WQCS00011_NOV-2023-DV-0206_20230522

ROCKY MOUNT
WATER RESOURCES
THE CENTER OF IT ALL
-May 16, 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
3800 Barrett Drive,
Raleigh, NC 27609
Subject: Notice of Violation & Intent to Issue Civil Penalty
Tracking No.-NOV 2023-DV-0206
Collection System Permit No. WQCS00011
Dear Mr. Vinson,
I received the Notice of Violation from the DWR dated May 8. 2023, as identified by the subject
tracking number regarding the sanitary sewer overflow(SSO) events that occurred on 4/8/2023.
The city of Rocky Mount takes 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. As a result, 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, the town of Whitakers, the
town of Sharpsburg, Nash County, and Edgecombe County. These systems also contribute to
increased flows during rain events.
The city currently maintains more than 435 miles of sanitary sewer collection lines. Over the past
year, the Water and Sewer Division has engaged in many projects to alleviate inflows and
[phone] / 331 S Franklin St.,PO Box 1180,Rocky Mount,NC 27802 1180 / www.rockymountnc gov

a
infiltration and improve flow capabilities to the treatment plant. The city completed two
significant 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 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. The project will commence in June 2023. We 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 were 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. This effort will remain a
top priority in the foreseeable future. As you can see, we are taking the necessary steps to
address the integrity of our entire collection system, and we hope 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 additional information, please do not hesitate to contact me
at 252-972-1299 or at [e-mail].
Sincerely,
e
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Brenton Bent, Director of Water Resources
[phone] / 331 S.Franklin St.,PO Box 1180,Rocky Mount,NC 27802-1180 / www.rockymountnc.gwa