WQCS00011_NOV-2023-DV-0136_20230323

SM
WOCKY MOUNT
WATER RESOURCES
THE CENTER OF IT AL1
March 23, 2023
Brenton Bent
Director of Water Resources
City of Rocky Mount
331 South Franklin Street
Rocky Mount, NC 27804
Scott Vinson, Regional Supervisor
Water Quality Regional Operations Section
Raleigh Regional Office
13800 Barrett Drive,
Raleigh, NC 27609
Subject: Notice of Violation & Intent to Issue Civil Penalty
Tracking No.-NOV 2023-DV-0136
Collection System Permit No. WQCS00011
Dear Mr. Vinson,
I received the Notice of Violation from the DWR dated March 13, 2023, as identified by the
subject tracking numbers regarding the sanitary sewer overflow (SSO) events that occurred on
2/12/2023 and 2/13/2023. The city of Rocky Mount flakes these incidents very seriously and
continues to take steps to minimize the potential for such overflows within our sewer collection
system.
Consistent with previous responses, the city continues to investigate, evaluate, and invest in the
sewer collection system to mitigate these incidents. As you are aware, these overflows occurred
Primarily when Rocky Mount received heavy sustained rainfall causing flash flooding of streets,
drainage ditches and streams. The collection system can become hydraulically overloaded from
inflow and infiltration. In addition, the city has wholesale wastewater purchase agreements with
neighboring systems such as the town of Nashville, town of Whitakers, town of Sharpsburg,
town of Dortches, Nash County and Edgecombe County and these systems are also contributing
increased flows during rain events.
[phone] / 3318, Franklin St., PO Box 1190, Rocky Mount, NC 27802-1180 / www.rockyrnou€itnc.gov

The city currently maintains in excess of 435 miles of sanitary sewer collection lines. Over the
past year, the Water and Sewer Division has engaged in many projects to alleviate inflows,
infiltration and improve flow capabilities to the treatment plant. The city completed two major
projects to assist in these efforts. These are the relining of approximately 1.7 miles of a 27"
sewer outfall line and the replacement of two old screw pumps. The latter will increase
conveyance capabilities by twenty million gallons per day. The city has also continued the
annual appropriation of funds to our sewer rehab program which targets the resurfacing of
manholes that are of older masonry construction or found to have leaking joints. The other scope
of our rehab program is relining sewer mains identified to have breaks, cracks, or root intrusions.
The city recently secured $400,000 in grant funding to conduct a comprehensive sewer model for
the collection system. It is our hope that this project will assist the city in identifying areas of
vulnerability within the system. The city continued to smoke test the collection system and
conduct repairs as soon as intrusion points are identified. In addition, we continued our diligent
daily maintenance, repair, video inspection and cleaning of our system to prevent further SSOs
or system interruptions.
Please be assured that the city of Rocky Mount is working with great care and perseverance to
reduce the number of sanitary sewer overflows in the collection system and this effort will
remain a top priority into the foreseeable future. As you can see, we are taking the necessary
steps to address the integrity of our entire collection system and our hope is that the Division of
Water Resources will favorably consider these efforts as you deliberate on any further actions
regarding these incidents.
If you have any questions, or require any additional information, please do not hesitate to contact
me at 252-972-1299 or email at [e-mail]
Sincerely,
45,1---11341
Brenton Bent, Director of Water Resources
(2521972-1325 1 331 S. Franklin St., PO Box 11BO, Aocky Mount, NC 27802-1180 1 www.rockymou7tnc.904_