.
Thank you, colonel.
LTC. SULIT: Thank you, sir.
Next up from the Town of Cary, Mayor
Harold weinbrecht.
MAYOR WEINBRECHT: Mayor Weinbrecht,
Town of Cary.
I would also like to thank the corps for
facilitating this inclusive and comprehensive process.
I would to thank the state as well as the assistance
here tonight from wake and Chatham counties for
their -- their time and their efforts and their
comments and ideas.
As Mayor of Cary, I am personally
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committed to environmental protection. And I'm proud
to be speaking in favor of this facility, which Cary
will lead and will operate once it's constructed.
The facility is necessary to meet our
interbasin transfer mandates. It's critical to the
economic well-being and public health of the region.
This project is so important that Congress has
appropriated millions of dollars to move this forward.
Having said that, I would also like to
go back and say that Cary's an environmental leader;
not only in this area, but in the region and the state.
we have many environmental management programs that we
have led in. And from that, I can tell you that Cary
has a long history of meeting and exceeding regulatory
requirements for utility plants. As with other
projects Cary has been involved in, this facility is
well conceived, is well planned, and is well suited for
the Partners' site.
we are committed to serving the region
and are committed to being good neighbors for those
around the adjusted site -- or the adjacent site.
As Mayor, I can promise that the staff
will provide exemplary service to those that are around
this site as we already do with 135,000 citizens of
Cary.
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An exhaustive analysis has been done of
the EIS -- Draft EIS which proves that without a doubt,
this project should move forward; should move forward
without delay and should move forward on the Partners'
proposed side.
Regarding funding, I would also like to
add that I would like to speak in favor of the state
revolving loan consideration, for which I think this
project would be appropriate and a good investment.
In closing, I once again would like to
thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak and
being heard and ask for your full consideration from
the corps and from the state.
Thank you.
LTC. SULIT: Thank you, sir.
Are there any other elected officials
that I failed to get this afternoon that wants to make
a comment before we open it up to the citizens?
okay. Excellent.
we're going to open it up to comments
now. I've got a stack of comment cards, no in
particular order; but I am saving the New Hill
Community Association cards for the -- after the --
everyone else completes their -- their comments.
so, again, no particular order, from the
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Research Triangle Foundation, Ms. Elizabeth Rooks. Are
you here, ma'am? And on deck it will be from wake
County, Joe Durham. From the Durham Bulls.
MS. ROOKS: Good evening. My name is
Elizabeth Rooks. I'm executive vice president for the
Research Triangle Foundation for the development of the
Research Triangle Park.
The Town of Cary has provided wastewater
treatment for the wake county portion of RTP since the
early 1990s. The continued provision of high-quality
professionally managed wastewater treatment is
extremely important to the continued economic vitality
of the wake county portion of RTP.
To date, we have 11 companies in the
wake county portion of RTP employing an estimated 7,600
people. Projections show that the wake county portion
of RTP could grow to approximately 24,000 jobs at full
build-out. However, this growth can only occur if
there are adequate wastewater treatment facilities.
we believe that the potential
environmental impact of the facility has been carefully
evaluated and it is our understanding that the Draft
DIS does not find significant adverse impacts which
could not be mitigated. we strongly support moving
forward with this project.
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Thank you.
LTC. SULIT: Thank you, ma'am.
From wake county, Mr. Joe Durham. And
up next will be from Davis and High House, Mr. Karl
Thor.
MR. DURHAM: Joe Durham, Deputy county
manager for wake county.
while wake County is not directly
involved in service provisions in the water and sewer,
we are involved in the planning process. And this
project is consistent with recommendations of the 1997
water and sewer Plan. It was adopted by the Board of'
Commissioners in August of 1998. This plan was also
updated by the 2006 Blue Ribbon Committee Act (sic).
The 1997 water and Sewer Plan
essentially recommended a version of the many of the
individual committees' water and sewer systems in order
to increase sufficiencies, reduce costs, conserve
natural resources, accommodate logical and orderly
growth.
The 1997 plan specifically indicates
that Apex, Cary, Fuquay-varina, Holly springs and
Morrisville work together to evaluate the feasibility
of constructing a regional wastewater treatment
facility. This proposed project is consistent with
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these recommendations.
The proposed project as presented in the
DEIS is necessary in order to comply with the mandates
of the North Carolina Environmental management
commission which requires Apex, Cary, Morrisville and
wake county to return treated wastewater to the Cape
Fear River. This condition is placed on the
governments in order -- as a condition to allow the
governments to expand and draw water from the Jordan
Lake.
As currently presented in EIS, the
proposed project can result in the provision of water
and sewer service to properties in the western wake
county. And the soil conditions in western wake
provide limited opportunities for the development of
on-site water and sewer systems, wells and septic
tanks.
The wake County staff proposes --
supports the proposed project which can improve the
reliability of water and quality of water and sewer
services available since it is in western wake County.
Thank you.
LTC. SULIT: Thank you, sir.
Mr. Karl Thor. up next will be Reverend
Portia Rochelle, please.
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MR. THOR: My name is Dr. Karl Thor, and
thank you for letting me speak.
And I am a research scientist, and I'm
just telling you that so you know that I understand
data and I do do good research. And I'm also a Cary
resident speaking on behalf of DavisAndHighhouse.org,
which is a citizens activist group in -- in Cary. And
I'll give you the conclusion just in case my time runs
out quickly.
Basically, as a Cary resident, I'm
embarrassed that our raw sewage is going to be piped
through beautiful -- miles of beautiful countryside
into the backyards of a beautiful community like New
Hill right adjacent to their -- right adjacent to their
church.
[APPLAUSE.]
MR. THOR: And the way I came to this
conclusion was I started to interview some of the
council members from Cary who were involved in this
proposed partner site. And they told me -- the three
that I interviewed -- that this was rushed through the
council meetings by former mayor McAlister without much
rationale. There was some sort of an arbitrary
deadline that we had to stop putting our water here, we
had to put it here. Many of those councilmen
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weren't -- not with -- weren't interested in having
this done.
I also interviewed former members of
Apex Town Council, Morrisville Town Council and Chatham
County Board of Commissioners, and they also felt that
this was an injustice to what was being done to this
New Hill Community.
I did review all of the documents that
the New Hill Community Association had put together.
I've reviewed the website for the partnership. And all
of the documents that New Hill has put together I've
been able to substantiate with council members and
other government officials as being accurate. And I
don't think you'll hear any of these people saying that
that's not accurate.
So it -- finally, I interviewed the
people that live there. And there's hundreds of people
opposed to this being there. There were six that were
in favor. Two of them don't actually live there. And
the two I did talk to, they are good people; they're
just trying to earn a living. But they financially
benefit from having sewage access to their rest homes
and their restaurants.
And there are alternative sites
available that from my understanding seem to be just as
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good. I don't know why they're sticking to their guns
about putting this in the backyard of this beautiful
community. And it will be an environmental injustice
to -- to do that to that community.
Thank you very much.
LTC. SULIT: Thank you, sir.
[APPLAUSE.]
LTC. SULIT: Reverend Portia Rochelle.
Next up is Mick Noland.
REVEREND ROCHELLE: Good evening. My
name is Reverend Portia Rochelle. I represent the
Raleigh-Apex NAACP branch. I am the president.
The NAACP legal staff is studying the
Army Corps of Engineers Draft Environmental Impact
statement, which we believe has not provided adequate
attention to the impact that this project will have on
a historically black neighborhood. we -- when we have
completed our assessment of this statement, and in
consultation with other parties who are also concerned,
we will provide this body and the appropriate local,
state and federal officials with our position.
we are greatly concerned. we have
concerns such as: why was this community never
provided water and sewer lines? will this community or what percentage of the community will have access to
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the sewage treatment facility? will the new facility
benefit this community in any kind of way?
The New Hill Community and the southern
coalition for social justice have raised some serious
concerns that warrant a timely response. we believe
the concerned parties have raised legitimate questions
that should be addressed before we can make an informed
decision.
we are reviewing all the documents that
we can get our hands on and we will be prepared to make
comments by the deadline.
Thank you for this opportunity to
comment.
[APPLAUSE.]
LTC. SULIT: Thank you, ma'am.
Mr. Mick Noland. Next up is Catherine
Heath.
MR. NOLAND: Good evening. My name is
Mick Noland. I'm a professional engineer and the
Director of the water Resources Division and Public
works commission for the City of Fayetteville. we
serve Fayetteville, Fort Bragg and the surrounding
community.
when all this started, I didn't need
these, but -- but now I have to use them.
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Beginning in the 1990s, PwC was involved
with efforts to ensure proper management of the water
resources of the Cape Fear River Basin as it related to
increasing the amount of interbasin transfer from the'
Cape Fear Basin to the Neuse Basin.
As a result of the growth in western
wake County, Cary, Apex, and other communities were
requesting more water from Jordan Lake. Because all
their wastewater treatment facilities were in the Neuse
River Basin, they also requested an increase in,their
interbasin transfer permit.
During that time, Fayetteville,
Cumberland county, stated that we did not object to the
western wake's community use of water from Jordan Lake.
we just wanted to make sure that they returned the
water to the basin from which it came. Although the
Environmental management committee did permit an
increase in interbasin transfer, they limited this
increase and required that the water be returned to the
basin by January of 2011. Now, this all started in
1995 or thereabouts.
since that time, we have set our
differences aside and worked very closely with western
wake Partners on water quality and quantity issues to
the middle portion of the Cape Fear River. one of
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these efforts was a joint water quality modeling study
funded by PwC and the Town of Cary to ensure that
increases in reclaimed water discharged by the Partners
of PwC would still protect water quality in the river.
we've also been working closely on
updates to the Cape Fear Basin Hydrological model,
which is a tool for the State and all water users in
the basin to ensure proper management of our water
resources.
I have tracked the progress of the
Partners in their effort to plan, design, and submit to
western wake water Reclamation Facilities, attended
their plants and their planning meetings and been
involved and actually made comments at the last EIS
that we had.
At that time and as of this time, we are
encouraging the Corps of Engineers, the state and
federal agencies to do everything in their power so
that its requirement of the IBT certificate to be
charged back to Cape Fear River is met.
And I would like to add just as a
closing note that water reclamation facilities can be
good partners. Cape Fear -- in Fayetteville, the Cross
Creek Treatment Plant, across the street is the Cape
Fear Botanical Gardens and the FTC Horticultural
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Center. Right next door to it is the one and only
newest dog park for the Fayetteville area. And just
recently we are completing negotiations for a river
trail to come by our facility.
so it can be operated and properly
maintained, and I feel like Cary and the other folks
involved have the capacity to do that.
Thank you.
LTC. SULIT: Thank you, sir.
Ms. Catherine Heath.
MS. HEATH: Yes. My name is Catherine
Heath and I -- I live in wake county and I'm here to
speak on behalf of property owners that live in the
unincorporated areas of wake county and as the head of
Stop NC Annexation that is very concerned with property
rights for those people outside of municipalities.
And I know that somewhere in this
process of oversight and review that projects like this
and the people tasked with doing that oversight lies a
sincere desire and intent to do the right thing and
make sure projects are done right.
I'm sure as you -- as overseers of this
project you have all the information in front of you
that you need to make that decision. The EIS shows
good, acceptable alternatives to the taking of
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Mr. Seymour's land and the impact that it would have on
the community of New Hill. But I suspect, you know --
and I know the cities and the Partners need to do this
project. They have to end the interbasin transfer and
they have to do this right.
But going back to Mr. Thor's statements
about how this was done, the decision was made. I
suspect that the decision to take Mr. Seymour's land
and impact New Hill was the path of least resistance.
And rather than face Progress Energy and possibly that
opposition, they picked this site. And that is not the
right thing to do.
And I hope you'll look at this and
advise the city to think about what they're doing.
Thank you.
LTC. SULIT: Thank you, ma'am.
[APPLAUSE.]
LTC. SULIT: I have a couple cards from
NHCA, Brian Brice and Chris Brook. Do you want to
do -- do it separate? okay. Mr. --
MR. BRICE: Brice.
LTC. SULIT: -- Brice. Mr. Brice.
MR. BRICE: Thank you. My name is Brian
Brice. I'm an environmental attorney in Raleigh and
I'm here on behalf of the New Hill community
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Association. I have represented them in the past as it
relates to -- to the -- to the siting of this
wastewater treatment plant.
I would just like to say that the site
that's been selected I think from an environmental
perspective and numerous other reasons is not the best
site to be selected. There clearly is going to be a
decrease in private property values within the
unincorporated community of New Hill. There's
significant environmental justice issues that I urge
the corps of Engineers and the related agencies to
please review as it relates to minority and -- and
other historic communities there and the -- the
negative effects on those groups.
And -- and I also urge you to review
this -- this whole site selection process started, I
believe, in 2002 with interlocal agreements that were
entered into between the different partners. And it --
it's clear to me that the Town of Cary, based upon my
research and review as an attorney, had preselected
this site rather than the Progress Energy sites that r-
that are the alternatives and that they did so in
contravention of the Interlocal Agreement Act as part
of our General statutes and in contribution -- and in
contravention of our opening meetings Law.
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I urge all of the agencies, particularly
the legal staff, to also look at those issues. I think
that while they are not directly environmental related,
it relates to the environmental issues as -- as -- as
will occur with this interbasin transfer and the
wastewater discharge to Cape Fear River. And to please
consider the sites that -- that -- that don't impact
the community, don't impact property owners, don't
impact the environmental justice concerns. And clearly
that the sites of Progress Energy are -- are the sites
that you should review more closely in making your your determination as to the EIS.
I'm very proud to have been able to work
with the New Hill community group and that they are
here for a reason.
Thank you.
[APPLAUSE.]
LTC. SULIT: Thank you, sir.
Mr. Chris Brook.
MR. BROOK: Good evening. My name is
Christopher Brook and I'm a staff attorney at the
southern coalition for social Justice in Durham, North
Carolina. I represent the New Hill Community
Association, and I would like to speak for just a
couple of moments on the three needs animating this
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project that you've heard a great deal about already
this evening.
The first need that's been discussed is
the interbasin transfer -- transfer requirement that
has a deadline of January 1st, 2011, as referenced by
Mr. Bruce who spoke earlier as well as a number of
other individuals who have spoken already as well.
This says that the Partners must return water to the
Cape Fear by January 1st, 2011.
As Mr. Bruce stated this evening, as the
Draft Environmental Impact statement says as well, the
project, the sewage treatment facility, is not going to
be online until spring of 2013, so it is not going to
be able to facilitate them making this January 1st,
2011 deadline.
we -- the projections that we've laid
out establish that it will be probably 2015 before it
can assist in meeting this deadline. so it should be
taken out of the Draft Environmental Impact statement
as one of the needs animating it and other ways of
realizing that transfer should be discussed.
The second need discussed in the Draft
Environmental impact statement is the Holly springs
discharge into Utley Creek. It is also tied in to the
interbasin transfer requirement with a January 1st,
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2011 deadline. As I just stated, I don't think that
deadline can be met based on what is included in the
Draft Environmental Impact Statement.
In addition, again, alternatives for
realizing this goal have not been discussed in the
Draft Environmental Impact statement as would be
appropriate.
Finally, what we've heard a lot about
and what the Draft Environmental Impact Statement lays
out is that this is necessary -- the sewage treatment
facility is necessary for -- because of the -- the
growth issues in the Partners' communities. The figure
that's thrown out in the DEIS is a 260 percent growth
rate. That is based on a 1996 Town of Cary use plan
and just projects mechanically the same growth 20 years
out into the future.
Instead of using figures that are 13
years old, you should actually come up with some
figures that are based in reality as of today and apply
them in a way that makes sense.
Thank you.
LTC. SULIT: Thank you, sir.
[APPLAUSE.]
LTC. SULIT: Before we go on to the --
with the New Hill Community Association -- I understand
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you have a series of -- of people to do one
presentation -- but do we have any other citizens who
want to make a comment before they start? It's open to
your floor right now.
okay. Sir, go ahead. Come on up.
MR. SEARS: Thank you, sir. My name is
Robert Sears. I'm a resident of Chatham County. And
you'll say, what's somebody from Chatham county doing
here? They don't have a dog in this fight. well,
there's a 16-inch sewer out -- discharge line, I think,
that's proposed for nine miles through Chatham county.
so, yeah, we've got a canine in this battle.
I would ask you to consider maybe --
what's wrong with site 21/23? why have you got to be
right in the middle of New Hill? I mean, just because
they live next to a nuclear power plant, their lives
suck that bad already? You know, move it away just a'
little bit.
And it's Progress Energy land. That's
land they already took from the people, and now you can
take it and use it again. That's got a nice bit of
irony to it, don't you agree?
So, you know, don't put it -- you got to
put it somewhere. when you flush the toilet, it's got
to go somewhere. I agree with that. I think they all
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agree with that. Right? But don't put it right in the
middle of New Hill.
Babe Ruth used to come here, at least
according to my daddy, when he went back and forth from
spring training back in whenever that was; the 30s.
But, you know, it's been there a long time. It's not
the biggest place in the word; but it's a small place,
kind of like Chatham County. But why not consider site
21 or 23? That's Progress Energy land and it affects
less people.
Thank you very much.
[APPLAUSE.]
LTC. SULIT: Thank you, sir.
Any other comments before the New Hill
Community Association starts?
okay. Sir, before -- of course, the
rules still apply. Once you come up and make sure you
state your name for the record.
we'll start with Mr. Paul Barth and
followed by Ms. Edna Horton.
MR. BARTH: Good evening. Thank you
very much. I think you know who I am, Paul Barth. I
live in New Hill. I'm also president of the New Hill
Community Association.
The community comes here tonight in a
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show of solidarity -- you can tell that by all the red
shirts that we're wearing -- and to explain to you why
Site 14 is not the preferred site, but it is the wrong
site. You have overwhelming -- you have overwhelmingly
white communities attempting to build their sewage
plant on the border of an overwhelmingly minority
community.
Site 14 is being imposed upon our
community by outside forces with no advance involvement
from the New Hill Community. There are three other
viable alternatives with little or no human impact and
there will be no impact to our historic district.
The Draft EIS details the impacts that
are proposed -- the proposal to build in the center of
New Hill. The western wake Partners refer to site
as -- site 14 as the preferred site. As I said, we
refer to it as the wrong site.
The western wake Partners compared this
wrong site to three alternatives, all of which are
preferred by the New Hill community as though they are
near our community, they are not in the center of our'
community.
Tonight's speakers -- speakers will be
telling you why site 14 is wrong because of
environmental justice impacts to our minority
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community, New Hill community impacts, procedural and
guideline errors, original site selection was flawed,
and other better options are available.
I have a couple of charts I'm going to
put in front, but I also have some books of all the
materials that we're talking about tonight and there's
a -- I have included in there a cover letter that
explains each section.
[TELEPHONE INTERRUPTION.]
MR. BARTH: Not my phone.
The two charts you had sought at the
environmental justice meeting that we held in may, one
depicts pictures of the previous impacts that have been
done to the New Hill Community. People seem to
overlook that this is not the first time some type of
utility project has taken property from us and placed
it right in the middle of New Hill.
The other one shows you some pictures of
what our historic district does look like. It's not
just names on a chart. It's actually real buildings
that have real owners and real people that live there.
Thank you for your time, and I would
like to welcome Edna Horton as our next speaker.
LTC. SULIT: Thank you, sir.
[APPLAUSE.]
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LTC. SULIT: Ms. Elaine Joyner will be
following.
MS. HORTON: My name is Edna Horton and
I live on Garris Road in New Hill. our property is
located right next to the target site 14 location and I
believe the site -- that site 14 should not be selected
for the facility.
DENR established a 50 percent minority
population as a threshold for requiring the Partners to
address the environmental justice concern. There is an
83 percent minority population within a half-mile
radius of site 14 and a 54 percent minority population
within a one-mile radius of Site 14.
The Partners' consultant -- consultants
recommended that they develop a mitigation plan to
provide water and sewer for properties within a
half-mile radius of Site 14. Most of the minority
residents in New Hill do not favor site 14 and do not
feel that any mitigation plans would make up for the
negative impact to our community.
The two identified minority committees
do not fall within the half-mile radius boundaries of
Site 21/23. Therefore, a mitigation plan would not be
necessary if Site 21/23 is selected.
The Partners intend to purchase and
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maintain easements and to construct the pipeline within
a -- or next to existing right-of-ways or easements
because of the size of the pipeline. we believe
additional easements will likely be needed.
Construction of the pipeline may require locating some
wells -- relocating some wells and septic systems.
The Partners admit some people may be
displaced, which means some residents could be forced
from their homes so the sewage line can be run.
Although the Partners will conduct surveys of all
pipeline routes, the number of families impacted may
not be completely known until the time of construction.
LTC. SULIT: Thank you, ma'am.
[APPLAUSE.]
LTC. SULIT: Next up will be -- is
Mr. James Clanton here?
MS. JOYNER: Good evening. My name is
Elaine Joyner and I'm a member of First Baptist Church,
New Hill. I would just like to point out that our
church has been in New Hill since the late 1800s.
A review of the summary data clearly
show that the negative impacts to our community would
be eliminated or reduced if site 14 is not selected.
our residents are concerned about the proximity of the
plant to their property border if Site 14 is selected.
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The separation, or the distance in feet from the plant
to the property border, does not favor site 14 as the
selection. Based on the available data, site 19 or
site 21/23 would be better selections of a separation
of 2,300 feet for each of them. Site 14 has a
separation of 1,500 feet, and Site 30 has a separation
of 1,000 feet.
site 14 has a lot of homes that back up
to or are within a half mile of the site. The other
sites have very few residents within a half mile and
few, if any, sensitive land use areas. site 14 has six
sensitive land use areas, site 30 has two, and site 19
and site 21/23 have none.
we also object to the use of the term .
"service area" to define the area around the pipelines
and the facility. These areas are not serviced by the
project and are not expected to be serviced due to the
wake county five-mile buffer surrounding the Shearon
Harris Nuclear Plant.
By designating this as a service area,
the Partners can claim that the population of the
service area is about 20 percent minority. The
population of the true service area -- predominantly
the Towns of Cary and Apex -- is less than 20 percent
minority.
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If the purpose of selecting a site is to
limit unavoidable adverse effects across key public
interest factors consistent with deeper criteria, then
site 14 should be excluded due to the environmental
justice impact, the proximity to the New Hill Historic
District, and the sensitive land uses of two historic
churches with cemeteries and playgrounds.
Thank you for your time.
[APPLAUSE.]
LTC. SULIT: Mr. Reverend James Clanton
followed by Mr. John Judd.
REV. CLANTON: My name is James Clanton.
I am the pastor of First Baptist Church, New Hill.
we believe the site 14 should not be
selected for this facility, and I would like to
highlight a couple of critical flaws in your analysis.
All four sites have shown using the same
pipeline routes. Because the original pipeline routes
were for site 14, it means the sister tracts for the
facility at site 14 are brought into the analysis for
areas of the sites. The effluent line should follow
the best potential route for each site. There is no
good reason for the effluent lines to cross back over
us 1 again as far north as they do for site 19 or site
21/23.
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For site 30, the influent line could
travel further west, perhaps crossing New Hill olive
chapel Road as far north as Barker Road or higher and
miss the New Hill intersection area entirely. By using
the same pipeline routes, the differences between the
alternatives are minimized making it appear that the
four sites aren't very different in their impact to the
minority community.
The analysis states that a minority
population may also be present if the minority
population percentage of the affected area is
meaningfully greater than any general population or
other appropriate unit of geographic analysis.
Throughout the analysis, the comparison
is made between the service area in wake and Chatham
Counties. Chatham county is minimally affected as is
most of wake county. The appropriate units of
geographical analysis should be the Towns of Cary and
Apex, who are pushing this project and will benefit
from it. These towns have minority populations that
are less than the general populations of both counties.
Furthermore, the service area is the
area at some point in the future might be served by
this project. But this will depend on when developers
extend service to these area -- areas. The comparison
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should not be between the service area and the
counties, but between those adjacent to parts of the
project and the towns that will benefit.
In conclusion, a flawed analysis is an
analysis that does not tell the whole truth. If the
whole truth is told, and nothing but the truth, then
site 14 should be free from any consideration for this
facility.
Thank you.
[APPLAUSE.]
LTC. SULIT: Thank you, sir.
Mr. Judd followed by Louis Powell,
please.
MR. JUDD: My name is Johnnie Judd. My
wife and I own property on Garris Road.
If this sewage facility is constructed
on site 14 and we wanted to sell our property, we
strongly believe that our property value would be
negatively -- negatively impacted because of the close
proximity to this facility.
If -- if Site 21/23 is selected, which
is a better site from our standpoint, and the community
had water and sewer without the stench, our homes would
be worth more than if we had both sewer service and
sewage odor. By putting the plant next to minority
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homes, the stench from the sewage plant would decrease
the value of our -- the properties in the neighborhood.
one of the many concerns the residents
adjacent to the South Cary sewage plant is that their
homes either couldn't be sold or were difficult to sell
due to the sewage plant in their neighborhood. sellers
had to reduce the price of -- of their property and
some had to sell at a loss.
Thank you very much.
[APPLAUSE.]
LTC. SULIT: Thank you, sir. Mr. Powell
followed by Ms. Anne King.
MR. POWELL: Thank you so much. I'm
Louis Powell and I'm representing Louis Powell.
You know, I'm amazed that conference
a constant reference has been made to "partners."
Partners now. You know, when you look at the
definition for "partner," people working in concert to
accomplish something.
New Hill was affected, but we are not a
partner. Nobody included us. Nobody asked us where is
the best place for this site. But they took -- they
just decided to just put it right there.
And, you know, I often asked myself the
question: why did they choose this particular site?
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well, when I get up in the mornings and I look at
myself in the mirror, I know why they chose it.
[APPLAUSE.]
MR. POWELL: I know why. You know,
everybody in here tonight and in previous hearings have
been wondering: why did they choose putting it,
Reverend Clanton, right behind your church? I know
why. Because when I look in the mirror, I can
understand why.
we choose the road of least resistance.
we don't have the political clout to fight you. we
don't have the money to fight you. so I'm going to
choose those who won't fight back.
But, ladies and gentlemen, you are
surprised -- or you will be surprised. we're going to
fight.
AUDIENCE: Amen.
MR. POWELL: we are going to fight every
day and every night until you recognize that we have
been taken advantage of. But we won't go easily. In
fact, I will predict we're not going to go at all until
we have won.
[APPLAUSE.]
MR. POWELL: So listen to us. we know
why you chose us. we know.
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You have made a mistake. why can't we'
sit down and find the proper place? Let us become a
partner. Let us be a part of the selection process.
That's all we ask. You put it in my yard. why didn't
you ask me is there a better place for it?
You know, about 35, 40 years ago they
set Shearon Harris on there or Progress Energy right in
my yard. Thirty years later, here you come again;
sitting an unacceptable facility in my yard.
Thank you.
[APPLAUSE.]
LTC. SULIT: After Ms. Miller will be
Brent Miller -- after Ms. King will be Brent Miller,
please.
MS. KING: Good evening. I'm Anne King
and I live on country Haven Lane in New Hill. I would
like to comment on site selection.
According to the western wake Partners'
website, the sewage treatment plant must be located on
a site that protects citizens' quality of life. This
means keeping the facility footprint as far away as
possible from homes, parks, churches, playgrounds and
other areas important to citizens.
And yet the homes of 231 people, two
beautiful country churches built in the 1800s and
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several cemeteries are all located within one-half mile
of site 14. Site 14 also has the most feet of streams
and federal lands impacted.
The only logical choice of a site for
this facility is on land owned by Progress Energy. No
family homes, churches, cemeteries or playgrounds would
be impacted. Only 60 to 100 acres would be needed
because it wouldn't require the buffer that site 14
would require. And if Harris Lake were used as the
discharge site, the capital cost associated with
locating the facility on Progress Energy property would
be less expensive than is currently projected for two
reasons.
First, there would be a seven-mile
reduction in the length of pipeline required; and,
second, a pump station could be eliminated because the
discharge to Harris Lake could flow from -- from the
site by gravity.
A shorter pipeline would result in less
stream and wetland impacts, and air emissions and noise
associated with the pump station would be eliminated.
Removing the need for a pump station would also save a
significant amount of energy.
The New Hill community has already
relinquished land for a nuclear power plant,
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high-voltage electrical power lines, power substations,
gas pipelines, US Highway 1 and Jordan Lake. To allow
outside municipalities to further infringe on our rural
area is just not acceptable.
[APPLAUSE.]
LTC. SULIT: Thank you.
Following Mr. Miller will be Ms. Loretta
Young.
MR. MILLER: My name is Brent Miller.
I'm am a citizen of Cary, but I stand tonight with my
New Hill neighbors in opposition to the targeted site
14 for the regional sewage plant because that site
significantly impacts a historic district.
I volunteered for years as an advocate'
for historic preservation. I served on the board of
directors for the Friends of the Page-walker, a
nonprofit organization whose mission includes historic
preservation and history education. I produce their
newsletter.
I've compiled an inventory of historic
properties in and around Cary that is presented to the
community annually, and I serve as a watchdog for
threatened historic properties. And I'm involved in
creating the Town of Cary's comprehensive historic
resources plan. I've been recognized by the Cary News
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and earlier this year received the History and Heritage
Award from Cary for this volunteerism.
I mention all this not to attempt to try
and impress anyone, but rather to indicate that I am
serious and passionate about historic preservation.
The New Hill Historic District was
listed on the National Register of Historic Places in
2001. It includes at least 60 buildings, and it's
historically significant because of its rural nature
and agricultural uses as well as the Colonial Revival
and Tudor Revival architecture that is found in this
district. The period of significance dates to the
mid-1800s.
Now, Cary and Apex have gone to great
lengths to preserve their historic districts. And
unlike a single structure, a historic district
preserves history by its overall character and the
totality of the structures, the people and the events
that make up that district. Detracting from that
character damages the historic district's value.
The New Hill Historic District is an
asset to this area and I believe it should be
preserved. And I am expressing my own views. Although
I've mentioned other organizations, I -- I am still
speaking on behalf of myself tonight.
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Placing a mammoth regional sewer
facility adjacent to this historic district will, I
believe, seriously impair its historic value and that
is irreplaceable. For that reason, I oppose site 14
because it impairs historic preservation in this
region.
[APPLAUSE.]
LTC. SULIT: Thank you, sir.
Ms. Young will being followed by Mr. Cal
Nordt.
MS. YOUNG: Thank you.
My name is Loretta Roundy Young and I
live in Historic New Hill. I've struggled with how to
convey in two minutes a sense of the history of New
Hill and how it would be targeted by a sewage plant at
site 14, but I will try.
New Hill has structures with a variety
of architecture -- Colonial, Tudor, Greek Revival,
Bungalow, Queen Anne -- two Gothic Revival churches and
cemeteries, many farms over 100 years old with all the
outbuildings still intact, a historic railroad from the
1860s, the Judd Bright store built in the 1870s; Farmer
Supply Store and Troy's motor court built in 1928 by my
grandfather, Troy Roundy. And it is true, Babe Ruth
stopped at Troy's on his way to spring training
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traveling down what is now historic old US Highway 1.
I share this because, as Brent said, it
is not just the buildings, but the people and events
that make New Hill historic.
My dad, W.T. Roundy, 7r., served his
community by running a farmer supply store until his
illness and death in 2002. I returned to New Hill with
the hope of restoring the buildings and reopening the
store and cafe. The threat of a sewage plant across
the street has put those plans on hold.
Preserving New Hill is not only
important for the people that live here, it is
important for people in neighboring areas, too. Not a
week goes by that someone doesn't share with me how
much they love the beauty of the area, the little
crossroads, or share a special memory of stopping at
W.T.'s.
we all need history in our lives. we
need to be able to glimpse back even while we're
progressing forward. one of Apex's own design
consultants called New Hill a gem in the rough and
encouraged me to preserve it.
so, finally, I urge Apex and the
Partners to reconsider. Do not destroy one of the
assets of wake county that could not be recreated. Do
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not put the sewage plant at site 14.
[APPLAUSE.]
LTC. SULIT: Thank you, ma'am.
Following Mr. Nordt is Mr. Jeff Leary.
MR. NORDT: My name is Cal Nordt and I
lived south of Apex and in Apex for 20 years and now
reside in Raleigh. Judi Tisman's compiled an oral
history which compliment's Loretta's talk by describing
the people whose memory needs to be preserved.
old New Hill has continuously existed as
a community longer than any of the four towns of the
western wake Partners. New Hill has had its own post
office since 1847 and still does. Judi's speakers
describe a town of beautiful farms crisscrossed with
roads and the people living there whose descendants
still do. They were small farmers who farmed to live,
both black and white, shopping and going to church in
New Hill, sometimes together and sometimes separately
consistent with their times, but more often together
than most places.
It is historically important that the
African-American community within New Hill was families
who acquired and kept their land as sharecroppers.
This is highly unusual, but was generally so in New
Hill. In their common struggle to survive as farmers,
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both the black and white families helped each other on
their farms paying and bartering as was appropriate in
their common effort.
For decades they both have been
assaulted from outside, large tracts of land taken
unfairly from them by public condemnation without
proper compensation. The new Route 1 was built
severing and disrupting the community. Gordan Lake was
constructed, same situation; then the Shearon Harris
Nuclear Plant. And, once again, these same people had
to give up their land and see their community weakened.
when is it time to say enough is enough?
Almost everyone in New Hill -- black or white, blue or
red, right or left, rich or poor -- agrees that site 14
must not be used for the sewage plant. It is not only
in the center of the community, but precisely where the
people are 83 percent minorites.
New Hill is reasonable in asking that
the plant be built one mile away. Insisting on Site 14
is extreme; extremely selfish. The towns that refuse
to change their plans for no reason other than a
bull-headed desire to do it their way.
I hope the Army Corps of Engineers
changes their minds for them. Thank you.
[APPLAUSE.]
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LTC. SULIT: Following Mr. Leary will bel
Ms. Thelma Gardner.
MR. LEARY: Good evening, folks. I'm
Dr. 7eff Leary. I live on 8400 Old Bethel Church Lane.
I live in the old Bethel Church. Like one of the
previous speakers said, I -- I'm sure everybody here
really wants to do the right thing and do the best job
they can. I think you're hearing some work needs to be
done.
It's my intention to -- to question
the -- the impression that's given on the EIS that
mitigation of secondary and cumulative impacts are
covered by detailed written plans. My focus is going
to be on the plans, but -- but just -- just to remind
you that the Partners themselves have said that
constant noise, smell and high-powered lighting are
part of what needs to be mitigated. But coming with
that plant, along with it, are disruptive easements for
the superfluous power transmission line at Apex's
expense and convenience going from here to there rather
than using something from the power plant; a water line
that's currently wasting Apex city water dumping it on
the ground; and, of course, the huge high-pressure
sewage pipeline. These are all things that just aren't
compatible with what you've been hearing about in New
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Hill as a community.
Now, with respect to the mitigation
plans, those impacts of course will occur. we know
that. The EIS indicates that there are current
detailed written things in place to cover this
eventuality. But, in fact, I think you heard also
earlier that those written plans actually are
restricted to the Partner townships. They only cover
people who live in the town limits. So those detailed
plans are not there for the majority of wake county
citizens who will be impacted by this project.
If you live in Holly springs, you will.
okay? what I'd like to know is: where are the plans
for those who will actually be impacted? They're not
there. I think that needs to be addressed in detail in
the EIS.
Finally, the real point here is that the
choice of site 14 rather than either of these
alternative sites actually maximizes the impact and
these cumulative and secondary impacts on -- on the
people. If you choose one of the other sites, if this
is not a permitted site, that will be lessened
considerably. So please, help us with that happening.
Thank you.
[APPLAUSE.]
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LTC. SULIT: Following Ms. Thelma
Gardner will be Ms. Vickie Gardner.
MS. THELMA GARDNER: Hello. My name is
Thelma Gardner, and my property adjoins the proposed
sewage pipe site.
The Draft EIS does not specifically
address how the Partners will handle adverse impacts to
my home and community. Impacts include light, noise,
traffic, spills, contamination and illness. what are
the specific measures in place to prevent an adverse
impact, and what system of accountability is in place.
to make sure the systems are installed, operated and
maintained? what recourse do impacted residents have
to safeguard these mitigation measures? what are the
standards and measurements each impact will be held to?
when and how are they measured? Do the measuring
instruments automatically respond?
what are the Partners going to do to
make sure records are accurate and instruments are
performing correctly and properly calibrated? It is
one thing to say "Trust us, we'll keep an eye on it."
It's another to say, "If a measurement gets above a
certain number, we will do this."
whom can we call if we experience a
problem? since the property is owned and managed by
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Cary, but falls under Apex's jurisdiction, there is
ambiguity about the area of responsibility and
accountability. The local residents fall under neither
of these municipalities and neither government is
accountable to them.
what recourse do we have to see that
problems are solved? How Will the Partners correct the
problem affecting our community? Many of us have wells
close to site 14. How will you protect and restore our
wells if there is a spill? will there be a working
group tasked with these solutions? In the case of more
serious or immediate impacts, what steps will the
operator take to immediately safeguard our community?
Just let me remind you that there are
far better locations within a mile or so that are
available for this facility where the community impact
will be far less.
[APPLAUSE.]
LTC. SULIT: Thank you, ma'am.
Following Ms. Vickie Gardner will be
Mr. Berry Credle.
MS. VICKIE GARNDER: My name is Vickie
Gardner. I live at 2904 New Hill-Holleman Road. I am
secretary and charter member of the New Hill Community
Association.
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I came out of the New Hill Baptist
church one Sunday and my neighbor asked me if I knew
that they were going to build a waste treatment
facility in my backyard, behind my home, my family's
historic home is next door, across the road from my
church, the playground I designed, my family's
cemetery, and on land taken from my neighbor in the
center of my community.
Are we to experience the same negative
impacts of living with a sewage plant as those that
live near North and South Cary and the Neuse River
Facilities?
I spend time near the Neuse River
Facility and I experience firsthand the negative
impacts. Sewage is smelled most when families are home
and want to be outside. They can't have windows open
and take advantage of fresh air because there isn't
any. They feel embarrassed and locked in their homes.
when I toured the west Lake Facility,
orange extract had been released into the air to
disguise the odor. I went upstairs in a new house
under construction next door and the master bedroom
looked down into a valley of waste.
The delivery and maintenance trucks
cause extra traffic, tear up roads and are noisy. They
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blow their horns at 5 o'clock in the morning to gain
entrance to the plants. Their backup alarms are heard
for miles within the communities. The trucks speed and
there are no sidewalks. our kids, elderly and
minorities are now and will be at even greater risk
going to and from bus stops, churches, post office and
the community store.
Property is being devalued and will be
devalued. who wants to live near a stinking sewage
plant? Homes won't sell and values elsewhere are
already decreasing. And what of the sludge? Is it to
be spread on the ground to add further stench?
All terrible noise problems from these
little generators humming, I'll experience that. To
some, it sounds like a plane landing in their backyard
when fired up. And some homes they say literally shake
when the generators are humming. The light pollution
is so bright that they feel like they're living inside
of the city as the lights are on all night.
we have a concern for our children and
our elderly's health and we would like to know what
chemicals are in the odors' air. The South Cary
residents have expressed that they feel like the gas
odor burns their face.
I knew then and I know now that Site 14
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in the center of my community is the wrong site and
that will destroy my community's quality of life
forever. I plead with you to please consider another
site.
Thank you.
[APPLAUSE.]
LTC. SULIT: Thank you, ma'am.
Following Mr. Credle will be Mr. John
Moore.
MR. CREDLE: My name is Berry Credle. I
live at 2920 Ridgepine Drive in Apex and it borders the
New Hill postal district. I would like to continue
with the comments made by Thelma and Vickie Gardner
about Cary North and in particular Cary South sewage
plant problems concerning plant maintenance.
Maintenance -- no tanks are being
cleaned because the stench is worse than it usually is.
And I also believe that transportation of the sludge
off-site contributes even more to the stench.
These residents are not receiving value
for their town taxes and realize no benefit from living
in the area of the sewage plant. They believe they
should be getting tax incentives for living so close to
this plant and there are only tax increases. And
they're reluctant to invite relatives and friends to
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their homes. They pray the wind is blowing the stench
away from their homes during these visits.
During the purchase of their homes, the
Realtors and builders assured these residents there
would be no odor problems. However, home -- home
buyers had to sign a waiver stating they knew that they
were buying a house adjacent to a sewage plant, and now
they know why that waiver was required. Having a
sewage treatment plant this close to residents is --
doesn't make sense. The stench is inescapable.
Attempts to fix the stench is difficult
to the south Cary wRF site. During a period of two
years, attempts to control it cost hundreds of
thousands of dollars and yet there were still issues.
Residents were told that experts had been retained and
everything that can be done is being done to deal with
the problem.
But I must stress all along that we have
stated how these same issues will be a concern for the.
New Hill community, especially the minorities. The
only commonality is they live adjacent to site 14. But
the Partners have no concern for the New Hill
community, the New Hill Historic District, the two
churches, the cemeteries or the playgrounds. New Hill
has been a community for almost 200 years, not two
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years like the residents who some supported the South
Cary sewage plant. New Hill was here first. our
residents didn't move here knowing the plant would be
there.
Importing undesired sewage, unwanted
electricity and fresh water which Apex dumps in our
ditches under the guise of providing water to our fire
station just reinforces how the Partners have decided
without the corps' input or approval or ours that they
know what is best for our community. Neighbors of the
north and south sewage plants disagree with this
assessment and so do the residents of New Hill.
Thank you.
[APPLAUSE.]
LTC. SULIT: Thank you.
Following Mr. Moore will be an audio
tape from Ms. Elizabeth Moore.
MR. MOORE: Hello, I'm John Moore
representing the New Hill Community Association whose
website is nhcanc.org. I'm here to talk about one
aspect of targeting New Hill and two consequences.
First, an aspect of targeting New Hill
is the use of biased consultants. You would not use or you would not trust the words of a used car salesman
saying that his mechanic checked out the car you're
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about to purchase. However, for this proposed $327
million expense in the critical NEPA process, the Army
Corps of Engineers trusted data and conclusions that
were paid for by the western wake Partners.
Now, for a consequence: sewage leaks.
Say the sewage partners -- the sewage partners' goals
of 99 percent and of targeting New Hill are achieved,
that could leave 1 percent of 35 million gallons --
350,000 gallons -- of raw sewage per day on the front
porch of the New Hill community spilled.
A second consequence is the gas emitted
from thence along the sewage pipeline. The gas is
flammable. This could be a hazard during controlled
burns that take place on properties that are tree --
that have tree farms.
If you believed that the New Hill
targeted site received independent scrutiny, then I've
got a used car to sell you. It -- it doesn't stink.
It runs great, and it won't catch on fire.
In conclusion, please take a closer look
at the consequences and put the site where there are
fewer people.
And next -- next, having already been
given permission, I'll -- I'll play a recording.
LTC. SULIT: This is Ms. Elizabeth
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Moore?
MR. MOORE: That's correct.
LTC. SULIT: okay.
[AUDIO TAPE BEGINS.]
MRS. MOORE: Hello, my name is Elizabeth
Coviello Moore. My husband John and I own an
approximately 22-acre horse training facility and home
on Mason Road in New Hill.
The western wake Partners have made
statements with regard to the wastewater treatment
plant as being a benefit to New Hill as a whole that my
husband and I find to be extremely questionable, if not
outright laughable.
First of all, their perspective is a very
urban one. They represent that we would want to have
the elimination of septic systems over time,
quote/unquote, but we prefer the low populated --
population density that is a result of the land not
perking well. It is the main reason why most of us
live here.
In our case, we have lived and traveled
extensively across the whole country searching for the
specific qualities we have here; our wonderful
community and freedom to enjoy our land.
They state that there will be community
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enhancement through environmental education and
learning opportunities and access to future greenway
trails and other public lands. Some of my neighbors
who will be affected already have a stewardship --
stewardship forest on their property. we have both the
Friendship Trails Association nearby and on our street
we have a deeded bridle trail easement in the wake
county Book of Records that goes around our subdivision
which all the neighbors on our street and on one street
away from us use both on bicycle, on foot, and on
horseback.
This will be very much affected by the laying
of pipelines -- cutting trees down, disturbing the
soils, displacing wildlife -- and by the odor as one
part of this trail comes quite close to the proposed
plant.
Parks are typically created to serve large
populations and we also have plenty of other public
access and parkland at both Harris Lake Park and at
Jordan Lake.
Thank you so much for listening to our
concerns and allowing us to project these points.
[AUDIO TAPE ENDS.]
LTC. SULIT: Thank you.
[APPLAUSE.]
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LTC. SULIT: Mr. Randy Sink followed by
Ms. Carolyn Sink.
MR. SINK: Good evening, my name is
Randel Sink. I'm a professional engineer, a 35-year
resident of New Hill. I want to address the abuse of
government power in my talk to you tonight.
No community involvement was experienced
during the site selection and the condemnation of site
14. The western wake Partners avoided community
involvement in the decision-making process for as long
as possible and has kept any attempt at community
involvement as ineffective as possible.
During the site selection process,
several members of the New Hill community were involved
in the southwest wake Area Land use Planning Group.
This group would have presented an opportunity for
community involvement and feedback, but the western
wake Partners never allowed this to be pursued in the
least.
Even as late as may 2005, the Partners
did not disclose their preferred location of the
wastewater treatment facility to this working group
even when questioned about it.
At a New Hill community meeting on may
31st, 2005, invited guests wake county manager David
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Cook and wake County Commissioner Phil Jeffries in a
public forum at that meeting denied any knowledge of
this project. These two men were later proved to be
outright liars when pre-May 31st a-mails from them
revealed their discussions about the proposed location
and the need for the sewage plant.
The western wake Partners prematurely
and without justification pressured for the
condemnation of the Seymour Farm in New Hill. As a
result, actions since that condemnation of the Seymour
Farm in June of 2005 have been prejudiced to the
selection of site 14 as the preferred site. The
western wake Partners have limited their choice of
reasonable alternatives by committing $3 million -- in
excess of $3 million to a single site, site 14, without
authorization from anybody.
All of the work since June 2005 relating
to the Environmental Impact Statement, including the
work by the Project Development Team, has been
prejudiced by this premature commitment of funds.
Additionally, one cannot assume that the
infrastructure work undertaken by the Town of Apex,
including the waterline that was just put in, power
line just -- extensions that are about to take place,
are not directly affected by this previous commitment,
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and their -- their impacts in addition should be
included in the Environmental impact statement.
Thank you.
[APPLAUSE.]
LTC. SULIT: Ms. Carolyn sink will be
followed by John Brubaker.
MS. SINK: My name is Carolyn Sink and
I'm also a resident of New Hill with the gentleman who
just spoke.
My concern -- as one of my neighbors
talked about, the -- the impact of the plant near her
home, my concern is the impact of the 17-plus miles
that this raw sewage would have to travel to get to the
plant and all the homes that that might impact.
The issue's not if, but when it's going
to spill. with plans to pump raw sewage for that
amount -- that amount of miles, who's going to be
responsible for cleaning it up? That includes those
wetlands and those streams that -- that our friend was
talking about.
For the citizens of wake county, the
sewage is treated near the source and the effluent is
pumped that distance. There's much less tragedy for
the wetlands and the people's wells along the way.
who's going to provide clean water
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during that time of cleanup?
Mayor weinbrecht has said that they
operate an efficient plant. I think some of my
neighbors are going to talk to you about the number of
spills and the long cleanup process that Cary has
experienced with the many spills that they've had.
So we know it's going to spill. It's
just a matter of when. And then who's going to clean
it up? with so many people involved and so many
different towns involved in the process, it's going to
be whose on first. You clean it up. No, it's your
problem. No, it's your problem. It's our problem
because no one else is going to assume responsibility.
It's going to impact our drinking water.
It's going to impact the wells. It's going to impact
livestock. It's going to impact -- impact plants. And
these impacts are going to last in many cases a
lifetime, because if it's in -- if it's in the wells
that we use for water, there may not be a way to
restore that.
who's going to be the point of contact
if a spillage does occur? Cary's responsible for site
operations. Apex has some residents along the route.
so the fact creates a situation that it's then your
problem and finger-pointing and then nobody assuming
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the responsibility.
New -- New -- New Hill has no voting
capacity in any of the municipalities, so we lack
political power.
when the Army Corps of Engineers became
involved, we were relieved that an impartial body was
looking through the lens of hopefully honesty and
integrity and that you would see the fallacy of this
selection process. we're still hopeful that you won't
jump on that snowball that's rolling headed straight
for New Hill.
Thank you.
[APPLAUSE.]
LTC. SULIT: After Mr. Brubaker will
be --
MR. BARTH: Kate...
LTC. SULIT: -- Kate Hasner.
MS. HANSER: Hanser.
LTC. SULIT: Hanser. Sorry.
MS. HANSER: No problem.
MR. BRUBAKER: Good evening. My name is
John Brubaker. I live at 3000 Old us 1 Highway, and I
used to vote at w.T.'s store.
I am concerned about the power lines
serving the proposed sewage plant. They're not
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included in the Environmental Impact statement. In
their comments to you, the Town of Apex has stated that
the power lines are to serve future potential
customers. There are several problems with that
statement.
First, I asked the Apex Town manager if
there was a precedent for Apex extending utility
services four miles outside of their extraterritorial
jurisdiction in order to serve future potential
customers. That question was never answered.
second, Apex's own internal documents
refer to this project as the regional water reclamation
facility feeder surface.
[DOCUMENTS PRESENTED TO LTC SULIT.]
MR. BRUBAKER: Sir.
From Apex's own title for this project,
you can see that the main purpose is to serve the
proposed sewage plant. The alignment of the power
lines bears this out as well.
Since Apex refers to this as water
reclamation facility feeder circuits, why was the
project not included in the Environmental Impact
statement and why were alternatives not evaluated prior
to the record decision?
Finally, the creators of the Draft EIS
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state that all of the impacts and benefits they know
about are not adverse to the extent that permit denial
or mitigation beyond that already outlined will be
required.
who
not the members of
weren't all of the
direct impacts and
the power lines an
treated effluent.
made this determination? Certainly
the Project Development Team.
direct -- why weren't all of the
alternatives considered, including
d the pumping of raw sewage versus
And most of all, why was the conclusion
not thoroughly discussed at a PDT meeting where New
Hill residents and representatives could have provided
input, unless the intent was to go through the motions
before accepting a foregone conclusion.
Thank you.
[APPLAUSE.]
LTC. SULIT: Up next is...
MS. HANSER: Kate Hanser, 3000 Old us 1
Highway, New Hill.
LTC. SULIT: Okay.
MS. HANSER: Oh, I just have a question
for the fellow from Fayetteville: How many residents
are there in the botanical gardens and the dog park?
Anyway, the New Hill community has been
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asked to sacrifice many times for the convenience of
our neighbors. we've had to make way for the Shearon
Harris Nuclear Power Plant and lay gas lines, power
lines and most recently Apex expanding utilities to
serve this proposed sewage plant, which has affected us
personally. unfortunately, the Town refused to
consider alternatives and has proceeded with
acquisition of easements and installation of its
infrastructure prior to a record decision on this DEIS.
In a letter to Apex's consultant in
September 26th, 2007, we urged the town to relocate the
proposed water and power lines south of old US 1. This
letter was forwarded to the Town Attorney, Ken Fordham,
and we have yet to receive an answer. And our -- our
attorney's follow-up phone calls for months were not
responded to, even though we know that Mr. wicker has
been informed otherwise.
when the Apex Town council considered
the condemnation on June 3rd, 2008, some counselors
stated that they trusted that alternative alignments
were considered. So we requested that the information
used to make this decision for these proposed
alignments for water and electrical utilities, we
wanted to know what did you -- how did you come to
that.
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The information that we requested, we
have received no evidence that it even exists and that
the Apex -- you know, the -- the -- the evidence
that -- the information that the Apex Town Council
relied upon for the decision, there's -- there's no
documentation of it whatsoever.
From what was provided there was never-a
look at alternative alignments, which might have
significantly reduced the impact to us and our
neighbors as to these utilities. And as these
utilities are related to the proposed sewage plant,
alternatives should have been reviewed and the record
of decision made prior to action. Now it is too late,
especially for the long leaf pine trees that we had
along the road that are preferred habitat for the Red
cicada woodpecker and within adult age for them to
start being used.
Thank you.
[APPLAUSE.]
LTC. SULIT: Thank you.
Mr. Larry Elmore followed by Mr. Dave
Bristol -- Dr. Dave Bristol.
MR. ELMORE: Colonel, hearing officers,
I'm Larry L. Moore and I'm a New Hill resident.
I have -- I am an engineer and have been
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working in the environmental field for my entire
professional career, which now stands almost 30 years.
I've had the opportunity to work both in air quality,
drinking water and in wastewater. My -- what I would
like to touch upon tonight is the Harris Lake discharge
study and also some of the inconsistencies that are
associated with this study.
As a result of the 2008 drought and the
implications that it had on Progress Energy's Shearon
Harris Nuclear Power Plant, both the western wake
Partners and the Army Corps of Engineers are to be
commended for revisiting -- and please note, I say
"revisiting" -- the option of discharging treated
sewage from the proposed regional sewage plant into
Harris Lake.
The study regarding this option is
ongoing. However, as discussed at a 19 -- at a
March 19th, 2009, Holly Springs Town meeting, the
study's preliminary results indicate that this
discharge will result in a shorter discharge pipeline.
This would also address some of the issues that were
raised by our -- the Chatham -- the individuals
speaking from Chatham County.
There are some very tangible direct
benefits to this project resulting from the Harris Lake
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discharge. It will result in the reduced cost to the
overall project. It will eliminate air emissions and,
noise associated with the pump station, and it reduces
the impact on natural resources by impacting a smaller
land area; basically, eliminating the lengthy discharge
pipeline.
This option will also have additional
benefits for Progress Energy by providing more
certainty and flexibility when operating the Shearon
Harris Nuclear Power Plant in drought conditions. The
Harris Lake discharge option is a critical part of the
discharge list -- list location approval process and
will have a direct impact on the siting of proposed
sewer plant and pipeline routing.
In light of the potential impacts of
this project, both the western wake Partners and the
Army Corps of Engineers should delay a final decision
regarding the appropriateness of the various plant
sites until after the Harris Lake Discharge study has
been completed.
unfortunately, and as I emphasized
earlier, this is a revisitation -- revisitation of a
potential discharge site. The reconsideration of the
Harris Lake discharge highlights one of the many
inconsistencies and the lack of transparency associated
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with the entire project. These inconsistencies have
had a cumulative direct impact on the site selection
process.
From the onset, the western wake
Partners consistently indicated the discharge -- that
discharging treated sewage into either Jordan Lake or
Harris Lake was not an option. Both of these lakes
were eliminated from the consideration early in the
site selection process which in turn directly impacted
the initial sites considered by the western wake
Partners.
Elimination of these two sites was
highlighted in both the public education meeting
conducted by the western wake Partners and the
initial -- and at the initial NEPA public meeting. In
fact, the western wake Partners have indicated that a
discharge to Jordan Lake was their initial preferred
option and would have resulted in an entirely different
group of potential sites.
Additionally, inconsistencies are
high -- additional inconsistencies are highlighted by
the fact that throughout the site selection process,
the western wake Partners have consistently indicated
that the proposed regional sewer plant would use all of
the wastewater discharge allocation for the Buckhorn
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Dam segment of the Cape Fear River.
However, after Chatham county
commissioners highlighted the impact this decision
would have on their ability to handle projected
population growth, additional discharge allocation was
miraculously located for this segment of the Cape Fear
River.
If Shearon Harris Lake can once again be
considered as a viable discharge point and additional
discharge allocation can be found in the Cape Fear
River, what would it take for Jordan Lake to once again
be considered a viable discharge site?
Thank you.
[APPLAUSE.]
LTC. SULIT: Dr. Bristol followed by
Susan Bristol.
DR. DAVID BRISTOL: Good evening. I'm
Dr. David Bristol from the New Hill Community. I am --
I would like to address some significant procedural
errors in this process.
The most significant one was the early
condemnation of site 14 by Cary. Title 40 of the code
of Federal Regulations at 1501.1 states, quote, An
Environmental Impact statement is more than a
disclosure document. It shall be used by federal
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officials in conjunction with other relevant materials,
plant actions, and make decisions.
At 1502.2 it states that agencies shall
not commit resources prejudicing selection of
alternatives before making a final decision and that
Environmental Impact statements shall serve as a means
of assessing the Environmental impact of proposed
agency actions rather than justifying decisions already
made.
At 1506.1 it states that until the
agency issues a record of decision, no action
concerning the proposal shall be taken which would
limit the choice of reasonable alternatives.
In the communications section of the E7
Appendix of the Draft EIS, it clearly states that
citizens around alternative sites were confused as to
why they were being questioned when site 14 had already
been taken. This indicates the early condemnation, in
addition to being in violation of the federal
regulations I just went over, contaminated the limited
public participation process. People didn't
participate because they thought the decision was
already made.
In addition to the millions spent on
site 14, the Partners have expended funds on pipeline
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surveys and construction designs for the site 14
pipeline. The alternatives for other pipelines for the
other sites are just extensions of the site 14 pipeline
are not true alternatives.
The Partners' behavior "limited the
choice of reasonable alternatives" and "prejudices the
ultimate decision on the program in clear violation of
the federal regulations."
Now, environmental justice has been
addressed by some others before me and will be
addressed more fully by another speaker; but it's
important to note that in addition to the
African-American community, there's a Hispanic
community around site 14.
Executive order 12898 states that
federal agencies may, whenever practical and
appropriate, translate crucial public documents,
notices and hearings related to human health and the
environment for limited English-speaking populations.
while it may not have been practical to
have every document translated into Spanish, it would
have been appropriate to translate key documents. By
not doing so, the Partners excluded Hispanics that
could not speak English from participating in any
community input in the process. This is another
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indication of the Partners' insensitivity to the
environmental justice issues.
Thank you.
[APPLAUSE.]
LTC. SULIT: After Dr. Susan Bristol
will be Preston Ruth.
DR. SUSAN BRISTOL: Hi, I'm Dr. Susan
Bristol and I live in New Hill.
sewage should be treated in the
municipalities that create it. The technical error in
citing profits is that the relative safety of short
influent pipes and long effluent pipes was not
considered in the original analysis of the 29 sites
being considered for the plant.
If it had been, any of the sites closer
to the Towns of Cary and Apex that are creating the
sewage would have been deemed safer than Site 14, which
requires pumping raw sewage under pressure for miles,
increasing the risk of a leak in areas where a sole
source aquifer provides our drinking water.
There's no easy access to much of the
pipeline, particularly during wet weather as it will
run through farms and forested lands. This will delay
locating and repairing sewage spills.
The EIS does not address how the
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Partners will provide water to the New Hill community
when leaks contaminate our water supply. I say "when"
and not "if," because Cary has a terrible history of
raw sewage leaks.
An alternative to the current plan is to
treat the sewage close to where it is produced, then
use long pipelines to pump treated water to the
discharge point. A leak of treated water is much less
hazardous than a raw sewage leak. sites north of
Highway 64 could serve Cary, Morrisville, the RTP and
Apex.
The fact that the soils in New Hill
don't perk well may be considered a benefit in that
sewage spills may be less likely to contaminate our
aquifer. However, the soil characteristics are highly
variable with areas of sandy soils interspersed in
areas of clay.
If the Partners are allowed to pump
pressurized raw sewage through miles of countryside,
they should be required to institute a detailed soil
analysis for the length of -- of -- excuse me -- for
the length of the raw sewage pipeline and institute
additional safety measures such as impermeable liners
to protect groundwater.
Cary's historic leak of almost eight
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million gallons in ]une of 2006 is an indication we
cannot rely on good intentions to safeguard our
drinking water. They could not keep up with the sewage
flow in that spill. it was not contained and streams
and lakes were contaminated. And that was in an area
with easy access to the pipeline.
Imagine what would happen if the leak
occurred in the woods far from roads. How bad will it
be for those of us who live in the area and have to
drink water from our wells?
Thank you.
[APPLAUSE.]
LTC. SULIT: Following Ms. Ruth will be
Mr. Richard Helman.
LTC. RUTH: Good evening. My name is
Preston Ruth, Lieutenant colonel, united states marine
corps, Retired. I live at 3609 Mason Road, New Hill.
I'm a Raleigh native and proud of that
fact because I know that Raleigh's growth did not run
roughshod through these communities when they were just
slightly bigger than New Hill.
My primary concern is to call to your
attention North Carolina Executive order 96, which
mandates all state agencies to minimize the loss of
prime agricultural lands and forested land as defined
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106
by the Federal Farmland Protection Policy.
My secondary intention is to explain
that the Executive Summary does not represent the true
facts, but more of a misrepresentation of the facts in
Section 3 of the Draft EIS. The Executive Summary
states: Prime farmland will be lost for each project
alternative site. Actually, in Section 3 the data
shows that the only site with less than a majority of
prime farmland is Site 21/23 with only 27 percent of
its land considered prime farmland soils.
In addition, it has not been in
production for many years. what is mentioned in the
Executive Summary, there is active agriculture on only
one site, site 30, and there is no active agriculture
on any of the other sites.
what is stated in the Draft EIS: In
recent history, agricultural practices were conducted
on Sites 14 and 19. what is known is that Site 14 was
being used to produce grain products prior to being
condemned by the western wake Partners.
Loss of forested land is stated that
approximately 50 acres of forest land will be
permanently altered to utility use on site 14 with with 40 acres on site 21/23. what is not stated is
that all the standing forest on Site 21/23 has been
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recently timbered.
In conclusion, site 14 meets 100 percent
of the protective requirements mandated by North
Carolina lawmakers in Executive order 96, while site
21/23 meets less than 27 percent of prime farmland and
that percentage -- and that percentage has not been in
production.
It is my recommendation that you reject
Site 14 as a targeted site, recommend site 21/23 for
the sewage plant, land already taken from citizens for
utility purposes.
Thank you.
[APPLAUSE.]
LTC. SULIT: Thank you. following
Mr. Richard Helman will be Mr. Wayne Womble.
MR. HELMAN: Richard Helman, Barker
Road, New Hill.
People of North Carolina recognize the
importance of farmland to our state. North Carolina
has lost more than half-a-million acres from 2002 to
2007 according to the latest U.S. Agricultural
consensus. when you lose that many acres, it means
that not just small farms are losing land, but the
large farms are shedding it, too.
Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler
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said: To put 600,000 acres in perspective, it's like
taking Sampson County off the map. The new census
reports 8.5 million acres of farmland in the state
compared with 9.1 in 2002. The state has added one
million people since 2000 and they all need homes to
live in, roads to drive on and places to show. He said
farmland is the first place developers look.
The Partners have established that the
sites on PE property, which are not actively being
farmed, are just as or more suitable for a sewage
plant. why would you allow the Partners to take site
14, which was an active farm, out of production when
there are thousands of acres available on PE property
that have already been taken from us to be used for
utility purposes?
North Carolina Executive order 96
charges all state agencies to minimize the loss of
agricultural and forested lands as defined in the
Federal Farmland Protection Policy Act. The census
estimates more than 100,000 acres per year lost to
developers, businesses and utilities.
Site 14 is apparently the --
approximately the same site -- size as site 19, sites
21/23 and Site 30. Approximately 50 acres of forest
land will be permanently altered to utility use on
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site 14. we've established that site 14 was an active
farm prior to the Partners condemning it. And the
Draft EIS states that approximately 40 acres of forest
land will be used.
why would you allow the WW team to
destroy more forest by building a sewage plant on
Site 14 rather than an alternate of one of the other
site 21 or 23 that have already had the timber
harvested? Also, the PE sites initially were taken
from us to be used.
And it is our recommendation that you
reject Site 14 and recommend site 21 and 23 for the
sewage plant.
[APPLAUSE.]
LTC. SULIT: Mr. Wayne Womble followed
by Ms. Phyllis Womble.
MR. WAYNE WOMBLE: My name is Wayne
Womble. I live about a thousand feet from the proposed
site.
I want to thank you for my two minutes
to discuss this project that will impact my family for
the rest of our lives. It will take me two years to
discuss all the problems with this project, about the
same time they spent keeping it from us.
Statements made in section 5 dealing
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with the secondary and cumulative impacts are just
laughable. The thing is so full of errors and untruths
that if it weren't so serious to us, it would be purely
comical.
The Partners are an organization, of
which we are excluded, basically concluded that there
is no serious impacts to the community and that the
impacts are the same for all the identified site --
alternate sites. Nothing could be further from the
truth.
site 14 is the only one that affects so
many people, period. Contrary to their assertion that
the community lies adjacent to and bordering the
project site, it's -- it's not totally separated by the
railroad of Old US 1.
They seem so proud of their mitigation
plans with the buffers that will protect the wetlands.
well, whoopity do. The project site is not in the
wetlands. They're pumping the stuff uphill to us; and
as I've said before, that's contrary to the third law
of plumbing.
They imply that not building the
facility would result in increased impacts to wetlands.
They say that resulting growth would be lots of small
one-acre lots with houses scrawled throughout.
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It just ain't so. Regulations in this
part of the county, since that power plant was built in
the 1970s, have precluded almost any development unless
it's on a large tract of land, no matter what the
zoning classification. The fact is secondary --
secondary impacts are almost impossible to predict.
If you had asked when they built Jordan
Lake or Shearon Harris Nuclear Power Plant what the
impacts would have been to New Hill, who would have
foreseen all this? There are obvious impacts, but
those two entities are standing as a roadblock to any
normal land use. And we've already been targeted by
numerous detrimental utilities' transgressions that
possess the power over the mind.
[APPLAUSE.]
MS. PHYLLIS WOMBLE: I'm Phyllis Womble.
As a result of New Hill laying between
the nuclear power plant and Jordan Lake, there have
already been two gas pipelines, one border line and a
large power transmission line sited on or adjacent to
our family property alone.
Now because of a simple agreement
between DENR and the Partners that they can draw water
from Jordan Lake, we are faced with another set of
secondary impacts. we will have to live with a monster
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sewage plant, which by their other admission, among
other things, will be loud and smell.
with that comes another power
transmission line, a simple moneymaker from Apex to
bill power to the sewage plant. when -- then there's
the increased risk of powering the plant with a
ten-mile drop-cord from Apex when the main power plant
transmission line crosses the property.
what happens when we get one of those
big ice storms or a hurricane? None of these increased
risks are dealt with in the DEIS. we also will have to
face a large and dangerous high-pressure sewage line,
all of which is targeted on our family land.
Remember that none of these utilities
will be for our use, but for the benefit of others.
wonder what further impacts are down the line? Judging
from the past experiences, they're likely to be many.
Another secondary impact that's not been
talked about is the emotional impact on the community.
For three years now our extended family has not had one
dinner -- sit-down dinner in which this topic didn't
come up. It's consumed the community.
Isn't it time to return New Hill to
normal? Is it New Hill -- hasn't New Hill suffered
enough? The fact is Site 14 is just wrong.
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[APPLAUSE.]
LTC. SULIT: Mr. Wallace Womble.
MR. WALLACE WOMBLE: My name is Wallace
Womble. I have lived in the New Hill area 84 years.
In the 62 years my wife and I have been married,
including the three times for this project, we have
faced the taking of our land for public property --
projects 12 times. The takings range from the
splitting of our land by a limited access four-lane
highway to taking of our lands and home for the nuclear
power plant, large gas lines and all kinds of
right-of-ways.
After the power company forced us to
move, they moved the same butane gas line that was on
our former land all the way around their 26,000 acres
and put it right through our new land. Later they took
a 70-foot right-of-way for a large power line which
went right through the three-acre homesite lots we had
put in our wills for our grandchildren in 1994. Now
after we had redone the surveys and wills in 2004, this
project's precious sewer line as planned will totally
destroy three of those same lots.
we cannot understand why the Partners
would want to use the same Alternate 2 shown on a June
7th, 2006, request for approval by the ACE. on page 6
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they stated that Alternate 2 was evaluated, but not
chosen because "it would impact 3 perennial streams, 8
intermittent streams, and 1.1 acres of wetlands."
Now the same Partners propose to remove
three-fourths mile from Alternate 2 and add
one-and-a-quarter miles with two more streams and
wetlands. when is enough enough?
[APPLAUSE.]
LTC. SULIT: Ms. Shirley Rodaway
followed by Mr. Ed Ridpath.
MS. RODAWAY: Hi. My name is Shirley
Rodaway and I live on Bosco Road in New Hill.
I don't deny that wake county needs a
new sewage treatment facility, but what I do question
is why my community needs to be damaged like this in
order to achieve it.
The current target site, site 14, as
you've heard is only 2,000 feet away from the center of
our town, our community. Building the sewage plant at
site 14 will destroy the value of most nearby
properties and -- and condemn what we consider the
gateway to western wake County to a really dreary fate.
And why is 14 the targeted site? Three
other sites are virtually equivalent in cost,
technology and logistics. And of those, one is a much
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better solution.
The better location, which you've heard,
is Site 21/23 or Alternate B, will cost within 4
percent of the cost estimate of these other sites. All
sites cluster in that price range. And we know that 4
percent is within the calculation in order for an
estimate. The better site will be at least a mile away
from our post office, our convenience store, the homes
of a lot of these people here, and from the -- the
beautiful churches that have lived -- or been in that
location for so long.
It would -- by having it at the better
location, we would not wipe out the financial worth of
some of our residents. The better location would have
much, much less impact on the quality of life of our
community because it would be located on available,
undeveloped power company land. This land has been
acknowledged to have all of the hydraulic features that
would be required for a facility like this. Truly,
there is no legitimately defensible reason for building
the facility anywhere else.
within the next 10 to 20 years, the
intersection of us 1 and New Hill Road and within the
center of New Hill is poised to gain greatly in value,
somewhat like the intersection of us 1 and Highway 55,
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but on a smaller scale. Is this a plan to force the
current residents out of the area? Don't let the
future be stolen from these local property owners when
there is a better solution.
Thank you.
[APPLAUSE.]
LTC. SULIT: Mr. Ed Ridpath followed by
Ms. ]ackie Holcombe.
MR. RIDPATH: Hi, I'm Ed Ridpath. I'm a
resident of Fuquay-Varina, but a proud member of the
New Hill Community Association.
Colonel and the U.S. Army of Corps of
Engineers, I really appreciate you holding this process
and doing this duty. I would like to point out before
I get into my -- into my comments that we heard elected
officials come up and represent the Partners. And I --
I would also like to point out that the New Hill
Community Association has not had an elected
representative come up here and -- and support them.
And while I -- I am not an elected official -- I tried
real hard -- and I think it is important that New Hill
have somebody in government to look out for them and --
and -- and that's your duty, because they have no one
else speaking for them here.
In -- in that vein, I would like to talk
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a little bit about public involvement. Appendix H of
this talks about the past, present and future
involvement. The Partners did fail to mention that
there was no public involvement up until the point --
no public involvement for the residents of New Hill up
until they accidently found out about this in may of
19 -- or in 2005.
And this was literally weeks before they
were -- the Cary Town council was set to condemn the
land. So how did the Partners expect New Hill
residents to actually find out about the sewage plant?
The communication plan that they actually had on the
website indicated they were -- what they were going to
use to communicate this project were things like
utility bills, Cary TV, employee meetings and
newsletters.
obviously, none of these would target
the New Hill residents at all. None of them were
intended to, actually. As a matter of fact, the
e-mails from the Partner officials indicate that there
was a good desire to avoid publicity for this project
and even bypass some of the public hearings on the
project.
After the community got together -- New
Hill community got together, there was a hastily called
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meeting at the Apex Fire station where the Partners did
provide -- try to provide some information. However,'
because there was so much interest, the fire department
was very crowded and noisy. It was very difficult to
get information from them. And so there was a lot of
confusion even at that time. obviously, the New Hill
community has come together and learned an awful lot
since. But they had a very short time frame at that
point.
After that point, many of the residents
actually spoke at -- at the Apex, Morrisville, Cary and
Holly Springs Town Council meetings, communicated
directly with the elected officials in those
communities. And they actually were successful in
getting the wake county Commissioners to request they passed a -- a -- a resolution requesting that the
towns postpone the condemnation for 60 days in order to
allow some more research into this. And, of course,
Cary did not allow that to happen.
So these are the kind of things that
have happened, and I would really -- I'm glad for this
process. I hope we can continue this, and -- and
really thank you for allowing the residents of New Hill
to present their case.
Thank you.
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[APPLAUSE.]
LTC. SULIT: Thank you, sir.
Following Ms. Holcombe will be Mr. Bob
Kelly.
MS. HOLCOMBE: Good evening. I'm Jackie
Holcombe. I am a resident of one of the Partner towns,
that is Morrisville. I'm also a former elected
official in the Town of Morrisville and a member of a
citizens advocacy group in -- in that town,
Morrisville. I'm speaking on their behalf this
evening. I want to thank you for your undivided
attention this evening and for listening carefully to
each of the comments you heard this evening.
As part of the state Environmental
Policy Act process, a public hearing was held on June
15th, 2006, here at Apex Town Hall. The hearing
officer's report was issued at the conclusion of that
public comment period included the following: No. 1,
public records provided in the comments support
citizens' concerns regarding limited official
governmental representation and public outreach to
residents around the target site.
No. 2, a conclusion could not be drawn
that the appropriate sites have indeed been properly
evaluated.
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No. 3, Appendix G describes the process
that western wake Partners used to determine the
impacts of the project on minority and low income
populations. This approach does not appropriately
evaluate the population directly impacted by the water
reclamation facility location.
No. 4, the western wake Partners need to
further evaluate property currently owned by
Progress -- Progress Energy for this project.
No. 5, to date the effected community
has been given little opportunity for public input into
the site selection process in the development of the
Draft Environmental impact statement.
And No. 6, after hearing oral arguments,
reading written comments and consulting with technical
experts in DENR, it's our recommendation that you do
not consider the April 2006 draft EIS as an accurate,
complete and adequate document.
Over time, New Hill representatives to
the PDT meetings made many suggestions. Like the ones
you've heard this evening, many of these have been
ignored and were not seriously considered. I ask that
you now reconsider these suggestions and support an
alternative to site 14.
Thank you.
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[APPLAUSE.]
LTC. SULIT: Thank you.
Mr. Bob Kelly followed by Mr. James
Clanton.
MR. KELLY: Yes. Good evening. I am
Bob Kelly and I am a resident of New Hill.
You know, Paul Barth and -- and the rest
of this community and I have been working on this
project so long that our neighbors are now calling us
"poopologists." That's a new word, but they call me
that, so that must be -- that must have some meaning to
it.
over the past four years, we have
pointed out many of the errors that's been made by the
western wake Partners. unfortunately, they ignored us.
Fortunately, DENR in the Draft EIS review in 2006
stepped up to the plate, looked at the Draft EIS and --
and said, That's an inaccurate, incomplete and
inadequate document.
The other really interesting thing they
said is they instructed the Partners to further
evaluate property owned by Progress Energy. Now, that
should have been a clear indication that the wrong site
was chosen; but apparently it wasn't.
Then the Army Corps of Engineers gets
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involved. And with all due respect, lots of errors
have continued since then. No. 1, the same consultants
that put together the first Draft EIS, they're hired to
do it all over again. Now, granted those consultants
have to protect the Partners because the Partners are
paying their salaries.
Now, in doing that, in my opinion, that
is definitely a conflict of interest. It should never
have happened. And, also, by using those same
consultants, it was impossible to get a third --
independent third-party review. So in my opinion, this
Draft EIS, like the first one, is inadequate,
incomplete and inaccurate.
In conclusion, let me give you a few of
the many reasons why you should reject the EIS and
especially site 14. You've heard about all the
procedural errors that have been made, and I contend
that the preferred site was selected under a big cloud
of secrecy, all kinds of procedural errors -- errors
made there. so the preferred site should be taken off
the table. It should not be the preferred site.
second, there's been no third-party
review. You've got the same consultant doing the same
mission twice. Mr. wicker in one of the PDT meetings
announced all the Progress Energy sites and all the
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sites under consideration, they're all suitable for a
sewage plant. Gosh, to me, you don't have to be that
smart then to say, Let's take it out of the center of
New Hill where you've got hundreds of people impacted
and put it down here beside a nuclear plant where
nobody's impacted. It kind of makes sense to me.
And we also note that site 14 impacts
the most people, the most churches, the most
cemeteries, the historic district. And it's the only
site that requires a mitigation plan.
Now, the consultants say it doesn't
require a mitigation plan, it requires a water and
sewer extension plan. But I contend if it walks like a
duck and quacks like a duck, and the town is going to
spend $3 million on it, by George, it's a mitigation
plan. so as far as I'm concerned, the Partners have
not made -- the Partners and consultants have not made
their case for a site 14 sewage plant.
One last point, you -- you look around
the room and Holly springs and Morrisville and Jan
Faulkner and -- and Weatherly -- no -- Jan Faulkner and
Jackie Holcombe have been very, very good to work with.
so -- and we appreciate the fact that y'all have been
very good to work with.
The people that have been very hard to
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work with is Apex and Cary. well, who is missing in
room right now? Is there any elected officials from
Apex and Cary here? You -- you would think a project
this big and where you've got this much opposition, the
elected officials are going to hang around and hear
what the opposition has to say. well, where are they?
Thank you.
[APPLAUSE.]
LTC. SULIT: I apologize if I messed up
your order of march.
Mr. James Clanton.
REV. CLANTON: I've already gone.
LTC. SULIT: All right. And Ms. Vickie
Gardner.
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Vickie has spoken
already. Thank you.
LTC. SULIT: Done?
MS. VICKIE GARNDER: Um-hum.
LTC. SULIT: okay. Anyone else who
wants to make a public statement at this time?
All right.
MR. WICKER: If you want, I'd -- I
could -- there's some PowerPoint slides that indicate,
you know, what our website address is.
LTC. SULIT: okay. Yeah. Put that up,
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please.
MR. WICKER: Bill.
LTC. SULIT: It's just to rewrap the --
before we wrap this up to make sure that all the
information that you access is there.
MR. WICKER: Obviously, most of you have
read the EIS, but I wanted to continue our process.
You still have the ability to comment from the hearing.
There's not one we didn't put the website on there,
Bill, on that other one?
your mic work.
sorry.
MR. KREUTZBERGER: okay. okay. Yep.
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: If you'll make
MR. KREUTZBERGER: Oh, yes, sir. I'm
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Thank you.
MR. WICKER: I'm sorry. He's going to
have to get it back. what I was saying was, I was
trying to show you the website that you can go to to
the corps of Engineers at the website for western wake.
And there's the link right there. And that will take
you to our website. If you want to look at the EIS,
it's on the -- it's a link to that site and you can
print those off and look at that online.
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Also, as I said earlier when I was
talking, there's some hard copies available. If
anybody before you leave -- well, I'll talk to the
other slide before you leave if you'll wait a few
minutes. It will tell you where the hard copies are
at. There's some at the church in New Hill and several
different places, so...
And if you have any questions, my phone
number is up there. You can call me. You can e-mail
me. I'll be glad to talk to you. okay.
LTC. SULIT: Evan, Cyndi, do you have
anything?
MR. KANE: I just would like to thank
everyone for their attention and participation in this
hearing. As mentioned before, DwQ's hearing record for
401 Certification regarding impacts to wetlands and
streams will remain open until may 14th, 2009. After
that time I'll make a recommendation regarding the
certification -- the 401 Certification to the Director
of Division of water Quality.
Dan.
MR. BLAISDELL: Thank you.
LTC. SULIT: I would like to thank
Ms. McDermott and Monte here for supporting us and the
crew that set this up and the Town of Cary for their
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use of the -- or Town of Apex -- I apologize -- for the
use of their facilities. It's great.
Do you have anything?
Sir?
MR. KELLY: Just one quick question.
will you receive everything we sent to the corps?
MR. KANE: No. I don't think so, no.
MR. WICKER: We will get the transcript
of tonight's hearing and -- and --
MR. KELLY: Yeah. Well, I'm not sure
how we know what to send to you and what to send to the
Corps.
MR. WICKER: We will -- we -- the
comments we get, we'll review them. And if there's
anything pertinent to them, we will give them a copy of
it.
MR. KELLY: Thank you.
MR. WICKER: We kind of made a decision
on that anyway because we need -- there -- this is
basically four hearings -- public hearings, you know,
for commenting, so...
MR. KANE: And I -- I did note as we
were going through the introductory remarks that
there's a number of different DWQ individuals involved
in this process and -- and as with the corps of
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Engineers, we'll be careful to communicate with each
other and make sure that, you know, information is is transmitted as needed.
LTC. SULIT: All right. Ladies and
gentlemen, thank you for coming and participating in
the public hearing. Drive safe.
[PUBLIC HEARING CONCLUDED AT 8:42 P.M.]
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STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA
COUNTY OF WAKE
C E R T I F I C A T E
I, RANAE MCDERMOTT, RMR, CRR, a Notary Public
in and for the State of North Carolina, do hereby
certify that there came before me on April 14, 2009,
the proceedings hereinbefore named. This transcript is
a true record of the proceedings given at this hearing.
I further certify that I am neither attorney
or counsel for, nor related to or employed by, any
attorney or counsel employed by the parties hereto or
financially interested in the action.
Signed this the 24th day of April, 2009.
RANAE MCDERMOTT, NOTARY PUBLIC
NOTARY NO. 19971120183
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Western Wake Partners Project
NC Wildlife Resources Commission Recommendations