20080868 Ver 2_Emails_20090130

Re: Draft Response concerning PCS Phosphate
Subject: Re: Draft Response concerning PCS Phosphate
From: Cyndi Karoly <[e-mail]>
Date: Fri, 30 Jan 2009 09:22:54 -0500
To: Debra Watts <[e-mail]>
CC: John Dorney <[e-mail]>
You can add 401 Water Quality Certification
documents I mailed to you yesterday.
Debra Watts wrote:
All
I've been asked to give a summary of "what's happening with PCS Phosphate" --
the end result a written summary no longer than a page if possible. Please
at what I have written concerning your area and let me know of errors I have
made.
to the bullet list of permits, per the
David,
I didn't have a contact for DLQ, so if you could verify what I said in this
area, plus the complaints
Betty,
Please add our monitoring data for the last paragraph.
Thanks all for your help! Debra
look
-Concerns and Issues
-The APS Washington Regional Office has received many complaints concerning the
PCS Phosphate company, mostly from two gentlemen -- Mr. Del Swiggett and Mr.
Glenn Hackney. Their complaints have been somewhat similar, although Mr.
Swiggett has made more serious accusations such as PCS Phosphate committing such
illegal actions as putting rail cars with toxic waste and spent nuclear waste
into mining pits on PCS Phosphate property. More common concerns are about the
results of the dewatering allowed and the outreaching affects of the mining
operations, to include:
* Contaminating the Castle Hayne aquifer and local residential
wells by drawing in major pollutants like waste from local hog
lagoons that are unlined
* Causing subsidence in the subsurface
* Drawing the water table down and affecting yield in local wells
* Causing exceedances in the groundwater for phosphate, cadmium,
nitrates, and heavy metals
-Permits
-Although DWQ has many permitted activities with PCS Phosphate, there are other
divisions that have permitted activities that may be related to some of these
concerns:
* Division of Water Resources (DWR) has issued two permits for
dewatering of the PCS mining operations
0 78 million gals/day/total of - 99 wells in Castle Hayne
0 8 million gals/day/total of -60 wells in the surficial,
upper tertiary aquifer
o DWR has several monitoring stations that verify/monitor
water levels
* Division of Land Quality (DLQ) has permitted the mining
operation which allows them to dig a 150-175 foot pit (thus the
need for dewatering), o This includes the handling of the reject
and gypsum
material that is "stacked" nearby. o It is uncertain if
DLQ requires monitoring wells separate
from other monitoring requirements.
o Related to this is the 401 certification issued by DWQ to
allow mine expansion in nearby wetland areas. Under the
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Re: Draft Response concerning PCS Phosphate
401 certification, DWQ has required extensive conditions
for this expansion, to include a groundwater monitoring
plan to be submitted by PCS Phosphate, and continued
stream and watershed monitoring
* CAMA has oversight since this is in a coastal area
DWQ has many permitted activities with PCS Phosphate as well:
* NPDES permit that allows industrial process and commercial
wastewater discharge
* Stormwater permit that controls stormwa.ter
* High rate infiltration permit that processes domestic waste
* Wastewater recycle permits (3) that process 1) contact cooling
water and cooling tower blow down; 2) mining and material
processing; 3) fertilizer production
* Land Application of residuals permit that allows application of
solids from mining and material processing and domestic waste
processing
* Injection well permits to remediate contaminated spills
* Monitoring well construction permits .
-On-going Monitoring Betty - can you fill this in? Thanks
Debra J. Watts, Supervisor
Groundwater Protection Unit
Aquifer Protection Section
919-715-6699
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