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STATEMENT OF WILLIAM SOMMERS
REGARDING
WESTERN WAKE REGIONAL WASTE WATER MANAGEMENT

Contents

July 5, 2006

MEMORANDUM OF WRITTEN COMMENTS

TO: Corp of Engineers, Wilmington District
Attention: Mr. Monte Matthews,
Raleigh Regulatory Field Office
6508 Falls of Neuse Road, Suite 120
Raleigh, North Carolina, 27615

FROM: William Sommers,
1067 Fearrington Post
Pittsboro, NC 27312

Subject: Western Wake Regional Waste Water Management Facilities Project Draft Environmental Impact Statement, US Corps of Engineers PUBLIC NOTICE, June 7, 2006

I live in Chatham County and serve on the Chatham County Water Advisory Board. I also work as a volunteer consultant to the Fearrington Home Owners Association. While this statement is based on my personal viewpoint, it does include consideration of the needs and concerns of many Chatham County residents with whom I have discussed the project’s scope. I also attended the public hearing held on June 15, 2006.

I. NEED FOR PROJECT

The Corps’ PUBLIC NOTICE indicates on page 4 that “The Project is being implemented by the Partners to provide waste water service for planned growth and development and to comply with regulatory mandates issued by the North Carolina Environmental Management Commission (EMC) and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (NC DENR).”

The “Public Hearing Fact Sheet” distributed at the June 15th hearing gave three reasons to support the need for the proposed project. The first two refer, as does the Corps” PUBLIC NOTICE, to the mandatory requirements of both EMC and NC DENR. The third reason – “Provide waste water service for planned regional development” - is a variant of the Corps’ statement noted above, expanding the “planned growth and development” into a more regional application.

This apparently laudable need of “planned growth and development” extended to “planned regional development” raises substantial concern to many residents of Chatham County since it is likely that parts of the substantially enlarged regional waste water facility will be used to extend development for Cary and Apex via the annexation of land within Chatham County.

This phrase is given more detail in the fact sheet which lists towns and areas to be served by the new facility: “The Proposed Project will serve customers located within the existing corporate limits and future planning areas of the Towns of Apex, Cary, Morrisville and Holly Springs, including the Wake Country portion of Research Triangle Park.” This statement – on its surface - appears to limit those served by the proposed project to the corporate boundaries of the municipalities involved as well as the RTP portion of Wake County. However, the expansionist phrase “and future planning areas” relates to a larger interpretation of “planned regional development,” e.g. portions of Chatham County. The planning and development intent of both Town of Cary and the Town of Apex are worth examining in respect to the expansion potential involved in this proposed regional wastewater facilities program.

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1. Town of Cary: Our concern here is not built on an idle consideration. The Town of Cary has been involved in at least two major efforts to include parts of Chatham County within its “planning area.” In 1995 The Cary Town Council approved the voluntary annexation of Chatham County area, which constituted about 50% of the proposed Amberly residential subdivision. This was legally correct but it raised a furor with other Chatham County residents as well as the County’s Board of Commissioners.

In 2003 the Town of Cary held a public hearing on the details of its Southwest Area Plan, which included 23 acres, most of which was within Chatham County. The meeting raised a groundswell of resistance from Chatham County residents who, according to the Cary Staff Report “…vociferously opposed participation in the (Cary) planning process.” This was further complicated by the subsequent inclusion of the Forest Oak development, which included portions of Chatham County territory.

Although the Cary Town Council redrew the South West Area Plan boundary to exclude Chatham County areas, Cary’s currently web-posted Land Use Plan includes Chapter 8.3, which focuses on CHATHAM COUNTY STUDY AREA, noting in its conclusion that the Plan “…has an Urban Services Boundary which divides the portions of Chatham County that will be provided with municipal sewer services from those areas that will not.”

That same Town of Cary Land Use Plan concludes in Chapter 9 with a series of “Recommendations for Future Action”. Among these proposals are two, concerned with “initial” actions that have a Chatham County reference:

d-2 Work with all adjoining municipalities plus Wake and Chatham counties, to coordinate master planning in Cary’s border areas;

d-6 Negotiate a precise planning boundary with Apex, in the Chatham County area.

A third recommendation, under “essential actions” includes an implied potential that would undoubtedly involve Chatham County, namely

c-1 Promote the expansion of Cary’s Extra-Territorial Jurisdiction (EJT) and Perimunicipal Planning Area (PPA) as necessary to help implement the Land Use Plan.

It is noteworthy that in attempting to assist in the implementation of d-2 above, the Chatham Board of Commissioners recently set up a meeting with the Town of Cary Council to discuss this subject. While the Chatham Board was fully present, not one member of the Cary Town Council attended and was, instead, represented by members of the Town’s planning staff.

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2. Town of Apex: The Town’s website contains the APEX COMPREHENSIVE PLAN (ACP) adopted April 20, 2004. While the study area for this plan does not extend beyond the Chatham County borders, a number of statements within the plan itself afford cause for caution, if not concern.

In the APEX TOMORROW portion of the ACP The Town is advised to “vigorously pursue the conclusion of the long range regional planning process with the goal of identifying and implementing a plan to meet the Town’s long range wastewater treatment needs.” (p. 51, item 4e)

This is prefaced by recommendations regarding the ACP encouraging “a clearly defined
Development area, delineated by an urban growth boundary, reflecting the community’s desire to contain growth within a specific geographic area.” (p-p.33, Item 1) As a follow-up to these statements, the ACP then considers the use of annexation as a tool of “growth management’ and the “proactive steps to initiate implementation via development and adoption “…of an annexation strategy created to implement the policies of the Comprehensive Plan, including the specific steps listed below.” (p.39, item d).

One of these “specific steps” is to “ Consider the extension of utility services to appropriate new development without requiring that annexation of adjacent parcels be voluntary. Annexation of both development and undeveloped land whose average density meets NC annexation law requirements could provide for a more orderly annexation practice and Town growth pattern.” (p. 40, item d)

The proposed 2025 Land Use Plan prepared by the Apex Planning Department in June, 2006 stays within the Apex study area but indicates that much of the land adjacent to Chatham County south of US Highway 1 is available for low density use.

While development involving Chatham County areas is not a full-blown present reality, the potential is considerable, particularly considering water and sewer availability as part Apex’s aggressive development posture.

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II CONCLUSIONS:

From this short review we conclude that the “planned regional development” justification for the proposed regional waste water project has significant future implications for Chatham County, respecting the possibilities of annexation of Chatham County land area which, because of the current growth problem already facing the county, may well engender a reverse environmental impact than that outlined in the detail of the Corps’ PUBLIC NOTICE.

Chatham County is currently suffering severe growth pains with a cascade of developments, strained water supply and waste water treatment that is specific to each developer, allowing a variety of untested, lightly supervised treatment and dispersion systems. Significant efforts are now being made to direct Chatham’s growth, upgrade infrastructure and develop a more systematic, ordered plan for additional development. However, the future impact of potential incursions from both Cary and Apex as discussed above, based on the proposed regional wastewater treatment facility, may be as environmentally destructive and detrimental to Chatham’s future as the pace of growth within Chatham’s borders.

While we do not oppose the idea of the Western Wake Regional Wastewater Management Facilities Project, we do believe that this facility, constructed via the guidance, direction and approval of State and Federal agencies, may become a vehicle, which promotes inter-county, development-driven annexations. For Chatham County this becomes a serious threat to its efforts to establish control and direction over the County’s already environmentally unsound and unplanned growth.

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III RECOMMENDATION

In reviewing the summary Draft Environmental Impact Statement, we recommend that the project’s principal participants hold a public discussion of the details of the proposal for Chatham County residents who, as noted in the previous discussion, have a substantial stake in the project’s outcome and who have not been fully appraised of the project and its long term need and implications.

To this end we recommend that the following condition be included in any approval given by the US Corps of Engineers and DENR’s Division of Water Quality, namely:

Prior to the approval of the submitted Draft Environmental Impact Statement, the principals of the Western Wake Regional Wastewater Management Facilities Project hold an advertised presentation of the proposed project for Chatham County residents, including public discussion, at a place within Chatham County and at a time to be advertised in advance. And that the summarized results of the public discussion be included as a part of the Draft Environmental Impact Statement.

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