20080868 Ver 2_EMC Letter_19920214

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ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT COMMISSION
y
y NORTH CAROLINA
DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENT, HEALTH, AND NATURAL RESOURCES
James G. Martin, Governor
William W, Cobey, Jr., Secretary
February 14, 1992
Mr. Charles L. Baker, Chairman
mwiror mexital Management Commission
128 S. Tryon St., Suite 1400
Charlotte, Nc 28202
Dear Charles:
Charles L. Baker
Chairman
Virgil L. McBride
Vice Chairman
Edwin E. Andrews, III
Michael K. Banes
Douglas S. Boykin
CharlesA. Brady, III
Carla E. DuPuy
Donald Ensley, MPh, Ph.D
William S. Farahow, MD
Robert W. Griffith, Jr.
Michel A. Ibrahim, AAD, Ph.D
Dennis C. Loftin
Charles H. Peterson, Ph.D
Winston W. Pulliam
Richard V. Watkins, PE
Candler A. Willis, Jr., Ph.D
Lawrence R. 7.ucchino
I am writing to inform you of staff and oommittee responses to
Mr. Glenn Hockney, a resident of Middletown, Hyde Co.
For the past ten months, various members of the Groundwater
Section staff, officials of local gouts, and, members of the
general public who are involved with water -use permits in Capacity Use
Area No 1 (CUA -1) have heard numerous allegations, criticisms and
complaints from Mr. Hockney related to water and land conditions
within and beyond the capacity use area, and to administrative issues.
Mr. Hockney has insisted that groundwater withdrawals in the
capacity use area were responsible for the closure of mtuacipal wells
in the Englehard, Hyde Ocunty area because of increased salinity; the
Presence of fibers in the water distributed by the Hyde County Water
System (HC M), and for subsidence of his property in Middletown, NC.
Mr. Hockney apposed the reissuance of a water use permit to the City
of Washington on the grounds that the volume of groundwater approved
for withdrawal was in excess of their actual needs. A modified
version of the permit was eventually issued. mr. Hockney has also
urged that severe limitations be placed on future groundwater
witlxlrawals in the area. He has thoroughly reviewed the Section's
permit files and conducted exhaustive interviews with Section staff in
Washington and Raleigh.
In his review of water use permits Mr. Hockney discovered that a
number of permits had expired, typically because of late applications
for permit renewal. The staff's attention was called to these
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discrepancies by Mr. Hockney, who insisted that any and all such
departures from the requirements of the regulations (15A NCAC 2E
Capacity Use Area Water Withdrawal) be countered by enforcement action
and the assessment of penalties.
During the past year Mr. Hockney appeared before the Groundwater
Committee an three occasions; in May 1991 at which time he presented a
report of his concerns to the committee, on September 1991 when staff
responded to his concerns, and in December 1991, at which time he
reiterated his request for enforcement action against all persons in
violation of Capacity Use Area rules. In the intervals between
appearances before the committee, Mr. Hockney spent considerable time
in the regional office reviewing files and conversing with staff.
Groundwater Section staff have attempted to address the
groundwater problems described by Mr. Lockney, as well as his
criticism of the administrative of the Capacity Use Area rules.
Staff found that the Hyde County Water system had experienced
quality problems, but no evidence that they were related to
withdrawals in the Capacity Use Area. Neither did staff find any
evidence to suggest that the alleged subsidence of his property or the
condition of the Englehard town wells were related to Withdrawals in
the Capacity use Area.
Staff review of water use permits did confirm that several
deadlines for application for permit renewal had been missed, and that
the structure of some permits could be improved. Although staff are
hard Pressed to keep up With gro zx6 ater pollution incidents in the
region, they are taking steps to remedy the problem of overdue
applications for permit renewals. Special efforts are also being made
to ensure that permitted withdrawals reflect actual current needs and
realistic projections of future water supply require mts. 'Ihe
Section has not, however, elected to seek penalties for violations of
administrative requirements. However, permittees have been put on
notice that, in the future, the Department will expect prompt
compliance with permitting rules.
Although it is the opinion of the staff that hydrologic
conditions in the capacity use area have changed little since the
regulations governing water use were adopted by the Commission, the
attention that has been focused on the area as a result of Mr.
Hockney's persistence sh 1d serve to alert us and the staff that our
management policy for the area has not yet been thoroughly defined.
With this in mind I intend, with the meter committee
concurrence, to Place the issue of capacity use area management on our
agenda. In addition, the committee feels that the broader issue of
whether competition for water use elsewhere in the Coastal Plain
its the Commission's attention will be one of the Groundwater
Committee's agenda topics for discussion this year.

Committee and the staff have afforded Mr. Hackney an opportunity to
register complaints research files, interview staff and to have a
public fonmu for his views, and have responded to his points of
concern. The Section has expended a total of more than two hundred
hours of staff time addressing Mr. Hackney's concerns. At their
Dec er meeting the committee agrees] that they had provided
appropriate responses to the issues brought to them by Mr. Hockney and
concluded that no further action was warranted. The ommittee
considers the issue closed.
If you have any questions or comments about this matter, please
contact me or Perry Nelson.
Sincerely,
Carla E. Dupuy, Chairman
an
Groundwater C to mittee
ADS
cc: Members of the Groundwater Cmmittee
George T. Everett
Harlan Britt
Perry Nelson
James Mulligan
Glen Hockey

Re: Draft Letter
From:
Date:
To:
Cc:
Subject:
Attachments:
Coleen,
https://webmail. ncrmil.net/cp/ps/Mail/ViewMsgCondroller?d=ncmail...
Ted L. Bush, Jr. [[e-mail]]
Feb 25, 2009 14:53
"Coleen Sullins"<[e-mail]>
"Chuck Waldld"<[e-mail]>, "DAVID
MAY"<DAVI [e-mail]>
Re: Draft Letter
Hockney-1992.pdf (179 KB)
El ted_bush.vcf (274 B)
FYI - Thought you might be interested in the attached 1992 response to Mr. Hockney when he expressed concerns
that reached Division, Department, & EMC levels. Note the significant staff time commitment indicated in the last
paragraph.
Ted
Coleen Sullins wrote:
Dexter/Tom/Jim - attached please find a draft letter that we are preparing to send to Glenn Hockney in response
to his questions on PCS. DWQ staff have been talking to various staff in your programs to obtain the information
that is included in the letter and we very much appreciate their assistance. Since we are referencing your
program areas, we would like to request your review of the draft letter. John is also sending the draft letter out to
your staff with whom we have had conversations. However, I wanted to bring it to your review. I have not
attached the original letter from Mr. Hockney, however, the draft captures each of his requests verbatim with the
follow up response. Hopefully you will not need the original, but let us know if you would like to see a copy of it.
Please let us know if you have any concerns with the proposed responses. Thank you for your review in
advance! Coleen
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