Monday, September 04, 2006

Written 8/30/06

Records Request Reveals Stormwater Negotiations

An open records request I filed earlier this month produced some interesting insights into the behind-the-scenes negotiations regarding the stormwater ordinance Oconee County passed on August 1.

The documents show that the state Environmental Protection Division scolded Oconee County for wanting to weaken its stormwater ordinance to satisfy developers. The County ignored that advice, however, and weakened the ordinance anyway. The EPD used the same arguments we used against the weakened ordinance. Luckily, our pressure resulted in a much stronger ordinance in the end.

Amy Morrison, stormwater/environmental coordinator for the county, indicated in a letter she wrote to the Land Use and Transportation Committee members on April 7, 2006, that she revised the ordinance originally presented to the public in September of 2005, at "the request of the BOC." BOC stands for Board of Commissioners.

The stormwater ordinance presented in 2005 applied state standards for stormwater management to the whole county; the revisions Ms. Morrison made in early 2006 greatly weakened the ordinance and restricted those standards to the already built out part of the county, labeled as "urbanized" by the EPD.

In a telephone conversation I had with Ms. Morrison on July 10, she said that she had been instructed to weaken the ordinance by her boss, Mike Leonas, the public works director. She said she was told by Mr. Leonas that the change was at the request of Melvin Davis, chairman of the BOC.

At the public hearing in October of 2005, no one asked that the stormwater ordinance be weakened. Ms. Morrison said in our telephone conversation, however, that the development community did not want the original stormwater ordinance because it would force builders to spend more money.

Shortly after I spoke with Ms. Morrison on July 10, I telephoned Mr. Leonas, and he confirmed that he had asked Ms. Morrison to make the changes in the original ordinance. He said Mr. Davis told him in a conversation some time after the public hearing on October 24, 2005, to change the ordinance. Mr. Leonas said he remembered that there had been an email message following the verbal request from Mr. Davis.

The open records request shows that Alan Theriault, administrative officer of the county, who, like Ms. Morrison and Mr. Leonas, works for Mr. Davis, sent an email message to Ms. Morrison on November 15, 2005, instructing her to make the changes in the ordinance. It was copied to Mr. Davis and Mr. Leonas.

In that message, Mr. Theriault said: "(Y)ou will begin the process of combining the 3 separate ordinance into a single document that pertains to the urbanized areas of the County only (italics in original)." Ms. Morrison also was told to proceed with a change in the original Notice of Intent that the county had filed with the EPD regarding the stormwater ordinance.

Lisa Perrett, environmental specialist at EPD, wrote to Mr. Davis on November 28, 2005, stating her displeasure with the change requested by Ms. Morrison. "EPD is greatly concerned with the proposed approach," she wrote.

Ms. Perrett said Oconee County, if it did not apply the state standards countywide, "may be allowing potentially inferior stormwater control measures to be utilized." She pointed out that the definition of the urbanized area of the county was based on the 2000 Census and that "the County has recently been experiencing a tremendous amount of growth." She continued: "(T)he majority of the currently defined urban area is already developed."

In sum, Ms. Perrett made all the same arguments with Mr. Davis that citizens did. Unfortunately, we didn’t know the letter existed until now.

The Perrett letter, in its entirety, is in the "library" on the web site of Friends of Barber Creek, www.barbercreek.org.

Lee
Written 9/4/06

Rocky Branch to Treat Industrial Waste

We still need letters sent to the state Environment Protection Division if we are going to get a public hearing on the County’s request to begin dumping treated wastewater from the Rocky Branch Waste Treatment Plant into Barber Creek.

Here’s another reason to want that hearing: The Rocky Branch Waste Treatment Plant will treat INDUSTRIAL waste as well as residential waste.

In July the pharmaceutical company Novartis announced that it was bypassing Georgia and building its influenza vaccine plant in North Carolina instead.

The Georgia location that Novartis was considering was at Georgia Highway 316 and U.S. Highway 78. The land is referred to as the Orkin Tract. It lies in Oconee and Clarke Counties.

The Rocky Branch Waste Treatment Plant in Oconee County would have treated the waste from Novartis had it located here. The treated water would have gone into Barber Creek. The County has said it will seek other pharmaceuticals for the site.

During the speculation before Novartis announced its decision, I started an email exchange with Chris Thomas in the Oconee County Utility Department about special procedures that would be in place to protect citizens who live along Barber Creek should a vaccine manufacturer locate at the Orkin Tract.

That exchange is posted on the Friends of Barber Creek web site, in the library. The exact URL is http://www.barbercreek.org./barbercreek/library.html. The item was posted on 7/15/06. You can see for yourself what would happen.

Clearly, some safeguards are in place. But they depend on a lot of monitoring, which we need to insist is in place should the EPD grant a permit to Oconee County. Here’s a summary of what Mr. Thomas said.

First, the federal Environmental Protection Agency requires pharmaceuticals to pretreat their waste before discharging into sewer systems.

Second, the County also sets limits on what can be put into its sewage system, Mr. Thomas said.

Third, the plants can "handle higher loadings than their influent flows would normally bring." In other words, the plant should be able to handle the inflow even if it didn’t meet the pretreatment standards.

Finally, Mr. Thomas wrote, "These safeguards along with stringent effluent monitoring and
limits at the wastewater plants insure consistently safe discharges into streams and rivers as required under the rules of NPDES permitting."

NPDES refers to the National Pollution Discharge Elimination System, the permit program that requires all those discharging pollutants into waters of the United States to obtain a permit.

Mr. Thomas subsequently explained that Oconee County’s pretreatment limits "mimic" the federal standards, and, in fact, at present the Georgia Environmental Protection Division "regulates all significant industrial users for the County due to our small number of users...Oconee is in the process of implementing it's own pretreatment program, but it will be some time before we complete all of the requirements necessary."

Mr. Thomas also said "I may have been confusing when I referred to the stringent monitoring of the plants effluent. Although all treatment plants are closely monitored to ensure protection of the environment and public health, I was referring to the reuse limits. Reuse limits are more stringent than most plants in the state operate under."

In other words, the plant will be following state standards for production of "reuse" quality water.

How closely this is going to be monitored is something that we all should be concerned about, particularly if the Orkin Tract is developed as planned. The state has made it clear it would love to have another company such as Novartis locate here.

This is the kind of question we can pose at a public hearing on the Oconee County permit request if the EPD grants us a hearing. But we have to write and ask. Here is a draft letter:

DATE

Linda MacGregor, Branch Chief
Water Protection Branch
Georgia Department of Natural Resources
Environmental Protection Division
4220 International Parkway, Suite 101Atlanta, GA 30354

Dear Ms. MacGregor:

The Oconee County Board of Commissioners is seeking NPDES Permit No. GA0038806 for the Rocky Branch Water Reclamation Facility on Rocky Branch Road. The permit is to provide for a discharge flow of 1.0 million gallons per day of treated wastewater to Barber Creek.

TELL HOW BARBER CREEK AFFECTS YOU AND YOUR PROPERTY.

I am aware that the state and local officials have tried to get a major pharmaceutical manufacturer to locate at the Orkin Tract in the county in the past and have said they will continue to do so. I also know that the Rocky Branch facility would be the treatment plant for effluent from the manufacturer.

I ask that you hold a public hearing on this request so that I can learn about state standards on pretreatment of industrial waste and monitoring procedures that will guarantee the safety of the water flowing into Barber Creek, should you grant a permit to Oconee County.

Sincerely,

YOUR NAME AND ADDRESS

Please let me know when you write. I am keeping a tally.

Thanks

Lee
Written 8/21/06

Rocky Branch Request Up For Review

The Oconee County request to be allowed to dump 1.0 Million Gallons Per Day of treated wastewater from an expanded Rocky Branch Waste Treatment Plant into Barber Creek is now up for review before the state Environment Protection Division.

Please write to the EPD and ask for a hearing. Reference Permit No. GA0038806. Here is the address:

Linda MacGregor, Branch Chief
Water Protection Branch
Georgia Department of Natural Resources
Environmental Protection Division
4220 International Parkway, Suite 101Atlanta, GA 30354

Tell the EPD how important the stream is to you. Contrast what you do with the creek with the following advise on use of reuse quality water, which is what will be dumped into the creek if the permit is granted.

Reuse water should not be allowed into dwelling units, should not be used for swimming, should not be used on edible crops, and should not be used to wash a car. Persons should limit body contact with the water.

You also can mention the following:

Experts from the firm of Jordan, Jones & Goulding, in a draft report presented to Oconee County in March of 2004, stated on Page 3-5:

"For Oconee County the surface streams with large enough flows to receive treated discharges are considered to be the Apalachee, Middle Oconee, and Oconee Rivers. The other streams, such as Barber Creek and Calls Creek, are considered to be too small to receive a substantial quantity of treated flow."

Remember, there is an alternative. The JJ&G experts told the county to phase out this plant and to build a new one on the Oconee River. That has never been openly discussed.

Lee

DATE
Linda MacGregor, Branch Chief
Water Protection Branch
Georgia Department of Natural Resources
Environmental Protection Division
4220 International Parkway, Suite 101Atlanta, GA 30354

Dear Ms. MacGregor:

The Oconee County Board of Commissioners is seeking NPDES Permit No. GA0038806 for the Rocky Branch Water Reclamation Facility on Rocky Branch Road. The permit is to provide for a discharge flow of 1.0 million gallons per day of treated wastewater to Barber Creek.

TELL HOW BARBER CREEK AFFECTS YOU AND YOUR PROPERTY.

I ask that you hold a public hearing on this request so that I can voice my concerns and so that I can learn what steps the EPD and Oconee County are going to take to protect my interests should such a permit be issued.

Sincerely,

YOUR NAME AND ADDRESS