StopChathamNorth

To the Residents of Briar Chapel,

We hope everyone is staying healthy during this challenging time. Obviously, with social distancing some of our efforts have had to be delayed, but there are some updates that we’d like to share:

Sewage Spills

On April 16th another sewage spill was reported to Envirolink, located near the walking trail by the footbridge behind the homes on Serenity Hill cul-de-sac, not far from the site of the April 3rd sewage spill. The spill was documented and reported to the NC Department of Environmental Quality (NCDEQ). We understand that ONSWC is considering replacing the current PVC pipe used in that section of force main (major piping going to the WWTP) with iron piping.

Legal Update

In our last update, we notified you that both StopChathamNorth and the Briar Chapel Community Association (BCCA) have filed Petitions to Intervene. These petitions have been granted by the NCUC. This ensures that we will both be able to participate in the NCUC hearing currently scheduled for Tuesday, June 16th. Given the uncertainties around public meetings during the coronavirus, we are moving ahead to prepare for the June 16th hearing, but expect that this hearing date will likely be further delayed. For more information on the pending application and our petitions, go to Docket W-1300 Sub 55.

If you have information that you want to share with SCN’s legal counsel, please email your information to mailto:STOPCHATHAMNORTH@gmail.com.

Williams Corner Public Hearing

The public hearing for the Williams Corner project had been scheduled for the April 20th CC Board of Commissioners meeting. As a reminder, the Williams Corner rezoning project includes a proposal to use ONSWC WWTP (Briar Chapel) for offsite treatment and discharge of Williams Corner wastewater. Due to the coronavirus, Chatham County sent out notifications that the CC BOC meeting would be a closed meeting and the public hearing for the rezoning proposal for the Williams Corner project would be rescheduled. SCN is firmly against the use of Briar Chapel’s WWTP by any development or community outside of Briar Chapel.

The CC BOC indicated that they want to reschedule the public hearing for June, but first need to develop a plan for conducting remote public hearings in this time of social distancing. It appears that Nick Robinson (attorney for Bold Development – the owner/developer of Williams Corner) submitted a written public comment to last night’s meeting offering suggestions on how a remote public hearing could be done. The CC BOC have requested Lindsay Ray and the Planning Department to come up with a proposal for conducting public hearings (during this time of social distancing) for their May CCBOC meeting.

We hope that Chatham County officials will develop a remote public hearing process that will ensure that public opinion can be voiced in realtime, interactively with the CCBOC and are sending a letter to the Chatham County officials to that effect. We are concerned with Mr. Robinson’s involvement and will be watching this closely.

We’ll keep you posted when the public hearing is rescheduled and will likely ask your help in submitting letters to our Chatham County Commissioners at that time.

Irrigation is Getting Ready to Start

ONSWC/Envirolink has sent out a notice saying they plan to start spray irrigation on or about May 1st. They flushed the irrigation lines onto Newland owned property.

ONSWC is also seeking approval from NCDEQ to add chlorine to the spray irrigation lines once spraying begins. This has not yet been approved.

ONSWC has also notified the HOA that they will discontinue irrigation in the following areas until the HOA Board gives them approval:

· Briar Chapel Parkway medians

· Boulder Park area (common spaces and residences)

· Great Meadow Park area

· Briar Commons area

· Pollard Middle School area

Please contact us at mailto:stopchathamnorth@gmail.com if you experience any strong odors, discolored irrigation, oversaturation, pooling of irrigation water, runoff of irrigation water into storm drains, or sinkholes caused by the irrigation system. Video and pictures are helpful.

It’s time to Document our Concerns

Thank you for documenting your complaints, concerns or questions to Envirolink. Since Feb 7th, we have been copied on 112 complaints, including: 92 complaints for odors, 5 sewage spill complaints, 4 construction complaints, 5 spray irrigation complaints, and 6 general complaints. While we regret that our residents are experiencing these issues, we believe this documentation will make a difference in showing that Briar Chapel residents have serious concerns that have been underreported.

It’s important to document any concerns or complaints that you personally experience with the Briar Chapel wastewater system (odor, runoff, spills, spray effluent pooling). Just a simple email works. If your concern can be documented with a picture (e.g., spills, spray effluent pooling), please attach any pictures you’ve taken of the incident to your email. It is imperative that we continue this effort. We also know that you experience some of these conditions over and over (i.e., odor) but again it is important to document these concerns each time you experience them.

When you have a complaint, Envirolink asks that you call their customer service number 252-235-4900. Please do so. To make sure your complaint is documented, we ask that you also email your concern to lbowman@envirolinkinc.com and copy (cc) us at STOPCHATHAMNORTH@gmail.com. Your concern will only be tracked if you send the email.

Fundraising

Total contributions to date (as of 4/21/2020): $31,215.28

Total number of contributors: 333

We’d like to thank everyone who has already donated towards the cost of legal representation. These funds will be used to pay for our attorney’s representation at the NCUC hearing through to final decision. If you haven’t had a chance to make a donation yet, please consider doing this.

You can donate via PayPal by using this link:

https://paypal.me/STOPCHATHAMNORTHNC?locale.x=en_US

If you prefer not to use PayPal:

You can write a check to: STOPCHATHAMNORTH and mail it to: STOPCHATHAMNORTH in care of Terri Burrell, 78 Middleton Place, Chapel Hill, NC 27516 or simply drop the check at Terri’s house.

We are maintaining a full accounting of these funds and will return any unused funds to all homeowners who contribute on a prorated basis. Thank you again for contributing. If we all work together, we have a better chance of achieving our goals.

StopChathamNorth

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Mission Statement

StopChathamNorth is an unincorporated non-profit association representing concerned homeowners within Briar Chapel. StopChathamNorth does NOT support a regional wastewater treatment plant within the residential community of Briar Chapel. We are aware that there are a number of new communities surrounding Briar Chapel that are planning to utilize our WWTP, in addition to the current proposal to add Fearrington Village to our WWTP. We are opposed to all of these plans to expand Briar Chapel’s WWTP for uses outside of the Briar Chapel residential community. We also believe that the WWTP and ONSWC must be fully compliant with all governance and regulatory guidelines to ensure operations do not create nuisance, unhealthy or hazardous conditions for Briar Chapel residents.

For more information: www.stopchathamnorth.com