NC0026441_SOC Comment (SELC)_20230323

SOUTHERN
ENVIRONMENTAL
NVRONMENTAL
LAW
CENTER
March 23, 2023
Via email
N.C. Division of Water Resources
601 West Rosemary Street, Suite 220 Telephone [phone]
Chapel Hill, NC 27516 Facsimile 919-929-9421
Attn: Sydney Carpenter, Compliance and Expedited Unit
1617 Mail Service Center
Raleigh, NC 27699
publiccommentskncdenr. gov
RE: Comments Regarding Special Order by Consent for the Town of Siler City's
Wastewater Treatment Plant (NC0026441) & Collection System (WQCS00056),
EMC SOC WQ S22-003
To whom it may concern:
On behalf of Rocky River Watch, the Southern Environmental Law Center offers the
following comments on the draft Special Order by Consent ("SOC") for the Town of Siler City's
Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP) and Collection System. As discussed below, the North
Carolina Department of Environmental Quality ("DEQ") should strengthen the draft SOC in
light of the Town's inability to comply with its existing permit and its years of failure to hold its
industries accountable for excessive nutrient pollution into the Rocky River watershed.
Over the last several years, the Town of Siler City has violated its National Pollutant
Discharge Elimination System ("NPDES") permit more than 80 times and racked up civil
penalties approaching $200,000. This noncompliance has seriously threatened the already -
suffering Rocky River, and dead fish and mussels have been documented repeatedly downstream
of Siler City's discharges.
The upgrade of Siler City's plant is behind schedule, and the Town has failed to take
adequate steps in the meantime to address a significant driver of its nutrient pollution: Mountaire
Farms. Mountaire violated its pretreatment permit 154 times in 2022, exceeding permit limits in
the months of January, February, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, and
December —yet Siler City only issued 12 notices of violation to the company.' The Clean Water
Act gives Siler City full authority to control the wastewater coming from Mountaire.2 Yet as
made clear in the Town's permitting documents, notices of violations issued by DEQ, and
pretreatment annual report, Siler City has failed to adequately use its authority to prevent
Mountaire from violating its own permit and causing illegal Pass Through and Interference.
Administrative fines and notices of violation have not been enough to prevent Mountaire's
violations, and Siler City has failed to use other essential enforcement tools, including cease and
desist orders, a civil suit, or revocation of the company's permit.3 As EPA has stated in its
guidance on the Clean Water Act pretreatment program, these are appropriate tools to stop the
company's egregious and serious violations that have endangered the environment.
' Town of Siler City, Annual Pretreatment Report, at *4 (Feb. 23, 2023).
2 See 40 C.F.R. Part 403; EPA, Introduction to the National Pretreatment Program, at 4-11-4-12 (June 2011).
' EPA, Introduction to the National Pretreatment Program, at 4-11-4-12 (June 2011).
Charlottesville Chapel Hill Atlanta Asheville Birmingham Charleston Nashville Richmond Washington, DC

Both Siler City and its industries must be brought into compliance with state water
quality laws and the federal Clean Water Act, but the draft SOC does not go far enough to ensure
this will happen. Rocky River Watch's recommendations below regarding the draft SOC are
essential for moving Siler City and its industries towards compliance.
Recommendations for Special Order by Consent
DEQ should make several amendments to the draft SOC, including those related to lifting
the moratorium on accepting additional wastewater and Siler City's administration of the
pretreatment program.
First, Paragraph 4(a) of the draft SOC must be strengthened so that the Town is not
permitted to accept additional wastewater until it takes certain actions, including upgrading the
plant. As evident from the past few years, issuing penalties to the Town has not been sufficient to
ensure that Siler City complies with its permit and adequately controls pollution coming from its
industries. The current moratorium is the most effective tool DEQ has used to date to ensure that
Siler City adequately addresses its nutrient pollution. This is because the Town plans to allow a
company called Wolfspeed to release 290,000 gallons of industrial wastewater per day into its
wastewater treatment plant.4 Before DEQ allows Siler City to accept significant flow from
another large industry,5 the agency must ensure that it will be in full compliance with its permit
and address excess nutrient pollution coming from its industries to the maximum extent possible.
Accordingly, the Town's obligation to upgrade its treatment plant must be included in
Paragraph 4(a) of the draft SOC so that the Town is not permitted to accept specific levels of
additional wastewater until it takes certain steps. In particular, Paragraph 4(a) of the SOC must
include the following action items: (1) that Siler City complete construction of the third
treatment train with capacity of 2 million gallons per day by August 31, 2024, and (2) that Siler
City complete construction of the 6 million gallon per day expansion by December 31, 2024.
These requirements are part of the NPDES permit; including these milestones in the SOC
provides the Town the necessary incentive to keep the construction of the upgrade on track and
meet its effluent limits.
In addition, because the current moratorium is the most effective tool DEQ is using to
prevent the Town from releasing excessive nutrient pollution into the watershed, it is essential
4 Town of Siler City, "Application for Special Order by Consent," Requested Additional Flow During Special Order
by Consent, Sept. 8, 2022; see also Lisa Sorg, Siler City continues to violate Clean Water Act, wants reprieve so
Wolfspeed can build its major computer chip plant, NC POLICY WATCH (Oct. 10, 2022).
5 As DEQ is aware, Wolfspeed is a likely source of PFAS. DEQ must require the company to submit information on
any potential PFAS discharges with its IUP application and conduct PFAS sampling of any discharges. If Wolfspeed
is a source of PFAS, Siler City's NPDES permit must be reopened and DEQ must require Siler City to disclose any
PFAS discharges and to control Wolfspeed's PFAS releases. Memorandum from Radhika Fox, U.S. Env't Prot.
Agency, Addressing PFAS Discharges in NPDES Permits and Through the Pretreatment Program and Monitoring
Programs (Dec. 5, 2022), https://www.epa.gov/system/files/documents/2022-
12/NPDES_ PFAS _State%20Memo_December 2022.pdf. Any PFAS released by Siler City under its current permit
is illegal and is not covered by a permit shield. See Piney Run Pres. Ass'n v. Cty. Comm'rs of Carroll Cty.,
Maryland, 268 F.3d. 255, 268 (4th Cir. 2001). Wolfspeed must pretreat any industrial discharges of PFAS so that
the chemicals do not endanger downstream communities.
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that the agency does not prematurely lift the moratorium. Most of the steps required under phases
1 and 2 of Paragraph 4(a) are already completed and, given Siler City's historical
noncompliance, the Town should not be allowed to accept 125,000 gallons per day of additional
wastewater by completing the few steps remaining in phase 2. In order to motivate the Town to
act urgently and diligently under this SOC, DEQ should strengthen Paragraph 4(a) and delay
how quickly it lifts the moratorium.
We therefore recommend that Paragraph 4(a) be modified as follows:
Action Items
Amount of Flow to be accepted:
Completing Phase 1 and Phase 2 as described
50,000 GPD
in the draft SOC
Completing Phase 3 as described in the draft
75,000 GPD
SOC
Completing Phase 4 as described in the draft
100,000 GPD
SOC, and requiring that Siler City complete
construction of the third treatment train with
capacity of 2 million gallons per day by
August 31, 2024
Add Phase 5, which requires that Siler City
100,000 GPD
complete construction of the 6 million gallon
per day expansion by December 31, 2024
TOTAL
325,000 GPD
Second, provisions of the SOC that address Siler City's pretreatment program must be
strengthened and clarified. As drafted, the SOC does not adequately address the Town's failure
to enforce its pretreatment program —in particular, Mountaire's contribution to the Town's
persistent permit violations. In order to clean up the Rocky River and prevent more illegal
pollution from Siler City's treatment plant, the SOC should include the recommendations
discussed below.
Under Phase 2 of Paragraph 4(a), the draft SOC states that Siler City must "issue all
updated IUPs," or industrial user permits, "with appropriate compliance schedules." The
document is vague as to what constitutes an "appropriate" compliance schedule. This language
should be modified to clearly state that "all updated IUPs must include adequately strict
compliance schedules, effluent limits, and monitoring to ensure that all industrial users do not
cause Pass Through or Interference at Siler City's treatment plant." In addition, Siler City has
been requiring Mountaire to sample its discharges daily for BOD, total suspended solids,
ammonia, total phosphorous and total nitrogen,6 and has indicated that this information has been
crucial for operation of its treatment plant. Given that Mountaire has repeatedly caused Pass
Through and Interference at the treatment plant, the IUP for Mountaire should continue to
require daily monitoring for these listed parameters and this should be reflected and enforced in
the SOC.
6 Letter from Richard Rogers, DEQ, to Bill Zell, Siler City, "Increased Monitoring — Siler City WWTP," May 12,
2022.

Finally, phase 4 of Paragraph 4(a) states that Siler City must "ensure that all SIUs have
completed any necessary treatment upgrades as required in their compliance schedules by June
30, 2024," yet the draft IUPs include schedules that give Mountaire and Siler City's water
treatment plant far more time to complete treatment upgrades. Mountaire and the water treatment
plant's IUPs must be amended so that both entities complete treatment upgrades by June 30,
2024, and these changes to the IUPs must also be reflected and enforced in the SOC. It is
essential that improvements to the draft IUPs be clearly included in the SOC because wastewater
from these sources have been a significant reason for Siler City's noncompliance.
The SOC should further be amended to include a provision that if any of Siler City's
industries —in particular, Mountaire—again cause Pass through or Interference at the Town's
treatment plant, DEQ will enforce directly against the responsible industry and withdraw its
approval of the Town's pretreatment program under 40 C.F.R. § 403.10. Siler City's history of
allowing illegal Pass Through and Interference suggests that the Town cannot be trusted to
adequately oversee its pretreatment program.
Finally, we recommend requiring that the Town submit quarterly reports documenting
IUP compliance and the Town's enforcement of IUP, Pass Through, and Interference violations
as part of the SOC.
These recommended changes to the draft SOC are essential for bringing Siler City and its
industries into compliance with state water quality laws and the Clean Water Act. Thank you for
your consideration of these comments. Please contact Blakely Hildebrand
(bhildebrandgselcnc.org or 919-967-1450) to discuss this further.
Sincerely,
Blakely Hildebrand Jean Zhuang
Senior Attorney Senior Attorney
CC: Glenn Dunn, Counsel for Town of Siler City
Hank Raper, Town Manager, Town of Siler City
Brittany York, Town of Siler City, Waste Water Plant Superintendent
Drew Hargrove, Assistant General Counsel, N.C. Department of Environmental Quality
Asher Spiller, Assistant Attorney General, N.C. Department of Justice
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