710052_NOV-2021-PC-0200 Response_20210504

MIKE HOPE FARMS
826 CHANCEY RD
CLINTON, NC 28328
May 4, 2021
North Carolina Division of Aquifer Protection
Water Quality Regional Operations Section
Mr. Tom Tharrington
127 Cardinal Dr. Extension
Wilmington, NC 28405-3845
Dear Mr. Tharrington,
I am writing in regards to your NOV(NOV-2021-PC-0200) for my farm, M&D Sow Farm
(71-52) of March 22, 2021 and received by me on April 6, 2021. Please see my
response below.
Violation 1: Failure to prevent a discharge of waste from sprayfield to a wetland area
that drains to Cypress Creek.
My Technical Specialist, Curtis Barwick, and I have discussed repairs to a wet, water -
holding area of the field in question. He has also met with your staff and has a meeting
with Soil & Water staff to decide the best course of action. This area will be repaired
after the meeting with Soil & Water staff.
Violation 2: Failure to notify the Division of the discharge.
My employee conducted an irrigation event on pull 1 that day. After starting the irrigation
system and staying a while to make sure that everything was working properly, he
returned to the hog houses. When he came back to inspect the land application event
—1.5 hours later, he saw that water had ponded at the edge of the field. He immediately
turned the system off. He did not realize that the waste had left the field and gotten into
the woods and the adjacent creek. We have since given explicit training so that if staff
sees another incident, that they investigate it thoroughly and notify me immediately if
there is a discharge. I will promptly notify your office in the future should this ever occur
again.
Violation 3: Failure to notify the Division of high freeboard level.
Actually, the lagoon level was at 21" on March 2nd, 2" below the top peg on my lagoon
marker. It was not in violation at that time. Barwick has conferred with your staff
regarding this misunderstanding. It was assumed that the top peg was set at 12" but it is
set at 19". This marker will be re -shot by Barwick as soon as guidance is received from
DWR in Raleigh, unless you request it done sooner. I and my staff are aware of the
need to report high freeboards, as I have a farm in Sampson that I had to report.

Violation 4: Failure to maintain the collection, treatment and storage facilities and land
application equipment.
I plan to place a brick wall around the irrigation pump pad so as to channel any leaks of
wastewater back into the lagoon. All irrigation pumps must have a slight leak around the
pump shaft packing to function properly. We will make sure this one is greased properly
and maintained so as to keep the leakage to a minimum.
Violation 5: Failure to inspect the land application site as often as necessary to ensure
animal waste is land applied properly.
My employee did return to inspect the land application event within 120 minutes but it
was not sufficient due to the field conditions that day. The location had too much slope
and moisture to be land -applied to at that time. We have discussed the need for closer
inspection of all application events, especially when weather conditions are less than
favorable. Better planning will be employed going forward.
Please take into account the fact that my workers pumped mixed rainwater and
wastewater out of the field, woods and creek into the upper parts of the field for over 6
hours on March 31d. We also ran a subsoiler over the field to facilitate better infiltration.
This cleanup cost approximately $900.
I plan to do the needed field shaping work as soon as possible after the Soil & Water
staff member visits my farm. I would estimate the cost to be $2,000. 1 am also planning
to the place the brick wall on my pump pad at an estimated cost of $600. 1 hope to have
all this work completed by mid -June 2021.
We have had a tremendous amount of rainfall in the last year and have tried to be
careful in land application so as to not allow ponding nor runoff. The farm has wet -
natured soils and we must be careful when applying waste. Obviously, we
overestimated the soils ability to absorb the wastewater applied. I regret that this
incident occurred and we are better managing the farm to prevent any damage to our
environment.
I appreciate the professional manner in which your staff has dealt with this issue. Please
find enclosed the irrigation records you requested.
If you need further information regarding this response, please call me at 910-590-7830.
Thank you for your attention to this matter.
Sincerely,
James Michael Hope