20131093 Ver 1_Emails_20140826

Burdette, Jennifer a
From:
Christopher Hopper <CHopper @kleinfelder.com>
Sent:
Tuesday, August 26, 2014 4:07 PM
To:
Sarah McRae (sarah_mcrae @fws.gov); Emily Jernigan (emilysjernigan @fws.gov); Dunn,
Maria T.; bowers.todd @epa.gov; Burdette, Jennifer a
Cc:
charles.stilson @iluka.com; Kevin.Rideout @iluka.com
Subject:
Iluka Brink and Aurelian Springs Tour
BE
Thank you for your time and input. I'm writing to follow up on some items we covered and again iterate our
hope that we can coordinate as the project moves forward. Please remain in contact as early and often as
possible to offer suggestions or improvements on our plan. As we discussed, we are finalizing the permit
application and expect it to be submitted soon.
Iluka is pulling together their monitoring reports for the Brink mine area we visited yesterday. I'll forward
those along as soon as they're shared. Their staff are in training at the moment, so it may be a few days but
we're keeping it on everyone's radar.
Time constraints made it difficult to visit the same wetland we did with DWR and DLR staff (Jennifer Burdette
and Ken Pickle), but we do encourage you to reach out to those folks for their candid thoughts on what was
found. Jennifer's focus most closely address your concerns so she is copied on this. Jennifer, the feature
we're discussing was the one we had to climb down and through an excavation area to get to.
We discussed the partnership Iluka has with Virginia Tech., led by Dr. Lee Daniels and discussed on their
website: http: / /www.landrehab.org /mineral sands. Chuck Stilson, who participated yesterday, has been
involved in these studies throughout and will also be a reference for information if you need it.
We visited several properties in the Halifax County project area, including the concentrator site, and several
stream crossings. Comments raised during those visits include:
1) The area hasn't been surveyed for mussels, but a possible ID of yellow lance was made at Marsh
Swamp's crossing of Piney Grove Church Road (SR 1210). Verification is pending additional study.
2) Because the area hasn't been thoroughly surveyed, we've been asked to design all impacts under the
assumption that mussels are present.
3) Future access to the areas beyond Iluka's crossing footprints may be requested to facilitate inventories;
however, any access and approval will require landowner sign -off to do so.
4) Managing beavers in the area of crossings would be a benefit to both Iluka and sensitive species, and
careful placement and sizing of culverts will facilitate unimpeded passage of water and aquatic life.
5) Utilizing existing crossings to accomplish necessary project crossings will be very helpful in
demonstrating impact minimization.
Please contribute to this list if we've overlooked anything. We understand the process is only beginning, and
will advise as soon as the application has been submitted. Please include in your comments on that
application, these and any other concerns so they can be thoroughly vetted through the process.

Regards,
Chris
Christopher Hopper, CFM
Environmental Scientist
3500 Gateway Centre Blvd., Ste 200
Morrisville, NC 27560
o 919 - 755 -5011 x103
c 919 - 524 -8370
f1919- 755 -1414
J