20080868 Ver 2_DWQ Response to SELC Public Notice_20090106

O?OF W AT ?, 0 Beverly Eaves Perdue, Governor
Y Dee Freeman, Secretan
f North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources
'C Coleen H. Sullins, Director
Division of Water Quality
January 14, 2009
Mr. Derb Carter, Jr.
Mr. Geoffrey Gisler
Southern Environmental Law Center
200 West Franklin Street
Suite 330
Chapel Hill, NC 27516-2559
Dear Mr. Carter and Mr. Gisler:
RE: Response to your January 9, 2009 letter regarding additional public notice for the
proposed 401 Certification for PCS Phosphate, Inc.
Thank you for your letter of January 9, 2009 which concluded that the Division of
Water Quality cannot issue a revised 401 Certification for the PCS Phosphate project
until the revised mine plan is released for additional public review and comment. As
you are aware, Division of Water Quality staff have kept you informed of all
correspondence between PCS Phosphate and the Division with respect to the proposed
revised Certification and indeed your firm has commented on PCS' submittal of
additional information (see SELC's letter of January 6, 2009 addressed to John
Dorney).
Our 401 Certification rules state that the public notice provisions of these rules
may be satisfied by a joint notice by the US Army Corps of Engineers according to their
established procedures (15A NCAC 2H .0503 (c)). Division staff have consulted with
staff of the Corps of Engineers and the Corps is not intending to provide additional
public notice for the revised project. Therefore, the previous joint, public notice is still
valid for this project and the Division will rely on the Corps following their established
procedures in this regard. In addition as noted above, SELC and your clients have had
opportunities to comment on the revised plan for PCS Phosphate and indeed you have
commented and your comments have been considered in our project review. Therefore
we believe that additional public comment is not warranted by our rules.
Mailing Address Phone [phone] Location N7o?A?hCarolina
1617 Mail Service Center Fax [phone] N. Salisbury St. ,/ vLQttl al&
Raleigh, NC 27699-1617 Raleigh, NC 27604
Thank you for your interest in this project. If you have any questions, please
contact Mr. John Dorney at 919-733-9646 or Mr. John Payne of the NC Attorney
General staff at 919-716-6969.
Sinc ely yours,
6bAleen Sul in
Cc: John Dorney, DWQ
John Payne, NC Attorney General, Environmental Division
George House, Brooks, Pierce, McLendon, Humphrey and Leonard
Tom Walker, US Army Corps of Engineers - Wilmington Division
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