WQCS00024_Remission (Request)_20191004 (3)

CITY OF LUMBERTON
PUBLIC WORKS
Telephone: [phone]
October 4, 2019
Trent Allen, Regional Supervisor
NCDEQ Division of Water Resources
Fayetteville Regional Office
225 Green Street, Suite 714
Fayetteville, NC 28301
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RE: Assessment of Civil Penalty Case No. DV-2019-0126, Remission Request
City of Lumberton, NC - Collection System Permit No. WQCS00024
Dear Mr. Allen:
We received the above referenced Notice of Violation & Assessment of Civil Penalty dated September 19,
2019 for the reported Sanitary Sewer Overflow (SSO) that occurred on July 4, 2019 at 515 Noir Street
(Incident Number 201901137). The SSO was caused by system -wide inflow and Infiltration during a rain
event of over 4 inches over a 2 hour period.
Since 1998, The City has focused on reducing city wide SSO's that were a result of our legacy combined
stormwater — sanitary sewer system. Over the past two decades, our SSO's have been dramatically
reduced. Most of the current SSO's occur in a specific area on Noir Street. We persistently make progress.
on this sewer basin by continuing our sanitary sewer rehabilitation and also planning flow diversions away
from the basin. We want to point out that our water and sewer revenues have been negatively impacted by
Hurricane Matthew in 2016 and Hurricane Florence in 2018. We have also had significant damage repair
expenses that we have had to pay for upfront from the sewer fund while waiting on FEMA
reimbursements. Our water / sewer fund balance has declined from $1,808,806 in June 2016 (before
Matthew) to $39,918 in June 2019 as a result of the recovery effort from two hurricanes.
The City would like to request remission of this civil penalty. The violation was inadvertent, the result of
an intense weather event. We continue to invest in projects that will remedy the SSO problem at this
location. Given our post hurricane fiscal condition, we feel our limited available funds are better used
supporting the rehabilitation and diversion projects that are currently in design.

Mr. Trent Allen
October 4, 2019
Page 2
If you need additional information, please feel free to call me at 910-671-3851.
Sincerely,
T. Wayne Horne
City Manager
Cc: Holt Moore - City Attorney
Brandon Love, AIA - Deputy City Manager
Rob Armstrong, P.E. - Public Works Director