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3 <br /> MEMORANDUM <br /> TO: Board of County Commissioners <br /> John Link, County Manager <br /> FROM: Paul Thames, County Engineer <br /> DATE: November 11, 1993 <br /> SUBJECT: Waste treatment system at Northern facility <br /> As you may be aware, County staff recently began the process of <br /> evaluating CIP projects needed at the Northern facility at Cedar <br /> Grove (formerly the Cedar Grove school) . The evaluation process <br /> involved assessing the condition and maintenance requirements of <br /> the facility's entire physical plant as necessary to determine <br /> the cost effectiveness of any essential or desirable improvement <br /> in respect to the overall life expectancy of the facility. One <br /> area analyzed was the viability and life expectancy of the <br /> existing waste treatment system which, as the facility' s original <br /> treatment system, dates back to 1950. On October 27, during the <br /> process of examining the waste system, staff determined that the <br /> system consisted of simple septic tank and sand filter units with <br /> an effluent line discharging to a tributary of the east fork of <br /> Eno River just above Lake Orange. It was immediately obvious <br /> that a discharging sand filter system was not an ideal treatment <br /> system for this location for at least two reasons: 1) sand <br /> filters provide relatively low quality treatment and 2) this <br /> particular system discharges into the upper Eno River basin, <br /> recently re-classified by the state as a WS II watershed. <br /> As a consequence of staff 's examination of the waste system, it <br /> began the process of planning system modifications necessary to <br /> eliminate the discharge. On October 28, staff contacted the NC <br /> Division of Environmental Management (DEM) , the state permitting <br /> agency for discharging waste treatment systems, to determine when <br /> the facility would be required to renew its operating permit. <br /> Staff was aware that DEM' s recent policy has been to eliminate <br /> large discharging sand filters by requiring a level of effluent <br /> quality not attainable by sand filter systems. Staff assumed <br /> that the Northern system would not be re-permitted in a <br /> discharging configuration and would have to be converted to non- <br /> discharge by its re-permitting date, at the latest. During the <br /> conversation between County and DEM staff, it was determined that <br /> the Northern facility' s waste treatment system was not currently <br /> permitted, nor had it ever been permitted in accordance with DEM <br /> regulations. <br /> It is unclear as to why a DEM permit for the system was not <br /> obtained. However, it is certain the regulatory agency having <br />