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Home My WebLink About820396_CORRESPONDENCE_20171231CORRESPONDENCE NORTH CAROLINA Department of Environmental Qual J JLC- un State of North Carolina Department of Environ nt and Natural Resources HEC Division of Water Quality James B. Hunt, Jr., Governor Bill Holman, Secretary Kerr T. Stevens, Director �ennis Sutton PO Box 14656 Bradenton FL 34280 Dear Dennis Sutton; JI1rV 2 2000 FAY H dFFIC ;I May 17, 2000 ENVIRO k".DENR CAROLINA DEPAR rMENT OF ENT ANo NATURAL RESOURCES DENNIS L. SUTTON 411 65th ST. CT. N: NATURAL RESOURCE CONSERVATION SERVICE UNITED STATES 84 COUNTY COMPLEX ROAD DEPARTMENT OF CLINTON, NC 28328 AGRICULTURE PHONE (920) 592-7963 ----------------------------------------------------------- May 28, 1998 RECEIVED AN 1 1998 To: Grady Dobson FaEIIiLL Environmental Engineer, DWQ REG, D'EVIL E Subj: Certification of Cattle Feed lot for Pat Godwin Jeffrey Brown and I met with Mr. Godwin on May 27, 1998 to propose a plan that would allow certification for his cattle feeding lot under the 0200 regulations. The wetlands had been delientated by soil scientist Richard Brooks on may 13, 1998. The plan (among other considerations) proposed to install a vegetated buffer 100 feet wide adjacent to the wetlands. This proposal would not only eleminate access to the wetland but also 100 feet of non wetland. This would eleminate all of the natural shade from existing trees. This proposal was not acceptable to Mr. Godwin and he has decided to reduce the herd size below 100 unless we can modify the proposal. He requested that he be allowed to finish the cattle he now has on site. This should be complete by November 1, 1998. I hereby recommend that Mr. Godwin be allowed to finish the cattle on site and reduced the herd size to less than 100 by November 1, 1998. SinceWly C. Wilson Spencer District Conservat on.ist cc. Pat Godwin NCDENR ?M JAMES B. HUNTJ NORTH CAROLINA DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENT AND NATURAL RESOURCES FAYETTEVILLE REGIONAL OFFICE DIVISION OF WATER QUALITY May 7, 1998 Godwin Manufacturing, Inc. ATTN: Mr. Pat Godwin PO Box 1147' Hwy 421 South Dunn, NC 28334 SUBJECT: Proposed Cattle Feeding Operation Sampson County Dear Mr. Godwin: On Tuesday, May 5, 1998, Mr. Jeffery Brown, Division of Water Quality (DWQ), Fayetteville Regional Office; Mr. Wilson Spencer, Sampson County District Conservationist, Natural Resources Conservation Services (MRCS); and I met with you to discuss and observe your proposed cattle feeding operation in Sampson County. The number of cattle you propose to transfer through this facility in a 12 month period would place you over the animal threshold numbers as sited in Administrative Code Section: 15A NCAC 211.0200 Part.0217(1)A. This regulation basically states that in cattle feeding facilities that are stocked with over 100 cattle for over 45 days during a 12 month period would need to obtain a Waste Management Plan for the waste generated by these cattle. The Plan to be developed will provide Best Management Practices (BMP's) for this waste to eliminate potential discharges to the waters of the State. You indicated to Mr. Wilson Spencer that you would work with the Sampson County NRCS office to develop a Waste Management Plan for your operation. Mr. Spencer indicated he would contact the appropriate individual within his organization to design a Plan for your operation. 226 GREEN STREET, SUITE 714, FAYETTEVILLE, NORTH CAROLINA 20301-5043 PHONE 910.488-1 641 FAX 910-488.0707 AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY 1 APPIRMATIVE ACTION EMPLOYER - 50% RECYCLED/10% POST -CONSUMER PAPER Godwin Manufacturing, Inc. Mr. Pat Godwin Page 2 May 7, 1998 Immediate attention to this matter is truly warranted. Should you have any questions, feel free to give me a call. Sincerely, A� Grady Dobson Environmental Engineer GB/bs AGRICULTURAL EXTENSION North Carolina State University SERVICE College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Address reply to: County Extension Office Box 303-C East Rowan Road Clinton, NC 28328 December 21, 1990 Grady Dobson Environmental Engineer Division of Environmental Management Fayetteville Regional Office Suite 714 Wachovia Building Fayetteville, NC 28301 Dear Grady: I I aalvzm I a DEC 26 1990 ENV. MANAGEMENT FAYETTEVILLE REG. OFFICF I read with interest your remarks in the December 20, 1990, edition of the Fayetteville Observer -Times. T realize your interest in protecting the environ- ment. We, in Sampson County, share that same interest and are actively involved in protecting our groundwater. The following is an update of our activities. This past spring --working with Dr. .7..C. Barker, Dr. R. L. Huffman, and Dr. Philip Westerman of North Carolina State University --we have installed on 5 sites 27 test wells located around existing and new lagoons and our spray fields. These wells are sampled on a monthly basis. Also, we have been working with Dr. Huffman and Dr. Westerman.on using electro magnetic rings to determine if such devices can detect any leakage from lagoons. Both are 2 -year projects. Since the research on these projects was begun less than 1 year ago, we do not.have any available data as of yet. Hopefully, by this time next year, we will have answers to some of the questions that are being asked. Another'project.that I feel gives us.a goodindication that animal waste has not been contaminating our well water is our Well Sampling Program. To date, we have sampled 344 wells throughout Sampson County. Only 16 of these 344 wells have nitrate levels higher than 10 ppm. None of these 16 can be traced to contamina- tion by animal waste lagoons. All are shallow wells. In most cases, the pro- blems have been attributed to cracked well casings which allow surface water to run directly into the well; or the wells are located near septic tanks. Cooperative Extension Work in Agriculture and Home Economics A&T and N.C. State Universities,100 Counties and U.S. Department ofAgriculture r e Grady Dobson Page 2 December 21, 1990 Whenever it is convenient, stop by our office. We will be glad to share any in- formation we have with you. We appreciate the working relationship we have had.. -in the past and look forward to working with you in the future to do whatever we can to protect our environ- ment. Have a good holiday season! GU. fw Sincerely, George Upton County Extension Director ie { company's costs. quantum serves 1'23,000 customers in North Carolina under the name Suburban Propane and Petrolane. The 'hat ave rty Iled !en it The auld it rhe )dy in Sing trilled erally ends It and d le is rs. He for ` told ao. . 0h, if yfood ,ople "It is not the function of the judicial system to 'rne company nas peen ttsttng only the total quantity sold and total price to customers on its bilis and delivery tickets. While Judge Manning said the practice was not necessarily deceptive, it had the potential to n14 vNPUNAAG CUM but this is a prelim (See PI Stu" Photo 8y Stew Aldridge Foraging for berries and such They'd rather raid a pile of dog Hughes' home on ,Rodwell Road doesn't ' suit these raccoons, food behind. Brian and Renee, in Cumberland County.. :N Attract i V` e'-Td--.HoFanners ;. Foy 'C'k..�f:Po.Hution R ulafiow:l The AssociatvdPreil. `;:,'i:;,,�.V.,. not," Mr. Later said. "Just the , per , : _, "They 'are riot allowed to discharge into' Hog farms in North Carolina face little process for these hog farms. takes months'- .streams, and that is'about the extent of it," regulation.. And -that has , drawn 'the. and months (in Virginia)," he said. , .., 'he said. "As 'long as the waste disposal is attention of a Virginia . pork processor •',In North Carolina ittakes about three' conducted•and',maintatned onsite and does thinking of of, - a plant .-in' Bladen . weeks." not, run off -,into. surface' waters, then they County. ' Mr. Later was wrong. , • ,are deemed• ii'be in compliance with waste Iwan interview last year, Joseph W.. In North Carolina, the process doesn't: , . disposal requirements." .,Later III, president ,and chlef .executive take any time at all. Intensive hog: -farming operations in - off leer of Smithfield.Foods Ins., expressed Hog farms an North Carolina -are -not valve - large numbers of animals — frustration with Virginia's regulations on required to get a waste disposal• permit; sometimes: thousands that are kept hog operations. said Mick Noland, regional supervisor cif .. closely confined in long, low buildings. "I'm just saying that in North Carolina the Division of Environmental Manage- -industry is encouraged, and in Virginia it's ment in Fayetteville. (See HOGS, Next Page) =re' Budget Trim Puts Bladen Jail -Study' !nt le d an By Jim Bradley Correspondeat ELIZABETHTOWN — Budget cuts have claimed a study of the Bladen County jail to determine whether it should be renovated or replaced.. , The study will be done in the next fiscal year, which $22,000 in cuts made by the county commissioners on Monday. County Manager Lex :Jones recommended earlier this month that the county freeze hiring and ordered department heads to find 7 percent to cut from their budgets. He also recommended a delav in all soendinz on cut, but he said tha the jail operation. "We don't meet (state) Department (delaying the study) fnr at land nnnthar said they were i company repre- A them to deliver Southern Avenue iy contends that a the tank but that aeen shut off in the wun symptoms last week. Aoout uuu people received skin tests on Monday and Tuesday, Ms. Holden said. People who tested positive may not have come in contact with the student with the symptoms, she said. They may have been exposed elsewhere. Another 20 people were tested Wednesday,. and results will be read Friday at the Health Department, Ms. Holden said. The number of students who tested positive is not unusual, Ms. Holden said. "When you look at the general population, about 4 percent would test positive — meaning that they would have the germ," she said. "So 2 percent of about 900 people tested is not much out of line." . Parents of the 18 students are being advised to bring their children to the Health Department for further HO gS From Page IB The typical operation has a waste lagoon, which is used for storage and some degree of treat- ment, Mr. Noland said. The waste is held in the lagoon for some time, then it may. be applied to crop or timberland by spray irrigation. "The potential for groundwater contamination exists, .but there is no requirement for installation of groundwater monitoring wells," he said. Grady Dobson, an environ- mental engineer in the depart- ment's Fayetteville office, said, "No one is looking at it." A homeowner must get a permit from the county health officer for a septic tank, he said, and "If this were an industry, they would have to go through all kinds of regula tions to get a land application permit. They would have to do all kind of extensive management. They would have to do studies, put groundwater wells around the site. The same is true of municipal systems." But, "unless someone complains, there are so many (hog farms) we don't even know about them," he said. "If somebody complains, we will go look at them. If waste water is leaving the lagoon, and we can see that, we can make them stop it. But we have to actually catch a discharge. They can stop it five minutes before we get there then we can't do anything."; Mr. Dobson said he has seen the lagoons built "two or three acres big, in soil just like in beach sand — unlined. The theory is that after a while, the waste seals the bottom." In southeastern coastal plain counties, such as Bladen, lagoons o u s e r From Page IB rd Mr. Gardner as gubernatorial can - Ir. Martin cannot n. Mr. Martin last any possibility of er political office. Rep. Howard Co - i, has expressed an flattered about that. It's nice to know I've still got some friends out there." Mr. Holshouser, his wife Pat and daughter Jenny moved to Southern Pines in 1977 after finishing his four-year term as governor. He cnruari hafnrn emuar,lmre " Students told of the positive readings took the news pretty well and had some questions, Ms. Holden said. "Not too many people have a good_ understanding of the disease," she said. School Principal J. Lawrence Buffaloe said testing went well. Some parents have called with questions. And parents of students absent during the two days of tests indicated they would take their children to the Health Department, Mr. Bur faloe said. At least 1,700 people at South View. and Cape Fear Senior High schools have been tested for tuberculosis this year, officials said. . About 800 Cape Fear students were tested in October after a cheerleader contracted the disease. Although seven students tested positive, none are expected to have the disease, officials said. may be built in the groundwater, he said, because the water table is six or seven feet underground, while a hog lagoon is about 12 feet deep. The lagoons represent a "gray area between us and the Depart- ment of Agriculture that no one will talk about," Mr. Dobson said, "I don't know of any studies the groundwater people have done." In North Carolina, any regula- tions or ordinances regarding animal operations 'must be generated by the county, said Bruce Shankle, international marketing specialist for the state Department of Agriculture. "In many counties, if you want to put up a hog or turkey farm, and you've got 25 acres of land — you can do it. You don't have to ask anybody," he said. It is that lack of regulation that has some people in Bladen County worried. The county is large, rural and heavily dependent on agriculture. It has shunned zoning or land -use planning of any kind. "At the present time about the only restriction on hog farms is that the. waste lagoons can be no closer than 100 feet to a well," said Evelyn Willis of Elizabethtown. "You can put them as close as you want to residences, schools, churches or whatever." Ms. Willis is one of the orga- nizers of the Citizens for Clean Industry, a group that has opposed Smithfield's plans to build a $50 million hog slaughtering plant near Tar Heel in Bladen County. Smithfield has said it will stay out of the hog farming business in North Carolina. But opponents of sults," sults," he said. Some local supporters raised money to have ""Holshouser '92" bumper stickers printed and are distributing them to friends and supporters across the state. "It's starting to catch on," Mr, Little said. the new plant say the announce- ment of plans to build a slaughter- house that can handle up to 16.000 hogs a day has encouraged other corporate hog farming operations to build new swine complexes in Bladen and surrounding counties, They are also worried that the proposed plant's sewer treatment plant will end up polluting the Cape Fear River, . which bisects the county. The hog farms may have sows with litters, or they may be nurseries that hold and feed young pigs for several weeks. Others are hog parlors, or finishing operations, that fatten swine in preparation for slaughter. And some are huge complexes that combine all those functions in a "farrow to finish" operation. About 4.5 million hogs were marketed in 1988 in North Carolina, which ranks seventh nationally in hog production. Wreck-, From Page 1B shop next door:to a barber shop run by her uncle. "We're all in a shock," said Mrs. Chavis' husband, Randall. "We were all pretty close friends." The track driver, William Frank Patterson, 42, of Route 1, Parkton, was charged with two counts of manslaughter and one count of running a stop sign, according to state Highway Patrol Trooper A.T. Parrish. Mr. Patterson, who was driving south on Shannon Road, said that he tried to stop his truck for a stop sign, but that his brakes failed, Trooper Parrish said. The truck ran into the 1989 . Buick driven by Ms. Oxendine and kept going, according to the trooper. The truck, which left no skid marks, was traveling at about 15 to 20 mph at the .time of impact, the trooper said, while the car was traveling at about 40 moh. �6Y ��' r. . ,�� .- .,. ��_ / �' .r►y _ . 10 19 ,bra mom AMW I . 10 19,99 4 L �.' "" 10 19 1tjG �. t A� �1 11.1 ly'49 CORRESPONDENCE NUH I H UAFULIISA Department of Envim nmu tel 4ual State of North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources Division of Water Quality James B. Hunt, Jr., Governor Wayne McDevitt, Secretary A. Preston Howard, Jr., P.E., Director Dennis Sutton Thomas Sutton Farm PO Box 14656 Bradenton FL 34280 January 15, 1998 RECElxlr--D &ff? WM _qWJ1 • NCDENR NORTH CAROLINA DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENT AND NATURAL REsOURGEs Subject: Removal of Registration I AV 2 fl 199$ Facility Number 82-396 Sampson County Dear Dennis Sutton: FAytMVILLE This is to acknowledge receipt ofo rQ19st that your facility no longer be registered as an active animal waste management system per the terms of 15A NCAC 2H.0217. The information you provided us indicated that your operation's animal population does not exceed the number set forth by 15A NCAC 2H.0217, and therefore does not require registration for a certified animal waste management plan. Under 15A NCAC 2H .0217, your facility is deemed permitted if waste is properly managed and does not reach the surface waters of the state. Any system determined to have an adverse impact on water quality may be required to obtain a waste management plan or an individual permit. You are reminded that a discharge of wastes to the surface waters of the state will subject you to a civil penalty up to 510,000 per day. Should you decide to increase the number of animals housed at your facility beyond the threshold limits listed below, you will be required to obtain and implement a certified animal waste management plan and notify the Division of Water Quality prior to stocidng animals to that level. Threshold numbers of animals that require certified animal waste management plans are as follows: Swine 250 Confined Cattle 100 Horses 75 Sheep 1,000 Poultrx with a li uid wastes tem 30,000 If you have questions regarding this letter or the status of your operation please call Sue Homewood of our staff at (919) 733-5083 ext 502. 4:R cc: �1?aydtteville1Water_Quality_Regional_office Sampson Soil and Water Conservation District Facility File Sincerely, A. Preston Howard, Jr., P.E. P.O. Box 29535, Raleigh, North Carolina 27626.0535 Telephone 919-733-5083 Fax 919-715-6048 An Equal Opportunity Affirmative Action Employer 50%a recycled/10 % post -consumer paper State of North Carolina Department of Environment, Health and Natural Resources James B. Hunt, Jr.. Governor Jonathan B. Howes, Secretary November 13, 1996 Thomas Sutton Thomas Sutton Farm Box 474 Roseboro NC 28382 SUBJECT: Operator In Charge Designation Facility: Thomas Sutton Farm Facility ID#: 82-396 Sampson County Dear Mr. Sutton: []F-=HNR REC`47EWED NOV 19 1996 FAYEi EVILLE: Senate Bill 1217, An Act to Implement Recommendations of the Blue Ribbon Study Commission on Agricultural Waste, enacted by the 1996 North Carolina General Assembly, requires a certified operator for each animal waste management system that serves 250 or more swine by January 1, 1997. The owner of each animal waste management system must submit a designation form to the Technical Assistance and Certification Group which designates an Operator in Charge and is countersigned by the certified operator. The enclosed form must be submitted by January 1, 1997 for all facilities in operation as of that date. Failure to designate a certified operator for your animal waste management system is a violation of 15A NCAC 2H .0224 and may result in the assessment of a civil penalty. If you have questions concerning operator training or examinations for certification, please contact your local North Carolina Cooperative Extension Service agent or our office. Examinations have been offered on an on-going basis in many counties throughout the state for the past several months and will continue to be offered through December 31, 1996. Thank you for your cooperation. If you have any questions concerning this requirement please call Beth Buffington or Barry Huneycutt of our staff at 919/733-0026. Sincerely, E A. Preston Howard, Jr., P ctor Division of Water Quality Enclosure cc: Fayetteville Regional Office Water Quality Files P.O, Box 27687, W ;6 Raleigh, North Carolina 27611-7687 NvfCAn Equal Opportunlfy/Afflrmative Action Employer Voice 919-715-4100 50% recycled/ 100% post -consumer paper