NCG010000_American Rivers Comments_20240325

Clark, Paul
From: Peter Raabe <[e-mail]>
Sent: Monday, March 25, 2024 4:58 PM
To: Clark, Paul
Cc: Donna Myers; Ben Emanuel
Subject: [External] American Rivers Comments on NCG01
Attachments: American Rivers NCG01 Comments 032524.pdf
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Paul-
Thank you for the opportunity to provide comments on the NCG01 General Permit. American Rivers
comments are attached, and we would be happy to speak with you or others at DEMLR about them.
Thank you,
Peter
Peter Raabe (he/him)
Southeast Regional Director
Office: 919-682-3500 Cell: 202-441-6174
331 West Main Street, Suite 304, Durham, NC 27701
American Rivers.org
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March 25, 2024
Via Electronic Mail
Paul Clark
Stormwater Program, Division of Energy, Mineral, and Land Resources (DEMLR)
Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ)
pa u I.cl a [e-mail]
March 25, 2024
Mr. Clark,
Thank you for the opportunity to provide input on the NCGOI General Permit (NCGOI),
the state permit for construction projects. Please review the following comments
which support this permit as it is a vital mechanism for protecting water quality and
ensuring compliance with the federal Clean Water Act. There are also comments on
how this permit could be strengthened to ensure all counties and municipalities
throughout North Carolina have robust and clear standards of protection against
sediment and erosion pollution from construction activities.
Sedimentation is a major water quality concern in North Carolina and throughout the
Southeastern United States. Land clearing and construction can contribute significantly
to sediment pollution if proper controls are not put into place. The NCGOI provides a
statewide regulatory process that requires construction activities enact measures that
significantly reduce or eliminate sediment pollution and avoid violations of the Clean
Water Act. It is important that the Stormwater Pollution Prevention Plan permit
obligate those entities that are creating the land disturbance to compliance with the
Clean Water Act regardless of whether the practices implemented under the erosion
and sedimentation control plan function as designed. The permit must be clear that
increasing sediment deposition into the waters of the state and waters of the United
States is not an acceptable outcome. To this end, we encourage the Division add
language to Part IV, Section B 5 explicitly calling for all land disturbing activities to stop
until Stormwater discharges from the site are not impacting or are not having the
potential to impact surface waters or wetlands. Meaningful and effective state
regulations are critically important as it is not uncommon for local governments in NC
and other Southeast states to lack the enforcement capacity to fully regulate erosion
and sedimentation pollution for compliance with the Clean Water Act.
The NCGOI should focus on protecting water against sedimentation and erosion
pollution while using scientifically sound water quality standards. One such standard is
the EPA Construction General Permit Turbidity Benchmark Monitoring standards
331 West Main Street, Suite 304, Durham, NC 27701 American Rivers.org

adopted in 2022. These standards set a requirement that sediment basins being
dewatered must not exceed a weekly average of 50 NTU, which is the turbidity standard
set by the Clean Water Act. It requires turbidity sampling of dewatering effluent and
on-site corrective actions if there are exceedances of the turbidity standard. The
adoption of these basic Clean Water Act standards by the state will reduce the
likelihood of increased sedimentation in our states rivers and streams which destroys
habitat, reduces the ability of the streams to absorb floodwaters, reduces recreational
opportunities for communities, and increases the costs of producing clean drinking
water.
Again, thank you for your time and consideration of these comments as well as your
ongoing work to ensure clean water protection in North Carolina. Please feel free to
contact me at praabe(aamericanrivers.org if you have any questions or concerns.
Sincerely,
Peter Raabe
Southeast Regional Director
American Rivers