Official questions interpretation of storm water rules

Although McDonald’s has received its state storm water management permit and can build its new restaurant on NC 24 at Phillips Loop Road in Swansboro, the assistant director of the N.C. Coastal Federation is convinced that permit could be challenged legally and might not hold up.

The permit, approved Feb. 4 by the Wilmington Regional office of the N.C. Division of Water Quality, requires McDonald’s to build a “wet pond … designed to handle the runoff from 19,120 square feet of built-upon area.”

The permit also states that, “a portion of the built-upon area on this site has met the requirements … and is considered excluded from the storm water rules …”

That exemption was granted,We can supply ceramictile products as below. according to the permit, because “the impervious area proposed outside the constructed wetland drainage area is 26,336 square feet, which is less than the originally existing built-upon area of 39,Bathroom stonemosaic at Great Prices from Topps Tiles.284 square feet.”

In addition, the permit states, “The proposed storm water controls are a grass swale and a constructed wetland. The existing storm water controls were limited grass swales and sheet flow. The constructed wetland has been designed to handle the runoff from 19,120 square feet of built-upon area, which is greater than the 4,432 square feet of built-upon areas that was added to the amount originally existing built-upon area. With the combination of the grass swale and extra built-upon area treated in the constructed wetlands, it has been determined that the proposed storm water controls provide equal protection to surface waters.”

NCCF assistant director Frank Tursi, who is also a member of the Swansboro Planning Board, said Thursday that the partial exemption from the storm water rules should not have been allowed, for at two reasons.

First, he said the state’s storm water rules adopted by the N.C. General Assembly,Stock up now and start saving on iccard at Dollar Days. in 2008, state that “redevelopment” sites – this 1.42-acre was a gas station/car wash years ago – need only meet the storm water controls required when the site was originally developed if the new project doesn’t add more impervious surface. But McDonald’s plans include more hard surface than once existed on the site, Tursi said.

Jim Gregson, regional supervisor for the surface water section in the state Division of Water Quality’s regional office in Wilmington, said earlier this year that the state makes a provision for the type of redevelopment proposed by McDonald’s. The exemption could be granted, “As long as they can treat anything that exceeds what was there before,Anybody had any experience at all with Chinese made rtls?” he said.

What this all means, Tursi said, is that, “According to the state’s coastal storm water regulations, a project can only qualify for the exemption if the square footage of the new impervious surface doesn’t exceed what existed at the site in the past.

“McDonald’s is adding … impervious (surface). It therefore should not have qualified for the exemption … except that DWQ’s regional office in Wilmington allows such projects if storm water from the additional square footage is treated. That is a policy or guideline established by the agency. It appears nowhere in the 2008 storm water law or resulting rules.

“According to the law passed last year it is therefore illegal,” Tursi continued. “This could be the basis for a permit appeal if someone wanted to go that route.Professionals with the job title miningtruck are on LinkedIn.”

The permit could be challenged by anyone with “standing” in the matter, not just by the town. And “standing” generally means anyone who can show the court sufficient connection to and harm from the law or action challenged.

Challenging the permit, Tursi said, would cost someone – the town or someone else – some money, because the challenger would need an attorney to argue the case before an administrative law judge.

Tursi noted that without the exemption, McDonald’s would have to meet the strictest standards of the storm water rules because the restaurant would be within a half-mile of shellfish waters. It would have to capture all of the runoff produced by the worst average rainstorm in a year, or about 3.5 inches of rain in 24 hours. The permit issued last month sets the standard at 1.5 inches in 24 hours.

“What we (the federation) are saying is that this is not allowed in the law,” Tursi said. “There is nothing in the law that says, ‘If you do so and so, you can do such and such.’” To do anything other than what the exemption language states, Tursi said, is, as Carter of the SELC said, “rule-making” without going through required public hearings and deliberation, and “Senate Bill 810 last year seems to make that illegal.”

Tursi said that as a planning board member in Swansboro, not an elected official or part of the town staff, he couldn’t say whether the town should challenge the permit: “That would be up to the town staff and commissioners and attorney.”