WQ0004115_2003 Annual Report_20040226

MAR ® 2 tool
CHAMPION HILLS
WATER QUALITY SECTION
PROPERTY OWN.ERS..ASS.00IATION,. INC. ASHEVILL REGIONALOfFIi
February 26, 2004'
System Performance Annual Report
NCDENR-DWQ .
1617 .Mail Service Center
Raleigh, NC 27699-1617
Re: 2003 Annual Report
Champion Hills Property Owners Association
Henderson County, NC
Permit Nos. WQ0004115 & NCO087106
Gentlemen:
In accordance with the state of North Carolina's requirements, we are pleased to attach three
copies of our Wastewater System Annual Operating Performance Report for calendar year 2003.
As indicated in this report, all property owners of Champion Hills Golf Community will be
notified of the report's availability through the March issue of the community's monthly
newsletter. The newsletter will state:
The State of North Carolina requires all permittees for wastewater systems to
make reports available to their users summarizing their systems' performance over the
past twelve months. The purpose, of this,requirement is to provide a mechanism for user
oversight and, hopefully, instill confidence in the system and its operators.
In addition, the State requires all permittees to adopt and implement a sewer
ordinance for all users of the system. The Champion Hills Sewer Ordinance was
implemented on July 1, 1999 and is periodically updated as necessary.
Both the Champion Hills' Performance Report for calendar year 2003 and the current
Sewer Ordinance are now available from the Club office and can be obtained by either
stopping in or by calling Jessica at [phone] to receive copies by mail.
Please advise if you have any questions or comments.
Sincerely,
Lee J. Weber
Chairman, Champion Hills WWS Committee
Cc! with -attachment DENR-D, Asheville, Attn. Mr. Roy Davis
-- Q- - -- ------ - -- -
1 HAGEN DRIVE / HENDERSONVILLE, NC 28739-8964 / [phone] / FAx [phone]
E-MAIL - [e-mail]

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Champion Hills Property Owners Association.
Year 2003 Wastewater System Annual Report
Applicable Permits: WQ0004115 & NCO087106
The Champion Hills Wastewater System is sanctioned by the North Carolina Department
of Environment and Natural Resources - Division of Water Quality (NCDENR-DWQ) and
operates under Permits WQ0004115 and NC0087106. These permits define the conditions under
which the Champion Hills' Property Owners Association (POA) must operate the system and
exposes the POA to substantial fines if it does not comply.
In 1999, the State of North Carolina passed legislation requiring all entities that own or
operate wastewater treatment and collection systems to provide annual reports to their customers
describing the systems and summarizing their performance over the past twelve month period.
The purpose of this legislation is to provide a mechanism for user oversight and, hopefully, instill
confidence in the system and its operators. This report for calendar year 2003 has been prepared
in compliance with this legislation.
Description of Systems:
The Champion Hills' Wastewater System consists of three sub -systems: a Collection
System, a Treatment System and a Disposal System. The Collection and Treatment Systems are
owned and operated by the Champion Hills POA. The Disposal System is owned and operated
by the Champion Hills Club under a formal Agreement with the POA.
The Collection System consists of approximately 62,500 linear feet of eight inch
diameter PVC sewer lines, approximately 480 manholes, 8 lift stations and miscellaneous items
such as controls, standby generators, force mains, telemetry, spare parts, etc. As its name implies,
the collection system collects the wastewater from the community and transports it to the
treatment plant for processing.
The Treatment System is located on a 2.86-acre plot adjacent to the 16`h fairway. It
consists of a treatment plant, two lift stations, a 700-000 gallon lined effluent holding pond, a
building housing various pieces of equipment & controls, and a standby generator. The operation
of this system is subcontracted to a state -licensed operator, James and James Environmental
Management. Under the terms of the permit, the operator must visit the facility daily (excluding
weekends and holidays) and properly manage and document daily operations, including all
testing, reporting and other permit requirements.
The treatment plant is the "heart" of the Treatment System. It has a current throughput
capacity of 70,000 gallons of wastewater per day, but is expandable to 140,000gpd. Raw sewage
(influent) enters the plant at the Equalization basin through a 4 inch line from the influent lift
station. It is then parceled into one of two 35,000 gpd process trains, each consisting of an
Aeration tank followed by a Clarifier. From the Clarifier, it flows through a Filter and finally to a
Chlorination Basin. The treated water (effluent) leaves the Chlorination Basin by gravity, flows
through a dechlorination device, and then to a lift station where, during warmer months, is

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pumped to the 700,000 gallon holding pond for eventual use in irrigating the golf course and,
during colder months, is discharged directly to a nearby stream.
The warmer month Disposal System is essentially a portion of the golf course irrigation
system. During these months, effluent is pumped from the holding pond by the club's state trained
and licensed irrigation system operators and applied to the golf course through "selected"
sprinklers that don't permit runoff to nearby streams. The effluent irrigates the grass and then
either evaporates or filters through the soil before entering the ground water system and streams.
Few other wastewater systems have the ability to perform this final filtering operation.
Unfortunately, this golf course application procedure is problematic during colder
months when the ground or sprinkler system is frozen or covered with ice and snow.
Recognizing the problems unique to mountainous locations, the State granted us permission to
discharge effluent into a nearby stream during the colder months. Our effluent, of course, is
"treated household wastewater" and is of better quality than that which many municipalities and
cities release directly ..to -streams ...and .rivers _on.a year .round .basis.-As.local_streams have. greater........
flow during winter months and as our community production of wastewater is lowest during that
time of year, we are confident this procedure will have no harmful effect on the environment.
2003 Performance
Operationally, 2003 was a relatively good year. We had no permit violations
and operated well within our budget. We attribute the good performance to the fine team we have
managing, maintaining and operating the systems. Regrettably, however, we did experience one
raw sewage spill which will be discussed in the next section.
2003 Problems / Deficiencies / Accomplishments: During the past year, we encountered and
addressed a number of problems that needed prompt attention and addressed other issues that may
help us perform better in the future:
A. Although we have made significant progress in reducing "Inflow & Infiltration"
(I&I) to our collection system during periods of heavy or extended rain, we
continue to experience more than we would like. The quantity of I&I is probably
not unusual for a system of our size in mountain terrain, but it does represent a
significant portion of our treatment plant's capacity and can upset the treatment
process. If not curtailed, it could mandate that we will prematurely have to
expand the capacity of our treatment plant.
Finding and correcting sources of I&I remains a priority of our operations. We
have made good progress in past years and will continue these efforts in 2004.
The work involves getting out in the rain and noting where increased flow occurs
in the system. We then look for possible sources and solutions which include
raising manhole covers, realigning manhole frames, sealing manhole or lift
station seams, fixing broken riser pipes, installing manhole "dishes", etc. In
December of every year, we also walk the entire sewer line, pulling all manhole
covers, in search of I&I sources and other problems.
B. When the Developer built our treatment plant, he provided us with a used army
surplus diesel generator for back up power. The generator was unreliable, noisy
and produced very dirty emissions. It also required us to store a two day

operating supply of diesel fuel at the plant in case of prolonged power failure. In
2002 we replaced that generator with a new natural gas fired unit with piped in
natural gas. The new generator is more reliable, less noisy, cleaner and has a
continuous supply of fuel should power failures last several days. This is always
a concern during ice storms in the mountains.
C. Two of our eight collection system lift stations which are located near streams,
also have permanent standby generators, as power failures could result in raw
sewage spilling quickly to the streams. For the remaining six stations, we rely on
the use of a portable generator stored at the golf course maintenance building. All
lift stations that rely on the portable generator now have "quick connection
devices" to facilitate emergency generator connections.
D. We now have telemetry at all our collection system lift stations, as well as at the
treatment plant. The telemetry automatically contacts our 24 hour Security
service in case of power or pump failure. Security then promptly notifies our
responders preventing or limiting raw sewage spills and other problems. The
responders are on call 24 hours per day.
E. We have installed an aeration device in the effluent holding pond. It is similar to
the aeration devices in the ponds on the golf course only smaller. The purpose of
these devices is to reduce the growth of algae. Heavy algae concentrations tend to
clog irrigation pumps and sprinkler heads.
F. We have been experiencing a build up of grease in the lift station adjacent to the
clubhouse. Apparently, water from the dishwasher is too hot to allow grease to
properly solidify in the clubhouse grease trap. In 2002 we installed a baffle in the
trap to retain the water longer, hoping it would then cool sufficiently to release
the grease. Unfortunately the baffle did not solve the problem. We are now
experimenting with a system modification suggested by the dishwasher
manufacturer (and which complies with State requirements) that allows us to
reduce the temperature of the water by adding chlorine to the dishwashing
process. We are hopeful that this will solve the problem -and are currently
monitoring the results. Grease tends to clog pumps and sewer lines and is
difficult to handle in the treatment process.
G. In 1999, the Champion Hills POA developed, implemented and distributed a
Sewer Ordinance for the community. The ordinance has recently been revised.
Property owners wanting an updated version of this document should contact
Jessica at the Club's Administration office.
Sewage Spills: The State requires that we notify it immediately of raw sewage spills of
any size which reach surface waters (i.e. streams, drainage ditches, etc.) or spills of 1,000
gallons or greater regardless of whether they are contained. Regrettably, we had one such
spill in 2003. On September 23, 2003, we experienced a spill estimated at 700 gallons at
a manhole near East Chicory Crossing, of which a portion flowed into a drainage ditch.
The problem was caused by roots growing in the manhole and clogging the downstream
entrance to the sewer main. Sewage flowed out of through•the manhole cover and onto
the road when it was discovered by our 24 hour Security guards. Security immediately
notified our Maintenance Manager per our Emergency Spill Response procedures. Our

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Maintenance Manager cleared the blockage, but not before some sewage found its way
into a drainage ditch. To try to prevent this from reoccurring, we carefully watched for
roots during our annual manhole inspection program this past December. Where roots
were found, we either removed them as we proceeded or noted them for the maintenance
department to handle.
Permit Violations: As previously mentioned the operation of the Treatment System is
contracted to James & James Environmental Management (J&J) of Hendersonville. J&J visits the
site five days a week (excluding holidays) to assure that the plant is operating properly, perform
the required testing and prepare the necessary reports. Occasionally, J&J finds that something
has gone wrong in the treatment process and the effluent does not meet the requirements of our
permit. This can happen for various reasons, but must be corrected quickly to prevent
environmental damage. Such permit violations must be reported to the State. We are pleased to
advise that in year 2003 we had no such permit violations.
Notification and Certification:
All Champion Hills' Property Owners and Club Members will be notified in the up -coming issue
of the Champion Hills' monthly publication "Echoes" that this report is available through the
Champion Hills Club Administration Office by either stopping in to pick up a copy or by calling
[phone] to receive one by mail.
I•certify that this report is complete and accurate to the best of my knowledge. Any questions
pertaining to it should be directed to me at the address or telephone number listed below.
Lee J Weber, Chairman
Champion Hills WWS Committee
4 Barnes Court
Hendersonville, NC 28739
[phone]
e-mail: [e-mail]
Issue Date: February 26, 2004