20120989 Ver 1_NCIC BPDP Comments_20121130

Merritt, Katie
From: Merritt, Katie
Sent: Friday, November 30, 2012 4:09 PM
To: 'Brian Hall'
Cc: 'Patrick Smith'
Subject: DWQ Comments - NCIC BPDP
Attachments: DWQ Comments to NCIC BPDP_11- 30- 12.pdf
Hi Brian,
I just wanted to let you know that I have finalized my review of the NCIC BPDP. I apologize in advance for the lengthy
comments; however, this is a very unique site being that it is located in the Jordan Watershed and it has a future DOT
project running through it. Please take a look at my comments which I have attached to this email. If you have
problems addressing some of my concerns /comments, please do not hesitate to call me. I admit that I do much better
at explaining things verbally rather than on paper.
Overall, the BPDP was put together very nicely according to templates that others use. This of course does make it
much easier to review.
Hope you have a great weekend.
Thanks,
Katie
Katie Merritt
Environmental Compliance Specialist & Nutrient Offset Bank Coordinator
Wetlands & Stormwater Branch
NCDENR- Division of Water Quality
Work: 919- 807 -6371
Website: ht p: / /t?rarial,nrd nr.or /wf;b/ wp /w /vv fi_ r p p
Please consider the cenvironrraent before p intin g this einail.
1

DWQ Comments on proposed NCIC BPDP for Jordan Lake Mitigation Solutions (JLMS): provided by Katie
Merritt on November 30, 2012
• Section 1.0 —
0 4th paragraph:
■ DWQ recommends putting the NCIC project into a phased project; Phase 1
being the phase that would include areas that would not be affected by the
NCDOT 119 bypass; Phase 2 being the phase that would include areas that may
be affected by the NCDOT 119 bypass
o A conservation easement would not need to include the section of the NCDOT 119
bypass. Please revise applicable Figures in the BPDP to exclude the DOT project and the
DOT right of way from the easement boundaries. DWQ recommends being very
conservative with where the easement boundaries are located as to not pose a problem
when DOT is constructing their project. NO heavy equipment, trails, impervious surface
of any kind, etc will be allowed within the easement.
• please reference the proposed "Drive Way" in this section. Please explain the purpose
for the driveway, who the driveway is for, and what the drive way will be made of
• No impervious surface of any kind is allowed within the conservation easement
boundaries.
o Additionally, impervious surface cannot divide a nutrient offset restoration area. Credit
may be generated from the stream /conveyance up to the impervious surface, but not
beyond the impOervious surface.
• Section 2.2 —1St paragraph: Please identify what the "open fields" are and were. If agriculture,
please state what kind of agriculture practices were being utilized.
• Section 2.3 — please add a statement that restoration activities are unlikely to affect any
protected species.
• Section 3.0 —
• Stem counts are going to be needed in some proposed restoration areas in order for
DWQ to determine they don't fall under "Enhancement" mitigation. Please provide
stem counts in areas that are purposed for Restoration. Stems that are less than 100
trees per acre = restoration, while areas with greater than or equal to 100 but less than
200 trees per acre = enhancement with a 3:1 ratio.
• Please see the attached document from a recently approved BPDP for guidance on how
to provide the information in the BPDP.
• Please survey out all trees existing in proposed areas and deduct the area from the total
acreage purposed for mitigation. Credit is not generated within the footage of trees
that exist. For example, if there are 5 oak trees present, you would survey the trees and
deduct the total area these trees consumed from the total acreage being proposed.
• 1St paragraph:
■ please delete the last sentence and replace with the following statement:
"Areas approved as Jordan riparian buffer mitigation may be used for either
riparian buffer credits or nutrient offset credits but not both".
Page 1 of 4

0 2nd paragraph: -
• please modify the following sentence: "In these areas, grading of the
connective feature will mimic... upstream /downstream ephemeral reach ".
• Please delete the last sentence. DWQ does not support soil amendments for
nutrient offset projects. IF you feel soil amendments are appropriate, please
provide a detailed explanation and what types of "soil amendments" will be
used.
0 3rd paragraph:
■ Remove the term "mulch" from the 1St sentence. DWQ does not support
mulching on buffer or nutrient offset projects due to the potential of high levels
of nitrogen.
0 4t" paragraph:
• If JLMS is going to plant shrubs, the following additional statement must be
added to the BPDP: "Shrubs should be planted at a density sufficient to provide
1,200 shrubs per acre ".
• DWQ does not require that mitigation sites have shrubs. If JLMS decides not to
use shrubs in their planting plan, please do not specify shrubs will be used in the
BPDP.
■ Please see comments on Table 2
o Table 2 —
• please rename this table, "Character Tree Species to be used in Mitigation
areas"
• this table should only provide a list of tree species that JLMS will choose from to
plant. This table should not include other information. JLMS provided a
description of trees found onsite in Section 2.2. If the trees listed in Section 2.2
were not actual tree species that were noted onsite at NCIC, please provide a
separate table other than Table 2 to show a list of those.
• Please delete the "Note" at the bottom of the table
• Please remove shrubs from the table unless JLMS decides to plant shrubs.
• DWQ cannot approve of Table 2 until JLMS provides clarification of the tree
species found onsite.
• While most of the trees listed in Table 2 do provide nutrient removal, DWQ
requests that JLMS only provide a list of trees to plant that were not found
onsite. Trees found onsite are likely to naturally colonize on their own without
the help of additional plantings. DWQ recommends adding Sycamore to your
plant list.
■ Section 4.0
0 2nd paragraph:
■ According to the UMBI, vegetative success is not based on both planted and
volunteer species. Success is only measured based on planted stems after 5
years. Please state success exactly as it's written in the UMBI, or reference the
Page 2 of 4

UMBI in this paragraph. Volunteer species may be counted in your VMD.
However, only the planted stems will count towards success.
• Please edit all statements in the BPDP that incorrectly state the vegetative
success criteria (should be only Section 4.0 and 6.0 )
• Please change the VIVID collection to "August — October"
o 3rd paragraph:
■ You may delete "low recruitment of native woody species" from the last
sentence if you would like, since you can't use that towards measuring success
criteria
0 4th paragraph:
■ Please revise the first sentence as follows: "A permanent conservation easement
approved bV DWQ..."
• Section 5.0 —
o Please just reference the UMBI in the second paragraph. The UMBI details what
financial assurance is accepted and how much for each process. However, if you just
say, "financial assurance will be provided as referenced in the UMBI "... That will be
sufficient.
• Section 6.0 —
0 1St paragraph:
■ Please replace the first paragraph with the following: "The NCICsite will provide
Jordan buffer mitigation credits for development impacts within the Jordan Lake
Watershed. Additionally, it will provide nutrient offset mitigation credits for
development impacts within the Haw River Sub watershed ".
0 2nd paragraph: (please note: DWQ expects acreages to change in the final submittal of
the BPDP; therefore, the numbers provided below are only provided as an example
and should be replaced with real estimates in the final submittal)
• You may need to modify the acreage covered in the conservation easement —
see my comments above regarding the easement and DOT's project.
• Please replace the credit yield information in the BPDP with the following:
"According to the nitrogen reduction goal for the Haw River arm of the Jordan
Lake, the generated nitrogen credits per acre in the Haw Sub watershed are
2,249 pounds and the generated phosphorous credits per acre are 143.81
pounds.
The NCIC site will generate approximately 13.29 acres of restored riparian areas,
which will yield approximately 29,889.21 pounds of generated nitrogen offset
credit and 1,911.23 pounds of generated phosphorous offset credits.
The delivery factors applied to this site are 73 percent for nitrogen and 64
percent for phosphorous. Therefore, the total delivered nutrient offset credits
are 21,819.12 pounds of nitrogen and 1,223.19 pounds of phosphorous."
Page 3 of 4

o 3`d paragraph:
• Please replace the paragraph with the following:
"JLMS will maintain 3 separate credit ledgers for the NCIC bank according to the
requirements listed in the UMBI. JLMS will maintain the nutrient offset ledgers
in both "Generated Credits" and "Delivered Credits ". The NCIC bank can only sell
delivered credits from this bank ".
o Figure 5:
• The southwestern tip of the bank site appears to be more than 200 feet away from
the stream. According to the scale, there are proposed nutrient offset mitigation in
approximately 200 -300 feet away from stream. Please correct accordingly.
• A driveway is proposed to bisect UT D. a pipe will be required in UTD to maintain
the "hydrologically connected and drain to" guidelines in the UMBI. NCIC will have
to confirm this pipe is placed within UTD in their As -Built report prior to any credits
being released for the As =Built report. DWQ suggests you split the NCIC project into
two differenct phases (see previous comments on this in Section 1.0 above) because
of circumstances like this that are unknown until after DOT has started the
construction of the HWY and driveway.
• An impervious driveway cannot split a mitigation site (See mid — lower portion of
UTD). 0 -200 feet must be contiguous, with the exception of a farm path /road with
no impervious surface. The proposed driveway is not a pervious farm path, but
rather an impervious /asphalt road, and it is proposed within the 200 foot riparian
zone proposed for nutrient offset.
Therefore, only the area between the stream /conveyance and the road can be
utilized for mitigation credits. Anything beyond the road must be removed from
your mitigation plans. Please adjust your figure and acreages accordingly.
o Figure 7:
• Please do not place an easement around the dot HWY 119 Bypass or the proposed
driveway. Please change your easement boundaries to reflect this or explain why it
is needed (any conversations with DOT ?)
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