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4 <br /> jurisdiction over this system during the time of its construction <br /> was the State Board of Health. It is probable that the Board of <br /> Health did approve the system design and issue the initial <br /> operating permit. In the late 1960 ' s, regulatory authority (as <br /> well as information related to system permits, locations, etc. ) <br /> over discharging systems passed from the Board of Health to the <br /> NC Division of Water and Air Quality, the agency which eventually <br /> evolved into DEM. During this same time period, Cedar Grove <br /> School was closed permanently as a school. Ownership of the <br /> facility passed from the school system to the County in 1980, but <br /> it remained unoccupied until 1981 when a County Recreation and <br /> Parks Department presence was established in the building. As <br /> the building and the treatment system were not operational during <br /> the transfer of permitting jurisdiction from the Board of Health <br /> to Water and Air Quality, it is possible that the system' s <br /> records were either discarded or destroyed. It appears that when <br /> the building was reopened and the waste treatment system was <br /> reactivated, County personnel involved in the process did not <br /> realize that the County would be required to obtain a new <br /> operating permit. Since that time, County staff operating the <br /> facility have been unaware that the treatment system required a <br /> discharge permit. <br /> DEM staff has indicated that DEM commonly encounters situations <br /> where a local government owns and operates an old building served <br /> by a discharging waste treatment system that has never been <br /> issued a DEM regulated permit. However, DEM has indicated that <br /> it pursues all inadvertent and willful violations of discharge <br /> regulations with equal intensity. Consequently, a DEM field <br /> inspector visited the Northern facility on November 5 in the <br /> company of a County Environmental Health official and the County <br /> Engineer. The DEM inspector indicated that Orange County can <br /> expect to be cited with a Notice of Violation (NOV) by November <br /> 29. The NOV will require a response from the County, which has <br /> the option of either contesting or accepting the citation. In <br /> either case, the County will have to reach an agreement with DEM <br /> as to how the system is to be brought into regulatory compliance. <br /> The standard format for such an agreement is through a process <br /> which DEM terms a Special Order of Consent (SOC) . The basic <br /> purpose of the SOC is to permit DEM to temporarily hold in <br /> abeyance those regulations being violated by a particular waste <br /> treatment activity, until that activity can be brought into <br /> regulatory compliance. <br /> The staff recommends that Orange County stop the discharge and <br /> bring the Northern facility into regulatory compliance <br /> immediately. This will be accomplished by implementing a "pump <br /> and haul" process which will completely eliminate the discharge <br /> into the east fork of the Eno River. The pump and haul process <br /> will involve plugging the outlet of the existing septic tank and <br /> then utilizing a pump truck to remove the waste from the tank two <br /> times per week. The waste will then be transported in the pump <br /> truck to Efland where it will be discharged via an on-line <br />