HomeMy WebLinkAbout20130739 Ver 1_emails between DWR & Baker_20151021
Strickland, Bev
From:Byers, Jake <JByers@mbakerintl.com>
Sent:Wednesday, October 21, 2015 11:32 AM
To:Merritt, Katie
Cc:Huneycutt, Dwayne
Subject:RE: St. Clair Creek Restoration/Baker Engi. (UNCLASSIFIED)
Hi Katie,
Thanks for the info. In regards to the noted issues:
1. We've discovered a hardware error with the ground water wells. Manual calibration has shown ground water levels
significantly above the recorded levels from the wells. This is due to the small hole in the pressure transducer getting
clogged with bentonite. They have since been adjusted.
2. The stream gauges are showing success (>30 days for 3 of 6 logger) and we expect this trend to continue and get
better. We are only required to document 2 flow events in the 7 year monitoring period.
3. The ford crossing was requested by the landowner. Not sure why that has any bearing on anything since it's outside
the CE and not being requested for credit. The impact length was accounted for in the 401/404 permit. The double
culverts along UT3 are way more than adequate to handle flow from this drainage without coming close to overtopping
the road. The 2 36" culverts can more than convey the 100 year discharge. An overlflow was unnecessary here since
the pipes can convey such a large flow and will only overtop the road during extreme storm events.
4. Vegetation species are substituted during construction on almost all projects based on availability, cost etc. All
planted species are native, appropriately wetland tolerant, and diverse.
Thanks for looking into this stuff. Let me know if you have any questions and if you'd like to make a site visit at any
point.
Thanks,
-Jake
Jacob "Jake" Byers, PE | NC Ecosystem Services Manager | Michael Baker Engineering, Inc., a unit of Michael Baker
International
797 Haywood Road, Suite 201 | Asheville, North Carolina 28806 | \[O\] 828-350-1408 EXT 2001 | \[M\] 919-259-4814
jbyers@mbakerintl.com | www.mbakerintl.com
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-----Original Message-----
From: Merritt, Katie \[mailto:katie.merritt@ncdenr.gov\]
Sent: Wednesday, October 21, 2015 10:49 AM
To: Byers, Jake
Subject: FW: St. Clair Creek Restoration/Baker Engi. (UNCLASSIFIED)
Hey Jake,
I had forgotten that I had contacted the USACE about this project right after you and I talked on the 5th. The email
below from Andrea indicates some issues noted by the USACE on the Monitoring plan. I'm still reading through the
mitigation plan you gave me, but I also found the DWR project #, which allows me access to all of the documentation
that DWR has received for this project by the IRT since 2013. Thus, now that I have access to more information, I should
be able to figure out the answers to your questions. A site visit is going to be necessary prior to a final decision by the
DWR. For your records, the DWR project# is 2013-0739.
Thanks
Katie
Katie Merritt
Nutrient Offset & Buffer Banking Coordinator
401 & Buffer Permitting Unit
North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality
Work: 919-807-6371
Website: http://portal.ncdenr.org/web/wq/401bufferpermitting
512 N. Salisbury Street, Raleigh, NC 27620
1617 Mail Service Center, Raleigh, NC 27699-1617
Email correspondence to and from this address is subject to the North Carolina Public Records Law and may be disclosed
to third parties.
-----Original Message-----
From: Hughes, Andrea W SAW \[mailto:Andrea.W.Hughes@usace.army.mil\]
Sent: Tuesday, October 06, 2015 10:08 AM
To: Merritt, Katie <katie.merritt@ncdenr.gov>; Tugwell, Todd SAW <Todd.Tugwell@usace.army.mil>
Cc: Scarbraugh, Anthony <anthony.scarbraugh@ncdenr.gov>
Subject: RE: St. Clair Creek Restoration/Baker Engi. (UNCLASSIFIED)
Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE
These are the issues we noted from review of the monitoring plan.
1. Groundwater wells not meeting performance standards but were installed late in the growing season.
2. Stream gauges on the site range from 4.6 days to 71 days. (Not meeting the 30 day continuous flow standard)
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3. A ford crossing was installed just outside easement boundaries - not noted in mit plan. No emergency overflow
(culvert) was constructed along UT 3 as proposed.
4. Vegetation (species) not consistent with mitigation plan. They substituted species
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