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14 <br />INTEROFFICE MEMORANDUM =j s <br />TO: <br />Emily <br />Cameron, <br />ASLA Planner II <br />FROM: <br />Paul <br />K. Thames, <br />County Engineer <br />DATE: April 5, 1991 <br />SUBJECT: Piney Mountain <br />I have reviewed the site plan.and letter from the developer <br />that you have submitted to me for the above referenced <br />subdivision. I have no past experience with this development <br />and I cannot make any comment based on past reviews. <br />However. I do know Dennis.Osborne and North State Utilities <br />and I can say that the individual and the company have a top <br />notch reputation for expertise in the design, operation and <br />maintenance of community size alternative (low pressure) <br />waste treatment systems. <br />In terms of the statements contained in the developer's <br />letter. I do know that DEM has increased requirements for <br />the extent of buffers around installations of low pressure <br />line nitrification fields as the developer stated. I also <br />know that it is very difficult to predict the final size, in <br />terms of gross area. for a nitrification field when the field <br />is not level. relatively even in terms of surface <br />depressions. or contains large trees. The nitrification <br />lines must often be distended around the trees, which <br />results in an area, resembling a bulge, that cannot be <br />counted in the net treatment area. The losses in the net <br />field area are very difficult to predict prior to <br />construction. The end result of routing lines around trees <br />and irregularities in the land surface is an increase in the <br />gross area of the nitrification field, while the net <br />treatment area in the field remains the same. The <br />developer's statement that the state has increased the length <br />of nitrification or low pressure line required per household <br />makes absolutely no sense to me. Generally, the line length <br />is determined by the waste load to the system and the <br />application rate to the land area. The waste loading rates <br />are generally specified by DEM regulations which set a <br />typical loading rate of 120 gallons per day per bedroom in <br />the houses served by the system. <br />K <br />