WQCS00057_NOI_NOV2022DV0303_Response_#1_20221107

NC Depar
Environmen.
Rece
City of Thomasville
Thomasville, North Carolina 27360
Lon T. Snider
Regional Supervisor
WQROS, WSRO, DWQ, NCDEQ
450 W. Hanes Mill Road, Suite 300
Winston-Salem, NC 27105
RE: Intent to Enforce Letter Response
Incidents Numbers 202201477 and 202201478
Dear Mr. Snider,
Noy 0 9 2022
Wlnston-Sa
Region-?'
Utilities Department
November 7, 2022
In response to the letter of Intent to Enforce of October 24, 2022, the City of Thomasville asks
that the following be taken into consideration:
Incidents # s 202201477 and 202201478 are closely related to each other. Hopefully the
following narrative will help to shed light on how events unfolded on September 28, 2022.
At 12:20 PM staff doing a normal site visit to the East Davidson Pump Station (810 Old Emanuel
Church Road) noticed that the force main had ruptured just up the road from the pump station in front
of the residence located at 831 Old Emanuel Church Road. The pump station staff immediately called
Maintenance & Construction staff who reported to the site and called in emergency locates so a repair
could be initiated. By 1:25 PM USIC was on site to locate other underground utilities in the vicinity of
the leak. A Maintenance & Construction Division crew happened to be working in the vicinity of the
SSO and was able to close down the job they were on and report to the Old Emanuel Road site by 1:55
PM. It was determined that concrete driveway of the residence at 831 Old Emanuel Church Road would
have to be removed to access the ruptured force main. In order to facilitate excavation of the force
main the pumps at the pump station were shut down at 2:35 PM. The SSO from the site of the force
main rupture ceased immediately. While excavating the force main an unmarked 2" plastic water line
was accidentally caught by the excavator and ruptured as well. This in turn proceeded to flood the
excavation. It took several attempts to ultimately repair the water line by replacing a section of line
due to the fact that the pressure was quite high and kept blowing couplings off of the pipe. This
unanticipated water line repair cost the crew time that they did not have, but it was necessary to repair
the water line before they could return to excavating for the force main repair. By 5:28 PM staff had
begun making the second cut in the ruptured force main. Staff kept a close eye on the East Davidson
Pump Station and noted that it began spilling at 5:44 PM due to not being able to run the pumps due to
the ruptured force main and open excavation pit at the repair site. Crews replaced approximately 77-
linear inches of 12" cast iron force main with 12" ductile iron pipe and Hymax couplings and the pump
station was returned to service at 6:25 PM, at which time the spillage at the pump station stopped. Had
the 2" water line been located, or at least not caught by the excavator, then the repair would likely have
been completed before the SSO could have occurred at the pump station.
Hopefully this narrative of the events that occurred help to shed light on the situation that
crews were dealing with and the fact that they were doing everything humanly possible to try and
minimize the spillage.
The City of Thomasville asks that the ongoing efforts to clean, inspect, and upgrade all aspects
of the sanitary sewer collection system be taken into account with any enforcement actions considered.

Sincerely, \
�e
CC: Michael Brandt
Morgan Huffman
Public Utilities Director
City of Thomasville
336-475-4220