20150042 Ver 1_Judy Hogan_20150418

Burdette, Jennifer a
From: judyhogan @mindspring.com
Sent: Saturday, April 18, 2015 2:47 PM
To: SVC_DENR.publiccomments
Cc: Higgins, Karen; Burdette, Jennifer a; Devane, Boyd; Diana Hales; Karen Howard; Jim
Crawford; Mike Cross; walter petty; Robert T. Reives; Amy Dalrymple; Rev. Dr. Ricky
Frazier; Dr. Andre Knecht; doldham @leecountync.gov; tsloan @leecountync.gov; Kirk
Smith; Rep Robert Reives; Rep. Valerie Foushee
Subject: 401 permit for Charah, Green Meadows -- Addendum
Department of Environment and Natural Resources
401 Permitting, 1617 mail Service Center
Raleigh, NC, 27699 -1617
April 18, 2015
Dear DENR officials:
Here is some additional information, an addendum to my earlier letter sent today about Charah /Green
Meadows 401 permit.
We held a prayer vigil on March 25, a Wednesday afternoon, at the Buckhorn United Methodist Church in
Brickhaven, with 75 people in attendance, including four ministers who offered prayers, and three of us
activists speaking who have been working on this issue. On my drive down Corinth Rd. and then down Hwy 42
to the church, I observed all the six factories and their full parking lots. The particle board plant is especially
large now, and it had hundreds of cars in its parking lot. Apparently all six factories work three shifts in 24
hours, making for a great deal of traffic both going north toward Moncure and Highway #1, and toward
Sanford on NC highway 42. 1 passed 60 homes, and an RV park run by Mr. Dickson, who is also a farmer,
growing deer corn and some other farm crops. I learned from those living in the area that Mr. Dickson's RV
park backs up to the Brickhaven site for the proposed coal ash dump, and that it contains 75 places for RVs to
park. The park looked quite full.
We in our coal ash group, Chatham Citizens Against Coal Ash Dump, had several new folks present who reside
very close to the proposed dump sites, both from Brickhaven and from Colon Road, come to our meeting
Friday night. We are urging them to write to you. They are very disturbed. A woman farmer who lives next
door to the Colon Road site said she had helped birth 10 kids from her goats this week. I believe she'll write to
you. She also has horses. She has been especially sad and worried. Every time I see her she looks about to
cry. She spoke at both hearings. She lives on land that has springs and creeks, and all that will be poisoned if
the coal ash dump on Colon Road is sited next to her. By the way, as youmust know, both coal ash dump sites,
as planned, are in the Cape Fear flood plain.
I asked my agricultural agent, Debbie Roos, out of the Agriculture Extension Service in Chatham to tell me the
names of the farms along the proposed truck route, which we found on the Charah permit: from Charlotte,
trucks would take 421 from Greensboro, then from Siler City, 64, then through Pittsboro (perhaps the 87 link
which goes south and connects to Moncure - Pittsboro Rd.) They could go through the circle in Pittsboro, but I

would guess not. It has steady traffic and is in the heart of the downtown. Here are the names of farms along
that route. On 64 into Pittsboro (the by -pass 64 becomes a narrow two -lane road, Business 64), there are
Howard's Farm (peaches, apples, and blaeberries), Oakmont Nursery, Huckleberry Trail Farm, and there's the
new Alpaca farm. On Moncure - Pittsboro Rd, there is an organic farm right next to our two -lane road called
Edible Earthscapes. They grow vegetables all year long and sell to local restaurants.
The Charah people have told us at the open houses sponsored by Duke back in December 2014 that the coal
ash would not come out of the trucks, but we saw films from a Charlotte TV station of Charah moving coal ash
only a short distance in Asheville to the airport, and those living on that road were suffering from coal ash
coming off the trucks. One man was wearing a gas mask to mow his lawn. We understand it also comes off the
rail cars, and that the railroads do very little oversight. Our post office in Moncure is maybe 100 yards or less
from the CSX railroad line. There are two mail delivery routes to outlying areas around Moncure, but about
400 people get their mail in the post office, and many of us drive there every day to get our mail. Those who
live in "downtown" Moncure are between old #1 and the railroad line. Only a few blocks separate the rail line
from Old #1. Many of the folks who live in Moncure live either along Moncure - Pittsboro Rd.,along Old #1, and
or along Corinth Rd. I would expect the trucks coming from Charlotte to the Colon Road site would also use
the same route down Moncure - Pittsboro Rd, and then down five miles on new #1 to Colon road. From
Wilmington, since those trucks would come around Raleigh on 1 -40 and then down new #1 probably to either
Pea Ridge Road (exits 81 (off #1) or to Moncure - Flatwood Rd, (exit 84 off #1) and then down Corinth Rd to
Brickhaven, more Moncure folks would be affected. There are homes on both Pea Ridge and Moncure-
Flatwood roads. Our fire department is located at the corner of Old #1 and Pea Ridge Road. Duke and Charah
are asking a lot of our volunteer fire department who are called out whenever traffic accidents occur or
hazardous spills.
Another issue which has many folks concerned is how EMT and fire department personnel will get to the
people who live anywhere near this dump with all the train cars and especially at crossings. We have lots of
people commuting and school buses, but if a coal ash train blocked the crossings by the post office or near the
Recycle center, how would the EMTs get to the people? At one of the Duke open houses when Mr. Charles
Price, the owner of Charah and Green Meadows, was asked this question back in December, he merely
shrugged.
Duke Energy likes to tout itself as a "good neighbor." We know better. Right now it seems to me that Duke
and Charah, and the limited liability company, Green Meadows, have set it up so that they can do whatever
they want without concern for the people whose lives they will affect. This much coal ash from those
hundreds of trucks and train cars over the years to come, will, in effect, be like genocide. We can't live here in
a healthy way if there is coal ash in our air and getting into our ground water and eventually into the Cape
Fear. We know that Duke has a big coal ash problem, but they shouldn't be moving it around, and they
shouldn't be storing in "land fills." It is toxic, it does harm and sickens human beings. We need to slow this
process down. Both Duke and you DENR folks are rushing things. We attended the open hearings for April 13
and April 16, in Lee and Chatham, for three permits. This taking up three permits in one hearing is
unprecedented.
Please use your authority to protect the environment to keep us from being the recipient in Lee and Chatham
of 20 million tons of coal ash. The liners will leak. The leachate, I hear, can go through the liners. We know
that the toxic selenium does. Nothing serious could be built on top of these coal ash dumps, and the whole
area would suffer economically and harm so many people's lives not only here but all along these roads and
rail lines. Plus, it would be a precedent, and North Carolina has a lot more clay pits.

Our own Chatham County Commissioner Diana Hales put it succinctly in her speech as an individual on April
16:
"Our Legislature made a law to allow Duke Energy to move ash into so- called "structural fill" pits and
compress it against a 20 -year HDPE plastic liner to form twin 50 -ft tall mounds in Moncure. This Frankenstein -
monster permit strips local government authority, endangers public health, diminishes economic prospects,
and offers a temporary Band -aide, not a solution.
"It is all in the name: Solid Waste Management Facility, Structural Fill, Mine Reclamation Permit.
" "Structural Fill" is a lie. This is a solid waste landfill, but without the normal protections:
No local government approval is required for this permit
No environmental impact study is required for this permit
Setbacks from private residences and water wells have been reduced from 500 -feet to 300 -ft
Setbacks from property boundaries have been reduced from 300 -feet to 50 -feet
Setbacks from surface waters have been reduced to 50 -feet
Distance from the seasonal high groundwater table is only 4 -feet!
"'Mine reclamation' is another lie. The site plans show extensive areas of new excavation. The existing quarry
is but a small part of the plan at each site.
"In the Army Corps of Engineers permit Charah stipulates the liner has a 500 -year life expectancy. This is an
outrageous claim, to say the least. But then, Charah has no liability beyond 30- years. Charah also claimed in
that permit application it was bringing in 3 million tons of coal ash, when we know it is closer to 20 million
tons between the Chatham and Lee sites. "
We here in these Chatham and Lee communities feel like the little boy with his finger in the dyke. Please do
all you can. You heard our heart -felt pleas at the hearings. Are you listening? Thank you again.
Judy Hogan
PO Box 253, Moncure, NC 27559. 919 - 545 -9932 judyhogan @mindspring.com
cc: Ms. Karen Higgins, Jennifer Burdette, Boyd Devant, Lee County Commissioners; Chatham County
Commissioners; members of Chatham Citizens Against Coal Ash Dump. Rep. Robert Reives; Senator Valerie
Foushee.