HomeMy WebLinkAbout20060922 Ver 2_More Info Letter_20070306CERTIFIED MAIL -RETURN RECEIPT REQUESTED
March 6, 2007
Mr. John E. Clarke, Assistant Vice President
Wal-Mart Real Estate Business Trust
2001 South East 10~' Street
Bentonville, AR 72712
Subject: Airport Road Retail Shopping Center
Unnamed tributary to French Broad River
DWQ # 06-0922 version 2
Corps Action ID SAW-2006-32243-311
Buncombe County
On March 5, 2007, Division of Water Quality staff (Kevin Barnett, Asheville
Regional Office and John Dorney, Raleigh Central Office) conducted a site visit at the
proposed Wal-Mart site on Airport Road in Buncombe County, NC. The purpose of the
site visit was to examine the presence and quality of wetlands and streams on the
property, to discuss stream and wetland mitigation and on-site stormwater management
as well as alternative site plans for the property. Present were Dave McHenry with the
NC Wildlife Resources Commission as well as Richard Bates and Laura Belanger with
Environmental Permitting Consultants, Inc. The following issues are listed that need to
be addressed in order for us to complete action on the required 401 Water Quality
Certification for this project. Until we receive answers for the following issues, this
project will remain on hold as incomplete in accordance with 15A NCAC 2H .0506.
Alternate Site Plan -Please see the attached sketch entitled "DWQ
Alternative Design, March 5, 2007". The Division believes that this plan (or a
slight alteration thereof) is a practical site plan that minimizes impacts to the
large central wetland on the property while allowing construction of the Wal-
Mart, aparking area that is equivalent to the proposed plan, an outparcel and
possible commercial development of the southwest corner of the property.
We are aware that development of the southwest corner of the site may
require impact of the smaller wetland/stream in that area and are willing to
discuss possible site plans in that regard.
One concern raised by your consultants with regard to this site plan is
that Wal-Mart reportedly has a policy to prevent parking on the side of your
stores more than one-half the length of the building. However, we believe
that this policy must be flexible since the new Wal-Mart at RiverBend
Shopping Center in Asheville has parking at least three-quarters down the side
of the building. The amount of parking shown on our alternative plan is about
the same amount shown on the applicant preferred plan but we are not able to
measure it precisely. If additional parking is needed on the site, it may be
possible to widen the connection between the larger parking lot and the one
shown on the side of the building in order to have more spaces. If some small
additional wetland fill is needed for this parking, we are willing to discuss this
issue with your consultants.
Another concern raised by your consultants is the grading that would be
needed on the site and concerns about balancing cut and fill on the site.
Division staff believe that the proposed plan would minimize the need for
extensive site grading and note that the site presently is at the level of Airport
Road. Therefore location of the building and parking lot closer to Airport
Road should require less cut and fill overall.
In summary, we believe that this alternative site plan is practical and
would clearly reduce the amount of wetland fill on the site to less than one
acre. If wetland fill is less than one acre, then the Division will not require
compensatory wetland mitigation but we understand that the US Army Corps
of Engineers will still require mitigation for the reduced impacts to the
wetlands on the site (see item three below).
2. Stormwater management -The present plan for stormwater management is to
construct a "wetlands-type retention basin" (better named as a wet detention
basin) according to the August 9, 20061etter from your engineers (Freeland
and Kaufmann, Inc. - Mr. Michael Ranks). According to the description in
this memo, you are basically planning to construct wet detention ponds with
littoral shelves as required by DWQ's Stormwater Design Manual with
eventual discharge into downstream locations. We believe that this approach
would remove a source of water for the wetland and result in hydrologic
impacts to the wetland. Abetter approach would be to construct treatment
under parking lots and with dry detention basins bordering the central wetland
followed by level spreaders designed to deliver treated stormwater at non-
erosive velocities into the remaining wetlands on site. In fact, the upper end
of the central wetland appears to be drier than the middle or lower end and
could benefit from additional water. The advantage of this approach is that
using dry basins for treatment with eventual disposal in the wetland will
greatly reduce the space needed for on-site stormwater management and
thereby result in considerable savings from design and construction costs.
Please have your engineer review this possible approach in your response.
3. Compensatory mitigation
a. Stream mitigation -The present plan to restore the hydrology of the
channel that flows along the northern property boundary is acceptable
to the Division. We suggest that a fence be constructed along the
property line to help control trash dumping into the stream. In
addition, please be sure that DWQ and the US Army Corps of
Engineers are copied on the mitigation plan and annual reports.
b. Wetland mitigation - As noted above, impacts to wetlands would be
much less than one acre with the proposed alternative site plan.
Therefore if this plan is implemented, DWQ will not require
compensatory wetland mitigation. However we understand that the
US Army Corps of Engineers will still require compensatory wetland
mitigation. We believe that it may be possible to provide on-site
enhancement of the large, central wetland by directing treated
2
stormwater to flow at non-erosive velocities into the wetland. From
our field visit, the upper end of the wetland appears to be somewhat
drier than expected. We believe that rewetting this area with the
treated stormwater will enhance the hydrology and water quality
function of the wetland and then may serve as adequate compensatory
mitigation for the reduced impact. If the Corps is able to accept this
approach as mitigation, then a payment of about $88,553 to the NC
Ecosystem Enhancement Program for mitigation would not be needed.
We have had initial discussions with Tom Walker of the US Army
Corps of Engineers concerning this approach and if you would like to
pursue this approach to mitigation, please have your consultants
contact him directly. If we can assist in this discussion, please let us
know as well.
In summary, we believe that a revised site plan (as outlined above and shown on
the attached sketch plan) would greatly reduce impacts to the large, central wetland on
the site. In addition, direction of treated stormwater to the remaining wetland will both
serve to keep the wetland wet and possibly serve as compensatory mitigation through
enhancing the hydrology and water quality value of the wetland. In order for DWQ to
complete our review of the 401 Water Quality Certification for this project, please give
provide a thorough analysis of this approach to the Division within two weeks of receipt
of this letter. If you have any questions, you can reach John Dorney in Raleigh at 919-
733-9646 or Kevin Barnett in Asheville at 828-* * *-* * * *. Thank you in advance for your
careful consideration of these matters.
Sincerely yours,
Kevin Barnett, DWQ Asheville Regional Office
John Dorney, DWQ Raleigh Central Office
Cc: Tom Walker, US Army Corps of Engineers, Asheville Field Office
Dave McHenry, NC Wildlife Resources Commission
Laura Belanger, Environmental Permitting Consultants, Inc., P.O. Box 2346,
Hendersonville, NC 28793
Richard Bates, Environmental Permitting Consultants, Inc., P.O. Box 3744,
Greenville, SC 29608
File copy
John Dorney, DWQ Raleigh Central Office
Central files
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