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HomeMy WebLinkAboutNC0090212_Correspondence_20230302ROY COOPER Governor ELIZABETH S. BISER Secretary RICHARD E. ROGERS, JR. Director Joey Dean, Group Hydrogeologist Albemarle 348 Holiday Inn Drive Kings Mountain, NC 28086 Dear Sir: NORTH CAROLINA Environmental Quality March 15, 2023 Subject: Permit Application Additional Information Request NCO090212 — Albemarle / Kings Mountain 348 Holiday Inn Drive, Kings Mountain Cleveland County / MRO The NCDEQ Division of Water Quality Permitfing's Industrial Permitting Unit (Division) has conducted an initial review of the Permit Application (PA) for Albemarle / Kings Mountain's proposed lithium mine project in Cleveland County North Carolina and has the following Additional Information Request (AD�. Please provide all information requested herein to this office during this renewal review period to the following: NCDEQ/ DWR NPDES Industrial Permitting Unit Attn: Douglas Dowden 1617 Mail Service Center Raleigh, NC 27699-1617 and by email to: doug.dowden@ncdenr.gov ADDITIONAL INFORMATION REQUESTED Delegation of Authority for Reports to be Filed: Based upon the information supplied it does not appear that Albemarle has delegated state application(s) authority to Mr. Fisher. A solution would be to add to the existing list in the letter accompanying the PA a line item for the "State of North Carolina." 2. PFAS Questionnaire: Please complete the PFAS questionnaire as Attachment 1 herein and submit with the additional information. This request is based upon information supplied to date, specifically related to chlorinated organics. D E Q , f/ North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality I Division of Water Resources v 512 North Salisbury Street 11611 Mail Service Center I Raleigh, North Carolina 27699-1611 NORTH nt of Em NA oeiunmemm�mroomemai919.707.9000 3. Form 2D Data Required: Information (eg studies) and data provided to date regarding characteristics of the discharge is not sufficient enough to enable Division to determine limits and monitoring frequency for an NPDES permit. To address this please provide one-time sampling results for all missing pollutants in EPA's Form 2D, tables B, C and D from submitted application. Analysis for compounds in table E is necessary to determine if such contaminants might be present. Sampling from various elevations of Pit Lake due to its depth is essential to provide representative samples of possible pollutants in the proposed discharge during the anticipated project duration. Please closely adhere to instructions contained in EPA's form 2D for presentation of results. Sampling shall be conducted according to sufficiently sensitive test procedures (i.e., methods) approved under 40 CFR 136 for the analysis of pollutants or pollutant parameters. 4. SIC / NAISC Codes and Pre -Mining Dewatering Activities: SIC / NAISC codes provided in EPA's form 1 section 3 must be reflective of the characteristics of the discharge. Based upon the information and data provided the discharge resulting from dewatering of Pit Lake is anticipated to occur prior to Lithium mining activity. Please revise the SIC / NAISC codes accordingly. 5. Dewatering Time Period Clarification: Please provide clarification as to why the EAA report provided reflects dewatering is anticipated to occur for eight (8) months and yet the cost analysis provided reflects a two (2) year period. If this apparent discrepancy is an error, please correct and resubmit the corrected information. 6. Dewatering of Pit Lake and Groundwater: Since many of the elevations of Pit Lake are lower than the existing groundwater table it is safe to assume that groundwater will flow into the lake area during dewatering. Has this additional water source been factored into the anticipated time period of eight (8) months or two (2) years for dewatering? If not how much more time will be required to completely dewater Pit Lake? In addition, if more time is required to dewater Pit Lake how will this affect the existing time schedule for recommencement of Mine's operation and requirements of the related discharge permit (e.g, NPDES permit)? Please provide a plan for such transition. 7. Dewatering of Pit Lake and Water Quality Standards: What measures (eg specific treatment alternatives, such as pH control and aeration) will be employed to ensure that discharge of Pit Lake will not cause: (1) Water quality standards violations related to pH, DO; (2) and / or negatively impact (eg compromise) aquatic life do to identified parameters; such as, ammonia, dissolved lithium? 8. Potential Downstream Impacts do to Dewatering: Based upon information provided to date, the projected flow regime (eg. volume and duration) will likely negatively impact creek stability and water quality. Thus, please provide details on proposed treatment alternative(s) evaluation demonstrating the facility will be capable of meeting water quality standards or limits at all times accounting for potential variables that may exist during dewatering? 9. Dewatering and "Minor Increase": Please explain how proposed dewatering is a "minor increases in flow due to the mine pit dewatering" and how this "is not expected to adversely impact the banks of Kings Creek"? Based upon information provided to date the anticipated flow regime (eg volume and duration) is far above the critical flow of the stream (e.g 7Q10), thus the potential exist for significant ecological impacts to downstream waterbodies. Lastly, has Albemarle / Kings Mountain conducted a bioassay of the creek; if so please provide that information? Please note that responses provided may necessitate ADI request(s). D E Q�� North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality I Division of Water Resources 512 North Salisbury Street 1 1611 Mail Service Center I Raleigh, North Carolina 27699-1611 NORTH CAROLINA 919.707.9000 Depanmem of Envlmnmenfal Dual 10. Data Submittal Concern: For this submittal and any future submittals be cognizant of the fact that using a scroll bar for additional text information in any given text entry box may get lost for review purposes, if the reviewer is reading a printed and/or scanned in version of the document. In addition, scanned in documents of any nature for public access loose scroll bar functionality and thus may not meet public accessibility requirements. Specifically for the application submitted in EPA's form 2E section 7, to view the entirety of the text entered the viewer must be on a computer viewing an original version of the application to use the scroll bar to view all entered text. Please revise the attachment to eliminate the use of scroll bars. 11. Key Contact(s) for Communications: To ensure continuity Division requests that Albemarle / Kings Mountain designate a key contact with one backup for all communications. With that said Derek Denard at: derek.denard@ncdenr.gov is the primary contact for NCDEQ with Doug Dowden at: doug.dowden@ncdenr.gov serving as the backup. All primary communications should include these contacts. We appreciate your attention to these matters and look forward to continuing to work with you and your team on this Permit Application. Pending review and evaluation of provided information, further action or additional information may be required. I thank you in advance to your attention to the above reference matters. If you have any questions about the NPDES permit process, please contact me at the following e-mail address: doug.dowden@ncdenr.gov, or telephone number: 919-707-3605. Sincerely, Douglas Dowden Environmental Program Supervisor II Industrial NPDES Permitting Unit cc: Central Files; NPDES Files ec: Derek Denard, Environmental Program Consultant at: derek.denard@ncdenr.gov Amir Adaryani PhD, Engineer I at: amir.adaryani o ncdenr.gov Michael Montebello, NPDES Program Branch Chief at: Michael.montebello@ncdenr.gov David Miller, State Mining Engineer at: David.miller@ncdenr.gov Adam Parr, Assistant State Mining Engineer, NCDEQ — adam.parr@ncdenr.gov Wes Bell, Senior Environmental Specialist (MRO) at: wes.befl@ncdenr.gov Jeffrey Chandler, Environmental Specialist (MRO) at: Jeffrey.chandler@ncdenr.gov Trevor Chesal, Mine Environmental & Approvals Manager at: trevor.chesal@albemarle.com Joey Dean, Group Hydrogeologist- joeydean@albemarle.com and hard copy via US Mail: Albemarle; 4250 Congress Street, Suite 900; Charlotte, NC 28209 J. Kent Masters; Chief Executive Officer at: Kent.Masters@albemarle.com Chris Garrett, SWCA at: cgarrett@swca.com Sophie Swanson, Senior Water Resource Engineer, Mining, SWCA at sswanson@swca.com John Kuhn at: JOhn.Kuhn@albermarle.com Melissa Arnold, Assistant Project Environmental Scientist at: melissa.arnold@swca.com Chase Conway, Consultant II; ERM at: chase.conway@erm.com D E Q�� North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality I Division of Water Resources 512 North Salisbury Street 1 1611 Mail Service Center I Raleigh, North Carolina 27699-1611 NORTH CAROLINA 919.707.9000 Depanmem of Envlmnmenfal Dual D E Q�� North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality I Division of Water Resources 512 North Salisbury Street 1 1611 Mail Service Center I Raleigh, North Carolina 27699-1611 NORTH CAROLINA 919.707.9000 Depa"mem of Envlmnmenfal Dual ATTACHMENT 1 PERMIT APPLICATION SUPPLEMENT- PFAS SCREENING QUESTIONS: 1. Do you use any material or products (directly or indirectly) in your operations that contain fluorinated chemicals? If so, please identify what materials or products contain fluorinated chemicals. • Please also address if you have any historical conditions and/or information for past practices at the site related to fluorinated chemicals? 2. Will your facility formulate or create products (directly or indirectly) which contain fluorinated chemicals? If so, please identify the specific fluorinated chemicals that may be formulated or created. 3. Will your facility produce solid waste, liquid waste, wastewater effluent, or other waste containing fluorinated chemicals? Please be as specific as possible to describe what fluorinated chemicals may result in the facility's wastewater, solid waste, or sludge. 4. Are there processes or operations that use equipment, material, or components that contain PFAS chemicals (e.g., surface coating, clean room applications, solvents, lubricants, fittings, tubing, processing tools, packaging, facility infrastructure)? Could these activities result in fluorinated chemicals being discharged as products, or by-products (i.e., through leaching, chemical process, heat treatment, pressurization, etc.)? 5. List CAS numbers of all known or believed present fluorinated compounds from the questions above. Please provide descriptions, quantities, and whether there are any unknowns related to the above questions. 6. Are there other facilities or operations in the U.S. or internationally that are identical to or may use processes similar to the facility in North Carolina? If so, please provide facility identification information and wastewater characterization including all PFAS compounds? 7. Additionally, have any PFAS analytical results been collected with any analytical test method similar to the following EPA Test Methods. Are any of the fluorinated compounds listed in one of the following methods and can you provide us with data resulting from these test methods? • Methods 533 & 537.1 (drinking water) • SW-846: Method 8327 (water) • Draft Method 1633 (water, solids, tissue) • "Total PFAS" Draft Method 1621 (wastewater) D E Q�� North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality I Division of Water Resources 512 North Salisbury Street 1 1611 Mail Service Center I Raleigh, North Carolina 27699-1611 NORTH CAROLINA 919.707.9000 Depanmem of Envlmnmenfal Dual