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HomeMy WebLinkAbout20150042 Ver 1_Judy Hogan (5)_20150418Burdette, Jennifer a From: judyhogan @mindspring.com Sent: Saturday, April 18, 2015 2:08 PM To: SVC_DENR.publiccomments Cc: Burdette, Jennifer a; Devane, Boyd; diana hales; Higgins, Karen; karen howard; Mike Cross; walter petty; jim crawford; Amy Dalrymple; Robert T. Reives; Rev. Dr. Ricky Frazier; Dr. Andre Knecht; doldham @leecountync.gov; Tim Sloan; Kirk Smith; Rep. Valerie Foushee Subject: 401 permit Attachments: DENR 401- letter-- 4- 18- 15.rtf Department of Environment and Natural Resources 401 Permitting, 1617 mail Service Center Raleigh, NC, 27699 -1617 April 18, 2015 Dear DENR officials: We appreciate your taking into account citizen concerns about the application of Green Meadows' (a company belonging to Charah) for permission to destroy stream and wetlands in the vicinity of their two proposed clay mine sites for moving 20 million tons of coal ash from the Sutton plant near Wilmington and the Riverbend plant near Charlotte to Brickhaven near Moncure in southeast Chatham and to Colon Road in northern Lee county. Many of us will be writing to you, and we urgently request that you deny the permit for Charah /Green Meadows. There are many good reasons why we who live in southeast Chatham County and northern Lee County should not be home to all this extremely toxic coal ash. I live on Moncure - Pittsboro Rd, near Jordan Lake Dam, and, judging by the maps on the permits, as many as 120 -140 30 -ton dump trucks would be passing my home daily carrying coal ash to the Brickhaven site and perhaps also to the Colon Road site. I live about one mile from the train track which would carry 3 -6 times a week, a hundred rail cars filled with coal ash through my community and right past our little post office. One of the issues with this coal ash dumping is that citizens and our commissioners have been shut out of the legislative process. Our Chatham County Commissioners had no say -so about Duke Energy's plan, although they unanimously approved a resolution to stop this. We are very concerned about the effect on the water, notably the Cape Fear River, which provides drinking water for Sanford, which we in Southeast Chatham also receive, as well as all the municipalities downstream from us to the coast. The plan to store so much coal ash so close to water, and to transport it by rail and truck, with the ash also getting into the air and the groundwater is a huge concern for all of us on these transportation routes. Once coal ash is in the air, it will spread to our farms, homes, businesses, and make living in Chatham County a nightmare. I will mention some of our particular concerns, which your permit will need to address, as I understand it: Conservation. In and near both of these old clay pit sites are large ponds, streams, wetlands, which are habitats for a wide range of plant and animal species. Economics: A large number of people live near these sites, including the large Dickens farm near Brickhaven and the Eleven Bar Ranch near the Colon Road site. Robert F. Helms II is the ranch owner, and he circulated a letter to the Lee County Commissioners in which he pointed out that he never would have set up his ranch and "Integrated Training Solutions" in Lee County if he had known that Colon Road would be considered a dumping site for 8 million tons of coal ash. Of course his property and that of other property owners, not only near the site but along transportation routes, will be devaluated, with the counties receiving less tax money. Several people who live next door to the Brickhaven and Colon Road sites have come to our meetings. One couple lives right at the train track Charah plans to use on Colon Road. They call where they live "ground zero." A Mansfield family lives next door to the Brickhaven site, and their home has been there for generations, as has another nearby home owned by the Utley family. All of us who live on Moncure - Pittsboro Rd., Old #1, and Corinth Road, the likely roads that trucks coming from Charlotte will take to reach the clay pit on Moncure Flatwood Rd. will be at risk economically, and for our health and safety. We already have on these roads many large trucks carrying wood, bricks, and chemicals coming to and from the industries on Corinth Rd. These trucks have accidents sometimes. Last year two log trucks overturned along this route on the same morning. The hazardous coal ash flying off the trucks will ruin my home for a place to live in my old age, the only place I have to live and my only serious asset. This is true for many other elderly people living along these roads. Who would buy our property with coal ash being spewed all over the roads and nearby residences? There are several organic farmers living on this road and other roads along this route who would no longer be able to farm safely. People are going to get sick much more often and require EMT services. Few jobs will be created for the local people, and we expect lawsuits if this continues to go through. The Mt. Calvary Baptist Church is sited directly across the street from the Colon Road site, and in Moncure we have churches all along this route: Mount Olive Missionary Baptist, United Methodist, Liberty Chapel, Baptist are all on or close to Old #1. The Buckhorn Methodist Church is on Corinth Rd, very close to the Brickhaven site. Aesthetics. Duke Energy and Charah are claiming that they will cover all this coal ash with a plastic fabric and then cover that with dirt and plant grass on it. They have not been honest with us or our commissioners about these toxic landfills which they are calling mine reclamations. We know that their liners are not warranted for 30 years, which they promise. They showed slides which put the "reclamations" at ground level, but they didn't mention that they would be higher than the telephone poles, i.e., 50 Feet from real ground level. In Lee County, when government officials studied it, the reclamation there would be four stories high. Right now there are already some problems in the wetlands. The big pool in Brickhaven is red from the clay sediment still in the pool, and the Goff (Gulf ?) Creek runs red, draining from earlier and continuing clay mining near the site. The Department of Environment and Natural Resources should have acted long ago to clean up the pond and the creek, which eventually reaches the Cape Fear River. 12 million tons of coal ash will have an even more adverse effect on that and other nearby creeks that flow into the Cape Fear. General Environmental Concerns. There is going to be coal ash in the air, all around where the work is done to move it from trucks and trains into the pits, and there are no plans for monitoring the air. Coal ash into the lungs takes awhile to kill people, but it does over time. I wouldn't want to live where I had to breathe coal ash on a regular basis for the five years or more that it will take to move all this coal ash. Once it's in the air, it can move anywhere. In Asheville where Charah is moving coal ash a short distance to the Asheville Airport, their trucks are leaving lots of coal ash along the roads, and some people are wearing gas masks to mow their lawns. We don't believe the plastic liners that Charah will use will keep out selenium. Scientists say it goes through the liners. Also Charah claims they will take the leachate to a waste water treatment plant, but we know that such plants are set up to remove organic matter, not inorganic chemicals which are in coal ash, very dangerous ones, mercury, lead, and many others, including radioactive material. One of our members wrote to three companies which Charah listed on its permit application as possible sources for its liners. Two replied. One said that they warranty such liners for five years; the other said also for five years, but that in some cases, for twenty plus years. None said for thirty years, which Charah claims. As to what happens after thirty years, they had no answer. In fact, most of the questions put to them by our commissioners they could not or would not answer. Endangered Species. The streams running through these sites flow into the Cape Fear habitat of the Cape Fear shiner —a federally listed endangered species. Wetlands and Stream Impacts: A total of 1.14 acres of wetlands would be impacted by the coal ash fill, as well as 4166 feet of intermittent and perennials streams and .5 acres of isolated wetlands. Recreation. A golf course could be impacted as well as a large horse show facility near the Sanford site. That's the Bar 11 Horse farm mentioned above under Economics. The residents of Brickhaven report that the area near the Cape Fear River has many people coming out on weekends to fish, swim, and picnic. Bicyclists use Corinth, Moncure - Flatwood, and Christian Chapel roads for recreation on weekends, too. Water supply and quality: Coal ash is going to get into the air and the ground water and affect both public and private well water users, and the downstream surface water supply in municipalities from central North Carolina to the coast. Safety: The heavy flow of truck traffic (estimated at 120 -140 trucks a day) will increase accidents, health problems, and air pollution. Train traffic will increase, too, and since so much coal ash has to be moved and across roads where people travel to work and school buses take children to and from school, it will be difficult for residents to reach work or school and to live normal lives. The trains, we have learned, are unregulated. One of our members pointed out that it would take 400,000 truckloads of ash to Chatham and 266,667 to Lee and /or 80,000 train car loads to Lee and 120,000 train car loads to Chatham. Coming into Pittsboro Thursday, the 16th of April, for the hearing I counted 31 cars or pickups on Moncure - Pittsboro Rd and 5 large tractor trailer trucks in 10 minutes, between 3 and 3:10 PM. Historic Properties: There are African American graves at the Colon Road site, and in Brickhaven, there are graves on the Utley property next to the site, and not far away a graveyard of African Americans from the 1800s. These are all mentioned in a survey done some years ago of graveyards. Fish and Wildlife Values. The Division of Wildlife Resources brought up many concerns in their December 16, 2014 letter to Brenda Harris, NC Land Quality Section, concerning the Charah Permit application. They noted many protected plant and animal species in the streams and tributaries on these sites. The cited the need for greater stream buffers and water monitoring and other issues that have not been addressed. Food and Fiber Production. There are small farms growing food and meat for the market both along Corinth Road and also along Moncure - Pittsboro Road. My own Hoganvillaea Farm is one, and another is Edible Landscapes. My immediate neighbors, Sean Murace and Chloe Corrigan, have many farm animals -- chickens, ducks, turkeys, and even peacocks. I believe there is a sheep farm on Corinth Road, too, as well as the large Dickson farm. Mr. Dickson raises deer corn and other crops. Land Use and Consideration of Property Ownership:. The creation of these coal ash dumps will mean that residents will either get sick or have to leave. If we cannot sell our homes, we will be forced to take even more benefits from the federal government. I now receive both Medicare and Medicaid, but I also grow food to sell and to provide a healthy diet in my aging. I'm 77 and healthy. I would have to leave, one way or another. That much coal ash would kill me and many other elderly also depending on Medicare and Medicaid here. Archeological. Recently it was announced in the News and Observer as well as by WRAL TV that a crocodile skeleton from the Late Triassic period was found in a clay mine near Gulf, in Chatham County, not far from both these sites, which are also in the Triassic Basin. This crocodile, named Carnufex Carolinensis, or the Carolina butcher, is estimated to be about 231 million years old. Some of the bones and teeth from this or other prehistoric creatures were found during the era in the early 1900s when coal mining occurred in that area, and this find is getting international attention. We believe that the two sites Charah bought under the name of Green Meadows are likely to contain other prehistoric remains. In short, we here in southeastern Chatham and northern Lee Counties are frightened by this move on Duke Energy's part to dump all this coal ash on people and land which will be harmed in the ways I have listed, at the least. Coal ash, good scientists assert over and over, should not be moved. Please reject Charah /Green Meadows' 401 permit. Sincerely, Judy Hogan PO Box 253, Moncure, NC 27559 -0253. 919 - 545 -9932. Judyhogan @mindspring.com cc: Ms. Karen Higgins, 401 and Buffer Permitting Unit, Jennifer Burdette and Boyd Devane, Division of Environment and Natural Resources. Lee County Commissioners; Chatham County Commissioners; members of Chatham Citizens Against Coal Ash Dump. Judy Hogan 919 - 545 -9932 (voicemail) Department of Environment and Natural Resources 401 Permitting, 1617 mail Service Center Raleigh, NC, 27699 -1617 April 18, 2015 Dear DENR officials: We appreciate your taking into account citizen concerns about the application of Green Meadows' (a company belonging to Charah) for permission to destroy stream and wetlands in the vicinity of their two proposed clay mine sites for moving 20 million tons of coal ash from the Sutton plant near Wilmington and the Riverbend plant near Charlotte to Brickhaven near Moncure in southeast Chatham and to Colon Road in northern Lee county. Many of us will be writing to you, and we urgently request that you deny the permit for Charah/Green Meadows. There are many good reasons why we who live in southeast Chatham County and northern Lee County should not be home to all this extremely toxic coal ash. I live on Moncure - Pittsboro Rd, near Jordan Lake Dam, and, judging by the maps on the permits, as many as 120 -140 30 -ton dump trucks would be passing my home daily carrying coal ash to the Brickhaven site and perhaps also to the Colon Road site. I live about one mile from the train track which would carry 3 -6 times a week, a hundred rail cars filled with coal ash through my community and right past our little post office. One of the issues with this coal ash dumping is that citizens and our commissioners have been shut out of the legislative process. Our Chatham County Commissioners had no say -so about Duke Energy's plan, although they unanimously approved a resolution to stop this. We are very concerned about the effect on the water, notably the Cape Fear River, which provides drinking water for Sanford, which we in Southeast Chatham also receive, as well as all the municipalities downstream from us to the coast. The plan to store so much coal ash so close to water, and to transport it by rail and truck, with the ash also getting into the air and the groundwater is a huge concern for all of us on these transportation routes. Once coal ash is in the air, it will spread to our farms, homes, businesses, and make living in Chatham County a nightmare. I will mention some of our particular concerns, which your permit will need to address, as I understand it: Conservation. In and near both of these old clay pit sites are large ponds, streams, wetlands, which are habitats for a wide range of plant and animal species. Economics: A large number of people live near these sites, including the large Dickens farm near Brickhaven and the Eleven Bar Ranch near the Colon Road site. Robert F. Helms II is the ranch owner, and he circulated a letter to the Lee County Commissioners in which he pointed out that he never would have set up his ranch and "Integrated Training Solutions" in Lee County if he had known that Colon Road would be considered a dumping site for 8 million tons of coal ash. Of course his property and that of other property owners, not only near the site but along transportation routes, will be devaluated, with the counties receiving less tax money. Several people who live next door to the Brickhaven and Colon Road sites have come to our meetings. One couple lives right at the train track Charah plans to use on Colon Road. They call where they live "ground zero." A Mansfield family lives next door to the Brickhaven site, and their home has been there for generations, as has another nearby home owned by the Utley family. All of us who live on Moncure- Pittsboro Rd., Old 41, and Corinth Road, the likely roads that trucks coming from Charlotte will take to reach the clay pit on Moncure Flatwood Rd. will be at risk economically, and for our health and safety. We already have on these roads many large trucks carrying wood, bricks, and chemicals coming to and from the industries on Corinth Rd. These trucks have accidents sometimes. Last year two log trucks overturned along this route on the same morning. The hazardous coal ash flying off the trucks will ruin my home for a place to live in my old age, the only place I have to live and my only serious asset. This is true for many other elderly people living along these roads. Who would buy our property with coal ash being spewed all over the roads and nearby residences? There are several organic farmers living on this road and other roads along this route who would no longer be able to farm safely. People are going to get sick much more often and require EMT services. Few jobs will be created for the local people, and we expect lawsuits if this continues to go through. The Mt. Calvary Baptist Church is sited directly across the street from the Colon Road site, and in Moncure we have churches all along this route: Mount Olive Missionary Baptist, United Methodist, Liberty Chapel, Baptist are all on or close to Old 41. The Buckhorn Methodist Church is on Corinth Rd, very close to the Brickhaven site. Aesthetics. Duke Energy and Charah are claiming that they will cover all this coal ash with a plastic fabric and then cover that with dirt and plant grass on it. They have not been honest with us or our commissioners about these toxic landfills which they are calling mine reclamations. We know that their liners are not warranted for 30 years, which they promise. They showed slides which put the "reclamations" at ground level, but they didn't mention that they would be higher than the telephone poles, i.e., 50 Feet from real ground level. In Lee County, when government officials studied it, the reclamation there would be four stories high. Right now there are already some problems in the wetlands. The big pool in Brickhaven is red from the clay sediment still in the pool, and the Goff (Gulf?) Creek runs red, draining from earlier and continuing clay mining near the site. The Department of Environment and Natural Resources should have acted long ago to clean up the pond and the creek, which eventually reaches the Cape Fear River. 12 million tons of coal ash will have an even more adverse effect on that and other nearby creeks that flow into the Cape Fear. General Environmental Concerns. There is going to be coal ash in the air, all around where the work is done to move it from trucks and trains into the pits, and there are no plans for monitoring the air. Coal ash into the lungs takes awhile to kill people, but it does over time. I wouldn't want to live where I had to breathe coal ash on a regular basis for the five years or more that it will take to move all this coal ash. Once it's in the air, it can move anywhere. In Asheville where Charah is moving coal ash a short distance to the Asheville Airport, their trucks are leaving lots of coal ash along the roads, and some people are wearing gas masks to mow their lawns. We don't believe the plastic liners that Charah will use will keep out selenium. Scientists say it goes through the liners. Also Charah claims they will take the leachate to a waste water treatment plant, but we know that such plants are set up to remove organic matter, not inorganic chemicals which are in coal ash, very dangerous ones, mercury, lead, and many others, including radioactive material. One of our members wrote to three companies which Charah listed on its permit application as possible sources for its liners. Two replied. One said that they warranty such liners for five years; the other said also for five years, but that in some cases, for twenty plus years. None said for thirty years, which Charah claims. As to what happens after thirty years, they had no answer. In fact, most of the questions put to them by our commissioners they could not or would not answer. Endangered Species. The streams running through these sites flow into the Cape Fear habitat of the Cape Fear shiner —a federally listed endangered species. Wetlands and Stream Impacts: A total of 1.14 acres of wetlands would be impacted by the coal ash fill, as well as 4166 feet of intermittent and perennials streams and .5 acres of isolated wetlands. Recreation. A golf course could be impacted as well as a large horse show facility near the Sanford site. That's the Bar 11 Horse farm mentioned above under Economics. The residents of Brickhaven report that the area near the Cape Fear River has many people coming out on weekends to fish, swim, and picnic. Bicyclists use Corinth, Moncure- Flatwood, and Christian Chapel roads for recreation on weekends, too. Water supply and quality: Coal ash is going to get into the air and the ground water and affect both public and private well water users, and the downstream surface water supply in municipalities from central North Carolina to the coast. Safety: The heavy flow of truck traffic (estimated at 120 -140 trucks a day) will increase accidents, health problems, and air pollution. Train traffic will increase, too, and since so much coal ash has to be moved and across roads where people travel to work and school buses take children to and from school, it will be difficult for residents to reach work or school and to live normal lives. The trains, we have learned, are unregulated. One of our members pointed out that it would take 400,000 truckloads of ash to Chatham and 266,667 to Lee and /or 80,000 train car loads to Lee and 120,000 train car loads to Chatham. Coming into Pittsboro Thursday, the 16th of April, for the hearing I counted 31 cars or pickups on Moncure - Pittsboro Rd and 5 large tractor trailer trucks in 10 minutes, between 3 and 3:10 PM. Historic Properties: There are African American graves at the Colon Road site, and in Brickhaven, there are graves on the Utley property next to the site, and not far away a graveyard of African Americans from the 1800s. These are all mentioned in a survey done some years ago of graveyards. Fish and Wildlife Values. The Division of Wildlife Resources brought up many concerns in their December 16, 2014 letter to Brenda Harris, NC Land Quality Section, concerning the Charah Permit application. They noted many protected plant and animal species in the streams and tributaries on these sites. The cited the need for greater stream buffers and water monitoring and other issues that have not been addressed. Food and Fiber Production. There are small farms growing food and meat for the market both along Corinth Road and also along Moncure- Pittsboro Road. My own Hoganvillaea Farm is one, and another is Edible Landscapes. My immediate neighbors, Sean Murace and Chloe Corrigan, have many farm animals -- chickens, ducks, turkeys, and even peacocks. I believe there is a sheep farm on Corinth Road, too, as well as the large Dickson farm. Mr. Dickson raises deer corn and other crops. Land Use and Consideration of Property Ownership:. The creation of these coal ash dumps will mean that residents will either get sick or have to leave. If we cannot sell our homes, we will be forced to take even more benefits from the federal government. I now receive both Medicare and Medicaid, but I also grow food to sell and to provide a healthy diet in my aging. I'm 77 and healthy. I would have to leave, one way or another. That much coal ash would kill me and many other elderly also depending on Medicare and Medicaid here. Archeological. Recently it was announced in the News and Observer as well as by WRAL TV that a crocodile skeleton from the Late Triassic period was found in a clay mine near Gulf, in Chatham County, not far from both these sites, which are also in the Triassic Basin. This crocodile, named Carnufex Carolinensis, or the Carolina butcher, is estimated to be about 231 million years old. Some of the bones and teeth from this or other prehistoric creatures were found during the era in the early 1900s when coal mining occurred in that area, and this find is getting international attention. We believe that the two sites Charah bought under the name of Green Meadows are likely to contain other prehistoric remains. In short, we here in southeastern Chatham and northern Lee Counties are frightened by this move on Duke Energy's part to dump all this coal ash on people and land which will be harmed in the ways I have listed, at the least. Coal ash, good scientists assert over and over, should not be moved. Please reject Charah/Green Meadows' 401 permit. Sincerely, Judy Hogan PO Box 253, Moncure, NC 27559 -0253. 919 -545 -9932. Judyhogan @mindspring.com cc: Ms. Karen Higgins, 401 and Buffer Permitting Unit, Jennifer Burdette and Boyd Devane, Division of Environment and Natural Resources. Lee County Commissioners; Chatham County Commissioners; members of Chatham Citizens Against Coal Ash Dump.