An Open Letter To DEQ Concerning Water Withdrawal

Editor’s Note: Amounts from documentation obtained from the Department of Environmental Quality under the Freedom of Information Act appear to indicate that Boxley Materials withdrew a certain amount of water from Jordan Creek between 2000 and 2006. FACES made numerous attempts via both phone and email to substantiate the accuracy and interpretation of what is shown in the DEQ files with 4 DEQ personnel. Planned articles for this website have been delayed while attempting verification. Finally upon one DEQ manager’s declining to answer in writing and answering, “I would assume so” by telephone, we decided to write this open letter to DEQ. This letter is requesting verification of information in a government entity’s files and makes no statement or claim that the amounts questioned are correct until officially verified.

Original email of April 17^th to DEQ:

Dear Ms. Stephenson:

I am trying to correctly interpret the information that was sent to me via email in spreadsheet format by Wanda Bowman from your office on December 11, 2007. In viewing this data it appears that for the year 2005 that Boxley withdrew 27.47 million gallons of water from Jordan Creek and their sand plant withdrew another 7.12 million gallons during the same year. By these calculations that would mean that a total of 44.6 million gallons of water was withdrawn by the combined operations of Boxley and their sand plant in 2005. (Editor’s Note: This amount was a typographical error it should read 34.59 million gallons, we left it unchanged to keep the original email as is) Is this correct? It was my understanding from speaking with DEQ employees during a FOIA visit to your offices that this water was withdrawn from the creek with no requirement that Boxley have a permit to do so. Is this understanding correct? It is my assumption that once the water is withdrawn it is used by the company and therefore no water would be left over to be put back into the creek. Is this understanding correct? If any remainder of the water is somehow put back into the creek I would have other questions concerning this process, but at present I assume all water withdrawn is used unless notified otherwise. Please respond via email, we want to have verification of a correct understanding of this procedure and need an official comment from the DEQ.

Thank You,

Fieldale And Carver Environmental Society

The Open Letter:

April 30, 2008

An Open Letter to:

Department of Environmental Quality

3019 Peters Creek Road

Roanoke, VA 24019

Dear Sirs:

I represent Fieldale And Carver Environmental Society. One of our goals is to provide the residents of our community with accurate information about issues of concern to many residents. For the past few weeks we have made numerous attempts by both phone and email to substantiate, fact check, and ensure the accuracy and interpretation of what is reported in some documentation that we obtained from your department. We would like to publish educational articles and fact sheets that provide accurate information to our community. It is our understanding that the DEQ is the Commonwealth’s regulatory authority and source of record of these matters. In a previous request emailed to Mr. Joseph Hassell requesting a written comment he declined to respond in written form. We have previously corresponded with Mr. Hassell and 3 other DEQ employees in attempting to get verification of the correctness of our interpretation of the data we received from DEQ. Therefore we ask that someone from DEQ please read the following statements and advise us in writing via mail within a reasonable time period as to any inaccuracy in the following statements:

We reviewed a water withdrawal record for Jordan Creek covering the years 2000 through 2006. The records indicated that a “sand plant” started being reported in 2003. This plant’s addition apparently increased Boxley’s water withdrawal from an already interesting quantity of 12.12 million gallons in 2002 to 19.2 million gallons in 2003 and 17.03 million gallons in 2004. In 2005 the amount increased to 34.59 million gallons for that year. The numbers reported for 2006, the last year available at the time of our visit, returned to 17.4 million gallons. It appears that beginning in 2003 consumption had increased by an additional 5 million or more gallons per year above and beyond the 2002 reported consumption. The records appear to show that the total amount of water that Boxley consumed from Jordan Creek during the years 2000 through 2006 was 124.46 million gallons of water. It is our further understanding that due to “grandfathering” Boxley is exempt from the regulation found in chapter 210 of the Virginia Administrative Code and therefore this water is withdrawn without a permit. We have not been advised that this withdrawal of water from Jordan Creek is subject to any regulatory oversight. We also understand that these reports consist of amounts that are reported by the company themselves without any independent regulatory verification.

Thank You,

Welcome

Perhaps you have found this page by doing a web search for Boxley Aggregates or W-L Construction and Paving or maybe The Harvest Foundation who’s contractor as reported on their website “plans to subcontract approximately $2 million in work… to some Martinsville-area contractors, including W-L Construction/APAC Fieldale, Boxley Materials”

http://www.theharvestfoundation.org/news.cfm?ID=265.

Maybe you were looking up VDOT or any of the other customers of these companies. Maybe you read in the Martinsville Bulletin how Boxley received the impressive sounding “Gold Award for Excellence in Community Relations” as well as the “Bronze Award for Environmental Excellence.” and you want to know the other side of that.

Whatever your reason for finding us, please read the information documented on this site and find out what most of the community really thinks.

Contact Us by email: faces@post.com

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More articles are underway & will be posted soon.

PSA Document: “The primary problem with this part of the system is the blasting shaking the lines”

FACES has obtained a Henry County Public Service Authority Complaint Information Sheet dated March 23, 2007. This document raises numerous questions that have been asked in letters that have been mailed to county and federal officials. Of particular interest is the fact documented herein that the blasting at the quarry is the primary problem with the system on this part of Carver Road, which indicates that the effects of quarry operations are known by the county to be impacting homes and businesses off the Boxley site. It is interesting to note that seeking grant money or waiting for a general line replacement – wouldn’t either be at the expense of PSA customers or county taxpayers- are apparently the primary solutions considered in the report. They are certainly the only ones mentioned. Considering that we already pay some of the highest water and sewer rates in this area. It is interesting to know that we could be paying so much in part to fix problems caused by a very profitable private company whom the citizens have repeatedly complained to the county about in vain.

Reference:

http://www.martinsvillebulletin.com/article.cfm?ID=1297&back=archives

Below are a few direct quotes from the PSA document.

“The primary problem with this part of the system is the blasting shaking the lines and disturbing the buildup resulting in orange water.”

“Amos stated he would check to see if there is any grant money left to replace the line serving this customer.”

“This will continue to be a problem until the service line feeding this customer is replaced”

“Also it should be noted that line trash in the Carver area can be related back to the quarry blasting.”

“Talked with Tim Pace in Engineering he said all the lines in the creek side area will be replace with the future system upgrade.”

“Until then ask Shop to flush lines in this area more frequently.”

At who’s expense is this happening? What has been done to address the true cause of the problem that is documented here?

 

DEQ Issues Warning Letter After Fieldale Site Inspection

The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) issued a warning letter on March 11, 2008 as the result of a site visit to W-L Construction & Paving in Fieldale made on March 6, 2008. Documents detailing, “out of compliance “issues have been obtained by FACES under the Freedom of Information Act. The Air Inspection report states, “The purpose of this inspection was to investigate a complaint received on March 4, 2008. The complainant stated that new equipment had been recently installed at the W-L Construction and Paving facility located in Fieldale; and that dark visible emissions were observed coming from the equipment.”

The report goes on to note “it was noted that the equipment in question is owned by Interstate Custom Crushing, LLC and is permitted to operate under Registration No. 61495. However, the facility failed to notify the department and obtain written approval to relocate the portable crusher to this location. The portable crusher was relocated to this site on February 27, 2008.

3 Items were noted as “out of compliance” on the inspection checklist. In addition to relocating the portable crusher in Fieldale without approval as required by Conditions 19 and 20 of the February 9, 2006 permit, there were also air pollution issues. The warning letter states, “At the time of inspection, the plant was crushing Recycled Asphalt Product. The visible emissions observed from the internal combustion engine exhaust were greater than ten percent opacity.” Condition 13 of the February 9, 2006 permit states that visible emissions shall not exceed 10 percent opacity.

A “mountain” of dark material – apparently crushed Recycled Asphalt Product seems to have been made by this improperly located machine as seen in one of the photos below. The plant has been operating as evidence by the photos and by the strong smell of asphalt in the community. Isn’t it good to know the neighbors are watching – very closely – and know how to report things that don’t look quite right? We suspect a lot more questions will be asked soon. Is the operation of this plant enabled by material made by an improperly located machine?

 

Having A Blast

Is this Hiroshima? No, just residents of Carver Road and Fieldale having “peaceful enjoyment” of their neighborhood as seen here courtesy of a “Bronze Award for Environmental Excellence” recipient. That National Stone, Sand, and Gravel Association really knows environmental excellence don’t they? Those are power lines the blast is above,

.

Asphalt Plant Pollution Is Big Pollution

W-L Construction & Paving, Inc. operates an asphalt plant in Fieldale in Henry County. Local residents oppose this pollution source because during each year of operation 249,000 pounds of toxic air pollution could be emitted from the smokestack of this plant, plus 695,000 pounds of fugitive emissions.

Virginia’s air pollution permit allows this plant to make 650,000 tons of asphalt per year.

The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality permit allows the plant in Fieldale to emit these pollutants into the air:

pollutant pounds/year

carbon monoxide 85,400

nitrogen oxides 37,800

sulfur dioxide 57,800

VOC 23,000

formaldehyde 2,000

Pollution data from Virginia DEQ Registration No. 30031, County-Plant No. 089-00009, W-L Construction & Paving, Inc Permit to Construct and Operate issued August 30, 2007

 

For more information contact:

Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League

P.O. Box 88

Glendale Springs, NC 28629

(336) 982-2691

BREDL@skybest.com

www.BREDL.org

Locally Contact:

FACES Fieldale And Carver Environmental Society

faces@post.com

All That Glitters Is Not Gold

 

On Sunday, March 16 The Martinsville Bulletin published an article entitled “Boxley Gets Two Awards.” This little apparent attempt at a public relations piece touted their receiving the impressive sounding “Gold Award for Excellence in Community Relations” as well as the “Bronze Award for Environmental Excellence.” No doubt this was intended to plant the idea that this company is doing a wonderful job with the environment as well as having good relations with the community. In the opinion of many of us who live in the surrounding neighborhood, neither is the case.

Our first question was who is the National Stone, Sand, and Gravel Association that presented these awards, and what are their objectives? It turns out that they are basically little more than an industry lobbying group that Boxley is a member of. A quick perusal of their web site (http://www.nssga.org/) was very enlightening. For example their Legislative Action Center link off the home page urges members to oppose H.R. 2421 the “Clean Water Authority Restoration Act of 2007.”  One wonders how an organization handing out awards for “Environmental Excellence” could do such a thing.

Their article went on to state “This action potentially would bring all wet areas at aggregate operations under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and EPA, including active silt ponds and waters created incidental to mining.” This begs the question if they are doing such a wonderful job with the environment why are they worried that the EPA may have some jurisdiction? Wouldn’t the EPA give them an award also since these companies are doing such a wonderful job?

Further along in this article at the Legislative Action Center link, it stated, “The line of reasoning used by Reps. Oberstar, John Dingell (D-Mich.) and Vern Ehlers (R-Mich.) in support of the legislation is the need to reestablish the original intent of Congress to ‘restore and maintain the chemical, physical, and biological integrity of the nation’s waters.’” Maybe I missed something because I would think maintaining the integrity of our waters was a good thing. Apparently the NSSGA does not think so since it seems to oppose that legislation, yet they hand out environmental awards to Boxley.

This is in our opinion little more than the neighborhood fox getting an award from other foxes for guarding the henhouse and trying to impress people with it.

 

 

“Those who do not learn from history…

are doomed to repeat it” This happened in 1991. Amazingly the Virginia Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy found no violation?? What would you have to do to get one… Hiroshima? Nothing but the grace of God is protecting us. Could this not happen again?

A Day In the Park

Here is a view of wind-blown dust from the “Bronze Award for Environmental Excellence” recipient. This view is from the park area. Why is all this allowed so close to homes, schools, and churches? Our guess is $$$.

Where’s 220?

Waldo may not be behind that dust cloud but the 220 Bypass is.  So is a “Bronze Award for Environmental Excellence” recipient. Thanks, National Stone, Sand, and Gravel Association for your great knowledge of environmentalism.

Here a wind-blown cloud of dust from the quarry hangs over the highway. One has to wonder what effects this has on the surrounding community.