SW6220804_Stormwater Narrative_20230216

PROJECT DESCRIPTION
Rebekah Evans Substation (POD)
South River Electric Membership Corporation (EMC)
This project proposes to construct a new point -of -delivery ("POD") electrical substation in
Cumberland County, NC. The primary driver for the project is to create redundancy and
increase reliability in South River Electric Membership Corporation's ("South River") system.
Recent severe weather events, such as Hurricanes Mathew and Florence, have taken a toll on
the rural communities that South River serves, particularly in southern Cumberland and
northern Bladen Counties. Because the existing Butler and Cape Fear substations are radially
fed by a single South River 115kV line originating at South River's Grays Creek 115kV POD,
damage to this line or the Duke Energy line serving Grays Creek POD could cause a
simultaneous and lengthy outage to over 6,500 South River members. The new POD will "close
the loop" in the electrical system, allowing SREMC to backfeed these communities if damage
were to occur in the southern portion of SREMC's transmission system. The new POD will also
allow for additional electrical capacity allowing the area to grow without overloading the lines,
and it will allow for a safer working environment for our employees, enabling South River to
take a portion of the line out of service (if needed) without impacting service to their members.
Property Description
The 2.73-acre property is owned by South River and is listed in the Cumberland County GIS
system as Parcel Number 0442996729000, and is located on Upton Tyson Road, Fayetteville, NC
28306. The property is located within the Cape Fear River Basin and drains to Grays Creek to
the south, a Class "C" water body as described in the NCDEQ Surface Water Classification
mapping system.
The property is located southeast of Fayetteville on a private road identified as Upton Tyson
Road, which connects to Hwy 87. None of the property is located within the 100-year flood
plain as identified in the North Carolina Flood Risk Information System (FRIS).
The property is vacant and is currently being cultivated in row crops. Soils on site are Deloss
loam (B/D soil rating) and Roanoke and Warne soils (C/D soil rating). An agricultural drainage
ditch borders the northwestern boundary of the parcel, of which was determined to be non -
jurisdictional by a wetland scientist, Carson Parris of Asheville Contractors. (report attached)
Proposed Improvements
The proposed improvements include grading the site necessary to construct the substation and
access road. Grading work will importing suitable fill material to establish a structural base for

the substation improvements. The fenced portion of the substation will occupy approximately
half of the parcel, which will include washed #57 stone placed overtop geotextile fabric. Areas
within the fence will be infrequently traveled, approximately twice a month or less. Graveled
areas outside the substation fence will also be traveled infrequently due to the limited need for
maintenance personnel to frequent the substation site after construction, however those areas
were accounted for in determining built -upon area of the site, which is less than 24%.
Note that a temporary staging area is proposed immediately adjacent to the substation site.
Total staging area is 1.46 acres and is included in the total disturbed area although this area will
not be graded. Any erosion occurring due to loading and unloading of equipment will be
controlled using perimeter silt fence. After completion of construction, this area will be
revegetated and will be returned to its original preconstruction condition.
The site is generally flat, with stormwater currently infiltrating into the cultivated soils, and
stormwater that does not infiltrate eventually runs into a network of agricultural drainage
ditches running throughout the nearly 1,000-acre farm. Stormwater drainage patterns after
construction will remain the same. Stormwater that does not infiltrate within the substation
site will sheet flow off in all directions into the surrounding agriculturally cultivated land.
Since the site is generally flat with existing slopes less and 1%, routed runoff through vegetative
swales is not feasible without import of significant fill quantities. Operationally, a significantly
raised substation site will not function as needed with respect to existing transmission lines
immediately adjacent to the site. Therefore, based on the above, it was determined that the
best method of runoff control would be to keep the existing drainage patterns of the site intact
and allow the existing low -slope, agricultural ditches on the property continue to drain the site.
The low -slope ditches allow for minimum erosion and maximum infiltration of runoff prior to
discharge to Grays Creek. Since no additional swales are proposed, calculations for discharge
velocities have not been included here.