20220140 Ver 3_Staff Report Zachary.Thomas_20231207 (6)

Baker, Caroline D
From:Landon Younce <[e-mail]>
Sent:Thursday, February 22, 2024 4:58 PM
To:Thomas, Zachary T
Cc:Thompson, Emily B CIV USARMY CESAW (USA)
Subject:RE: \[External\] FW: SAW-2023-02326 (Upper Bloomery Swamp Sewer Improvements
Phase 2A and 2B / Wilson / Wilson County)
CAUTION: External email. Do not click links or open attachments unless verified. Report suspicious emails with the Report Message
button located on your Outlook menu bar on the Home tab.

10-4. Understood.

Thank you, Zach
Landon

[e-mail]
www.greeneng.com

From: Thomas, Zachary T <[e-mail]>
Sent: Thursday, February 22, 2024 4:47 PM
To: Landon Younce <[e-mail]>
Cc: Thompson, Emily B CIV USARMY CESAW (USA) <[e-mail]>
Subject: RE: \[External\] FW: SAW-2023-02326 (Upper Bloomery Swamp Sewer Improvements Phase 2A and 2B / Wilson /
Wilson County)

Hi Landon,

Thank you for confirming. It appears that the buffer impacts are occurring in the existing easements and fall under
deemed allowable activities and all surface water impacts are indicated as temporary and fall under the GC4276 (NWP58
corresponding) thresholds and therefore does not require written authorization from our office.

If the applicant would like an official letter/certification from DWR, they would need to resubmit as a “non-courtesy
copy” with an associated fee to receive a written letter from our office.

If you have any questions, please let me know.

Thank you,

Zach Thomas
Environmental Program Consultant, Division of Water Resources
North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality
Office: [phone]
1

[e-mail]

Raleigh Regional Office
1628 Mail Service Center
Raleigh, NC 27699-1628

Email correspondence to and from this address is subject to the North Carolina Public Records Law
and may be disclosed to third par?es.

From: Landon Younce <[e-mail]>
Sent: Tuesday, February 13, 2024 3:47 PM
To: Thomas, Zachary T <[e-mail]>
Cc: Thompson, Emily B CIV USARMY CESAW (USA) <[e-mail]>
Subject: \[External\] FW: SAW-2023-02326 (Upper Bloomery Swamp Sewer Improvements Phase 2A and 2B / Wilson /
Wilson County)
Importance: High

CAUTION: External email. Do not click links or open attachments unless verified. Report suspicious emails with the Report Message
button located on your Outlook menu bar on the Home tab.

Zachary,
What you have stated below is correct.

Regarding your Item No. 1: All impacts will be temporary, not conversion, as the project is simply a
replacement of existing sanitary sewer facilities at their existing operational location within the existing
maintained easement.

Regarding your Item No. 2: Buffer impacts are temporary, as all buffered areas will be returned to their
normal, pre-existing, pre-construction state. All construction takes place within existing City of Wilson
maintained easements and existing NCDOT maintained Rights-of-Way.

Landon

W. Landon Younce, P.E.

PO Box 609
303 Goldsboro St E
Wilson, NC 27893
Phone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
[e-mail]
www.greeneng.com

2

WILSO PN: 23-074

From: Thomas, Zachary T <[e-mail]>
Sent: Tuesday, February 13, 2024 10:21 AM
To: Landon Younce <[e-mail]>
Cc: Thompson, Emily B CIV USARMY CESAS (USA) <[e-mail]>
Subject: RE: \[External\] FW: SAW-2023-02326 (Upper Bloomery Swamp Sewer Improvements Phase 2A and 2B / Wilson /
Wilson County)

Hi Landon,

I am trying to determine if this will fit under the GC4276 and not need written authorization from DWR (can stay as the
already submitted courtesy copy):

1. It appears all of your impacts are listed as temporary (1.175 acres of wetland & 25 LF of stream). It appears from
your 1/4/24 email that no impacts will be considered conversion. Please confirm.
2. Buffer impacts appear to be 7,685 sqft of temporary Zone 1 and temporary 3,644 sqft of Zone 2. The PCN states
that these impacts are occurring inside of the existing ROW. Please confirm.

Thank you,

Zach Thomas
Environmental Program Consultant, Division of Water Resources
North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality
Office: [phone]
[e-mail]

Raleigh Regional Office
1628 Mail Service Center
Raleigh, NC 27699-1628

Email correspondence to and from this address is subject to the North Carolina Public Records Law
and may be disclosed to third par?es.

From: Landon Younce <[e-mail]>
Sent: Thursday, February 1, 2024 2:23 PM
To: Thompson, Emily B CIV USARMY CESAS (USA) <[e-mail]>
Cc: Thomas, Zachary T <[e-mail]>
Subject: RE: \[External\] FW: SAW-2023-02326 (Upper Bloomery Swamp Sewer Improvements Phase 2A and 2B / Wilson /
Wilson County)
Importance: High

CAUTION: External email. Do not click links or open attachments unless verified. Report suspicious emails with the Report Message
button located on your Outlook menu bar on the Home tab.

Emily,
Yes, please find attached information compiled for the project (through Terracon)
A surface water determination was made, which I have also attached.
3

Travis, if there is any additional information you need, please let me know (As in, do we need to resubmit or
will you handle the review another way ?)

Landon

[e-mail]
www.greeneng.com

From: Thompson, Emily B CIV USARMY CESAS (USA) <[e-mail]>
Sent: Monday, January 29, 2024 2:48 PM
To: Landon Younce <[e-mail]>
Cc: Thomas, Zachary T <[e-mail]>
Subject: RE: \[External\] FW: SAW-2023-02326 (Upper Bloomery Swamp Sewer Improvements Phase 2A and 2B / Wilson /
Wilson County)

Hi Landon,

Do you have the delineation information for these phases because SAW-2021-01969 was for phase 1 (referenced in the
PCN)? We will need this information to review and be able to input the impacts into our ORM database.

Thank you,
Emily

Emily B. Thompson
Team Lead / Charleston District Liaison
SAD Technical Regional Execution Center (TREC)
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

Mailing Address: 2407 W. 5th Street, Washington, NC 27889
Email: [e-mail]

From: Landon Younce <[e-mail]>
Sent: Tuesday, January 23, 2024 2:41 PM
To: Thomas, Zachary T <[e-mail]>
Cc: Thompson, Emily B CIV USARMY CESAS (USA) <[e-mail]>
Subject: \[Non-DoD Source\] RE: \[External\] FW: SAW-2023-02326 (Upper Bloomery Swamp Sewer Improvements Phase
2A and 2B / Wilson / Wilson County)

Thank you for getting back with me. Yes, our project will be crossing Neuse Buffers as the existing Sewer
Main is being completely replaced in its original location, which crosses Bloomery Swamp in a few areas.

So, in the future, I should be checking the box NO, to allow for review on the DWQ side… Do I need to
resubmit, to get this in your hands for review?

This is an emergency repair project by the City and time is of the essence, as some areas are infiltrating sewer
below ground, as was the case on earlier project phases, downstream.

4

Landon

[e-mail]
www.greeneng.com

From: Thomas, Zachary T <[e-mail]>
Sent: Tuesday, January 23, 2024 2:30 PM
To: Landon Younce <[e-mail]>
Cc: Thompson, Emily B CIV USARMY CESAW (USA) <[e-mail]>
Subject: RE: \[External\] FW: SAW-2023-02326 (Upper Bloomery Swamp Sewer Improvements Phase 2A and 2B / Wilson /
Wilson County)

Hi Landon,

It looks like your original submittal was filed as a courtesy copy because the “for the record only” radio button was
checked:

Does your project trigger any of the thresholds for GC4276 or require written authorization for buffer impacts?

Thank you,

Zach Thomas
Environmental Program Consultant, Division of Water Resources
North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality
Office: [phone]
[e-mail]

Raleigh Regional Office
1628 Mail Service Center
Raleigh, NC 27699-1628

5

Email correspondence to and from this address is subject to the North Carolina Public Records Law
and may be disclosed to third par?es.

From: Landon Younce <[e-mail]>
Sent: Tuesday, January 16, 2024 12:24 PM
To: Thomas, Zachary T <[e-mail]>
Subject: \[External\] FW: SAW-2023-02326 (Upper Bloomery Swamp Sewer Improvements Phase 2A and 2B / Wilson /
Wilson County)
Importance: High

CAUTION: External email. Do not click links or open attachments unless verified. Report suspicious emails with the Report Message
button located on your Outlook menu bar on the Home tab.

In checking back through my emails I find that there was some confusion during our original submittal. If this
was due to an error on our end, I apologize.

Also, I did not include the original PCN application I intended to in the first email.
Please reference the Attached: “Pre-Construction Notification – PCN Form – PHASE 2A and 2B – 11-28-
23” as it was originally submitted.

I’m not sure why your office could not review… This is new to me, I haven’t had a situation before where the
Form did not end up under review by both agencies.

Thank you,
Landon

W. Landon Younce, P.E.

PO Box 609
303 Goldsboro St E
Wilson, NC 27893
Phone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
[e-mail]
www.greeneng.com

From: Landon Younce
Sent: Tuesday, January 16, 2024 9:13 AM
To: Thomas, Zachary T <[e-mail]>
Subject: FW: SAW-2023-02326 (Upper Bloomery Swamp Sewer Improvements Phase 2A and 2B / Wilson / Wilson
County)
Importance: High

Mr. Thomas,
The City of Wilson has moved the Upper Bloomery Swamp Sewer project up on their list of Top Priority sewer
replacement projects this year. As with the Lower Bloomery project, and Phase One of Upper Bloomery
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project completed last year…these sewer replacements are desperately needed to prevent any further
seepage of sewer downstream.

Do you foresee a 401 Water Quality Certification being required in this case… Is one typically required for
replacement projects ?

Landon

W. Landon Younce, P.E.

PO Box 609
303 Goldsboro St E
Wilson, NC 27893
Phone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
[e-mail]
www.greeneng.com

WILSO PN: 23-074

From: Thompson, Emily B CIV USARMY CESAW (USA) <[e-mail]>
Sent: Thursday, January 4, 2024 2:28 PM
To: Jon Meade <[e-mail]>
Cc: Leo Green III <[e-mail]>; Landon Younce <[e-mail]>; Thomas, Zachary T
<[e-mail]>
Subject: RE: SAW-2023-02326 (Upper Bloomery Swamp Sewer Improvements Phase 2A and 2B / Wilson / Wilson
County)

Hi Jon,

I appreciate you providing the updated plans and background on this project. I have copied Zach to stay up to date on this
one as well – the PCN and plans appear to have proposed buffer impacts, so I want to confirm whether this project would
st
require a written buffer authorization. As stated in Zach’s email (attached) from December 21, if it does then an individual
401 WQC is required, and you’ll need to follow their process for reviewing the application. Zach, I have enclosed the PCN
and most recent plans. I hope to clear this up to avoid delays in the permitting process, but I cannot issue the permit
verification until the individual 401 WQC is issued if one is required for the proposed project.

Sincerely,
Emily

Emily B. Thompson
Regulatory Specialist
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
Washington Regulatory Field Office
2407 W. 5th Street
Washington, NC 27889
[phone]
[e-mail]

7

We at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Regulatory Branch are committed to improving service to our customers. We
would appreciate your feedback on how we are performing our duties. Our automated Customer Service Survey is
located at: https://regulatory.ops.usace.army.mil/customer-service-survey/

Thank you for taking the time to visit this site and complete the survey.

From: Jon Meade <[e-mail]>
Sent: Thursday, January 4, 2024 9:09 AM
To: Thompson, Emily B CIV USARMY CESAW (USA) <[e-mail]>
Cc: Leo Green III <[e-mail]>; Landon Younce <[e-mail]>
Subject: \[Non-DoD Source\] FW: SAW-2023-02326 (Upper Bloomery Swamp Sewer Improvements Phase 2A and 2B /
Wilson / Wilson County)

Hey Emily,

Good morning. Please see below in red our responses to your December 27, 2023 comments and updated plans
attached.

Wanted to give you some extra background on the project. Due to the age of the existing 15” sanitary line (+40 years),
the City of Wilson has experienced nine (9) sanitary sewer overflows (SSOs) within the past 24 months due to pipe
deterioration and it has become increasingly necessary to replace the existing line. The initial replacement plan was to
install a parallel line but to reduce potential additional wetland impacts through conversion of forested areas and the
need for additional easements, it was determined to replace the existing line within the same footprint. Due to
increased development upstream, it was also determined to increase the line size from 15-in to 24-in. Most of the new
manholes will be placed at the same location as the existing manholes. In an effort to reduce cost, several existing
manhole locations were completely eliminated. Due to the “emergency” situation of the need for replacement,
construction is underway to bore under Hwy 42 then installing new 24-in pipe and manholes from SSMH #11 to SSMH
#15 (identified as Phase 2A). There will be no areas within wetlands that will require conversion from wooded to
cleared area. Work within wetlands areas will be within the existing maintained easement and manholes will be
removed and replaced. This work has been permitted under Permit No. WQ0042692.

Thanks Emily, please let us know if you require any further information/documentation or have any additional
questions.

We look forward to your response.

From: Thompson, Emily B CIV USARMY CESAW (USA) <[e-mail]>
Sent: Wednesday, December 27, 2023 10:35 AM
To: Jon Meade <[e-mail]>
Cc: Landon Younce <[e-mail]>
Subject: RE: SAW-2023-02326 (Upper Bloomery Swamp Sewer Improvements Phase 2A and 2B / Wilson / Wilson
County)

Good morning John,

I hope you’ve enjoyed/are enjoying the holidays!

I’m reviewing this project and have a few comments/questions:

1. Will the replacement of the 15-in to 24-in gravity sewer pipes happen a distance beside the existing or within the
existing alignment of the 15-in? The 24-in gravity line will be installed in the same alignment (trench) as the
existing 15-in pipe. Two areas that are different alignment are Phase 2A SSMH#11 to SSMH#12 and Phase 2B
SSMH#36 to SSMH#38 , both of which fall outside of any wetlands. Are these areas currently maintained or
forested? These areas are currently cleared and maintained minus the two exceptions above. From the plans
8

and looking at aerials, it appears it’s within a maintained easement, but the plans don’t show the forested areas
once the project crosses over Airport Road. This is an oversite by us and the wooded areas have been added to
the plans to help clarify.

2. For the described areas of new 15-in (45 LF) and 8-in pipes (290 LF), is this within an existing, maintained
easement or would these areas require new permanent conversion impacts within wetlands? These areas are
within an existing maintained easement.

3. I see manholes and “equality stations” proposed within the wetlands. These would be permanent impacts (loss of
wetlands) because those areas would not be restored after the project is complete. If there are existing manholes
that would be replaced within the exact footprint, then those impacts were likely accounted for in the original
permit.
a. It appears that some of these manholes could be moved slightly to be constructed out of the wetlands,
which would show further minimization efforts. Proposed SSMH #16 (which falls at a new location) was
shifted from Station 13+00 to Station 13+33.74 to avoid additional permanent wetland impacts. The
remainder of the proposed manholes located within wetland areas will simply replace the existing
manholes.

4. These easements have conversion impacts, not permanent fill/loss impacts as proposed, please ensure that the
project will not result in above grade fills in wetlands. As we discussed before, if the applicant wants a road, then
that is not what would be permitted by this project. The City has maintained and accessed this area for over 40
years as is so there would not be any need to place permanent fill placed in wetland areas. We plan to add the
following statement to the construction plan sheets to emphasize to the contractor this requirement:
“All loca?ons that are iden?fied as “Wetlands” within the construc?on corridor that are disturbed by any means
during the installa?on of the proposed gravity sanitary sewer line shall be restored to preconstruc?on (exis?ng)
grade(s). The gravity sanitary sewer lines and/or manholes that are installed in areas iden?fied as “Wetlands”
shall not be approved for payment un?l either the City of Wilson or a Third Party providing observa?on services
for the City of Wilson has verified in wri?ng that the disturbed area has been restored to the preconstruc?on
(exis?ng) grade(s).”

Please provide responses below each question – this helps with organizing our administrative record. Please update any
impacts that are not addressed currently. If you have any questions, please let me know.

Sincerely,
Emily

Emily B. Thompson
Regulatory Specialist
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
Washington Regulatory Field Office
2407 W. 5th Street
Washington, NC 27889
[phone]
[e-mail]

We at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Regulatory Branch are committed to improving service to our customers. We
would appreciate your feedback on how we are performing our duties. Our automated Customer Service Survey is
located at: https://regulatory.ops.usace.army.mil/customer-service-survey/

Thank you for taking the time to visit this site and complete the survey.

From: Jon Meade <[e-mail]>
Sent: Wednesday, December 20, 2023 4:14 PM
To: Thompson, Emily B CIV USARMY CESAW (USA) <[e-mail]>
Cc: Landon Younce <[e-mail]>
Subject: \[Non-DoD Source\] RE: SAW-2023-02326 (Upper Bloomery Swamp Sewer Improvements Phase 2A and 2B /
Wilson / Wilson County)

9

Hey Emily,

Landon jus forwarded me your request for Upper Bloomery KMZ file. Let me know if this works for you.

Thanks! jon

Jon Meade; PhD, PE

Green Engineering, PLLC
303 Goldsboro Street E
Wilson, North Carolina 27893

252-237-5365 (Phone)
252-243-7489 (Fax)
[e-mail]

From: Landon Younce <[e-mail]>
Sent: Wednesday, December 20, 2023 3:15 PM
To: Jon Meade <[e-mail]>
Subject: FW: SAW-2023-02326 (Upper Bloomery Swamp Sewer Improvements Phase 2A and 2B / Wilson / Wilson
County)

Jon,
Sorry, I believe I neglected to send this to you last week. Emily is asking for a kmz file for Upper Bloomery
project…. Similar to what we have sent her in the past. So she can review on Google Earth I presume.

Can you provide this to her ?
Landon

From: Thompson, Emily B CIV USARMY CESAW (USA) <[e-mail]>
Sent: Thursday, December 14, 2023 4:32 PM
To: Landon Younce <[e-mail]>
Subject: RE: SAW-2023-02326 (Upper Bloomery Swamp Sewer Improvements Phase 2A and 2B / Wilson / Wilson
County)

Hi Landon,

Could you send me a kmz for Google Earth Pro of the proposed project? This would facilitate my review of this project.

Sincerely,
Emily

Emily B. Thompson
Regulatory Specialist
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
Washington Regulatory Field Office
2407 W. 5th Street
Washington, NC 27889
[phone]
[e-mail]

10

We at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Regulatory Branch are committed to improving service to our customers. We
would appreciate your feedback on how we are performing our duties. Our automated Customer Service Survey is
located at: https://regulatory.ops.usace.army.mil/customer-service-survey/

Thank you for taking the time to visit this site and complete the survey.

From: DAMERON, Nichola M (Nikki) CIV USARMY CESAW (USA) <[e-mail]>
Sent: Thursday, November 30, 2023 10:32 AM
To: [e-mail]
Cc: Thompson, Emily B CIV USARMY CESAW (USA) <[e-mail]>
Subject: SAW-2023-02326 (Upper Bloomery Swamp Sewer Improvements Phase 2A and 2B / Wilson / Wilson County)

Good morning,
Your project has been received and assigned to Emily Thompson with the subject ID number. Please use this number for
any further correspondence.

Thank you,

Nichola “Nikki” Dameron
Regulatory Program Technician
Washington Regulatory Field Office
US Army Corps of Engineers
Wilmington District

Email correspondence to and from this address may be subject to the North Carolina Public Records Law and may be disclosed to third parties by an authorized
state official.
11