NC0049867_Email_20190523

Strickland, Bev
From:
[e-mail]
Sent:
Thursday, May 23, 2019 1:04 PM
To:
Basinger, Corey
Cc:
Scheller, Roberto
Subject:
[External] NOV-2019-LV-0334
Attachments:
Response NOV-2019-LV-0334.pdf
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[e-mail]
Please find attached the response for the above violation.
Cathy Payne
Town Clerk
Town of Cleveland
704-278-4777

Town of Cleveland
302 East Main Street
P.O. Box 429
Cleveland, NC 27013
[phone]
May 20, 2019
W. Corey Basinger, Regional Supervisor
Water Quality Regional Operations Section
NCDEQ-Mooresville Regional Office
610 East Center Ave., Suite 301
Mooresville, NC 28115
SUBJECT: Response to NOV-2019-LV-0334
Dear Mr. Basinger:
This letter is in response to the above Notice of Violation. During March, the BOD continued to
be irregular with these results: 3/3=38.5; 3/12=28.4; 3/13=64.8 and 3/20=17.7. April was also
variable with BOD results: 4/3=56.2; 4/8=27.8; 4/16=18.4 and 4/23=36.2. May results continue
to show variability: 5/1=18.9 and 5/8=20.9. See the attached activity for May with a copy of
email correspondence sent to koberto Scheller and the involvement of Consultant Joe McCougan
on May 1.
On May 13, new scales for CL2 and S02 were approved along with a new pH system for the
influent. These have been ordered and should be installed as soon as they are received.
Monitoring of specific manholes continue by our Maintenance and Police Department. Sampling
of each lift station is being done during May.
As you can see, the Town has diligently continued searching the cause of the high BOD
violations and taken numerous steps to try to alleviate the impact to our system. If there is any
technical assistance that you offer that can help to stabilize the wastewater treatment system, we
would greatly appreciate it.
Sinc y,
l
Danny Gabriel
Mayor
cc: Commissioner Gerald Osborne
attachments
SENT VIA EMAIL — corev.basinaerkncderingov
SENT VIA EMAIL — roberto.scheller@ncde_nr.gov
HARD COPY SENT FIRST CLASS MAIL

Date: 05/09/2019 [01:26:34 PM CDT]
From: [e-mail]
To: [e-mail]
Subject: Town of Cleveland high BODs update
Hell, Roberto. My last email to you on this subject was April the 11th. I wanted to give you a quick
update.
You were right about changing the sample tubings and getting a new jug probably not helping cause it
didn't.
On sample date 4/3 we got a BOO of 56.2 but the COD grab I did of the morning of collection was a 31.
On sample date 4/16 the composite SOD was 18.4 and the COD grab of that morning was a 40. I also did
3 other COD grabs starting the morning I started the sampler. at Sam a 32, 1130 a 30 and then 230pm a
25. That day seemed to be pretty consistent.
On 4/17 I had Miller septic service come in a completely clean out my influent and splitter box and
blowout incoming lines. It was incredible the amount of grit was in the system. I have video to show
you the next time I see you. Even they were amazed how much it was. Needed to be done a long time ago
to say the least.
They were here until 630pm and when done we went back thl influent to have a look and saw black
water coming in that had a oily sheen on top. This was at least 1.5 hours after they had cleaned it
so couldn't have been from their cleaning earlier. They felt that look suspicious. I then noticed the
same thing again on the morning of 5/1. Going to try and get a sample the next time I see it.
Also on 5/1 we had the towns engineer bring in a guy from his group named Joe McGougan
from MBD Counsulting to lend some ideas. His ending suggestion was to seed our plant with sludge from
another which we did on 5/2. His thought was it could give the plant a boost then if the BODs go back
up then we'd know for sure there is something being dumped on us periodically. We transferred 7,000
gallons from the Cooleemee plant to ours.
The one thing I have noticed already from this
is that my PHs have come up without the need of weekly lime. Not sure if I had mentioned that to you
or not but I have been having to add lime several days a week just to stay ahead of falling PHs since
all this had started. This week the PHs were good without any help.
Last week I setup portable samplers in both clarifiers to get a 24 composite from them at the same
time as the effluent. I have not received the official results yet except that the clarifiers BODs
were around a 2 but the effluent was a 18. Not sure what to do with this data yet but still good to
have. Will run this several more times to see if it's consistent.
And one last thing before I tie up your whole day with this, I have used your suggestion on checking
the bugs several times a week and even had the lab take a look for me as well. So far they seem to
feel we have a good diversity of life but will continue to look especially if the BODs take another
dive.
Thanks for your time and I apologize for the length. T meant for it to be quick but it got away from
me.
Hope you have a great weekend and thanks again,
Paul Land