{"id":11170,"date":"2012-08-23T12:05:29","date_gmt":"2012-08-23T16:05:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=11170"},"modified":"2012-08-23T12:05:29","modified_gmt":"2012-08-23T16:05:29","slug":"birmingham-officials-balk-at-new-dep-regs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=11170","title":{"rendered":"Birmingham officials balk at new DEP regs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Supervisors unhappy with DEP’s call for some $322,000 in stormwater management projects<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

By Nicole Brown<\/strong>, Staff Writer, The Times<\/em><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>BIRMINGHAM \u2014 Reports from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and possible adjustments to the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) upset the townhip’s supervisors at the board meeting on Monday night. Representatives from VanDeMark & \u2028Lynch, Inc. gave a presentation regarding storm water discharge and the possibility of $322,000 repairs to decrease sediment erosion.<\/p>\n

Jim Hatfield, the township engineer, explained that according to the EPA, the township \u201cneeds to improve the removal of sediments from storm water discharge.\u201d Hatfield and his colleague Neil Carlson have already discussed the same problem with East Marlborough<\/a> and will meet with Pocopson as well. All across the state, the EPA has claimed that the sediment from storm water that has entered the streams has caused a dangerous increase in bank erosion.<\/p>\n

Pushed by the EPA, the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) is asking municipalities to address erosion \u2014 in this case into tributaries of the Christina River \u2014 which in the township’s case means the Brandywine and its feeder streams. As part of the process to renew the municipal storm water discharge permit, municipalities must come up with a plan to reduce the amount of sediment running into streams.<\/p>\n

Hatfield and Carlson presented the EPA\u2019s NPDES report to the supervisors and discussed its proposed solutions. Water that falls on Birmingham Township drains into two watersheds, the Susquehanna and the Delaware. Currently, around 530 tons of sediment is draining into these watersheds from the township every year. The EPA wants the township to reduce this number to around 200 tons in the next five years. To do this, Carlson showed a map to the supervisors that highlighted nine areas that can use repair.<\/p>\n

Enhancing or replacing buffers along the streams would be the \u201cmost \u2018bang for your buck,\u2019\u201d said Carlson. Other repairs could include naturalizing basins, vegetation restoration, and conversion of agricultural areas to meadows.<\/p>\n

Supervisor William Kirkpatrick expressed his speculation with the DEP\u2019s requirements. \u201cThese numbers are arbitrary,\u201d he said, adding that there are no actual measurements or specific evidence of the damage cause by sediment entering the waterways.<\/p>\n

Supervisor John Conklin agreed. \u201cWe have a lot of problems; this isn\u2019t the only thing we have to fix,\u201d he pointed out. The township\u2019s budget cannot be spent entirely on this one problem that has no substantial evidence he explained.<\/p>\n

Additionally, the supervisors stated that the purpose of the suggested repairs is unclear. \u201cThis is a lot of money, and for what?\u201d asked Kirkpatrick. He and Conklin don\u2019t believe that the DEP is providing the township with enough information or specific goals to meet.<\/p>\n

Hatfield and Carlson acknowledged that the supervisors had realistic speculations, but the DEP is demanding these repairs, regardless of their disbeliefs.<\/p>\n

Kirkpatrick also brought up the issue of land ownership. If any of these repairs are on land owned by Home Owners Associations (HOA), the township must get the HOA\u2019s to cooperate.<\/p>\n

Hatfield said, \u201cthe township has to ensure that these are built\u201d; therefore, if the HOA doesn\u2019t provide the money for the construction of the repairs, the township will have to. He added that the township would also be responsible for monitoring the repairs and maintaining them.<\/p>\n

One area of the township that is not owned by an HOA is a field currently used for agriculture. As Carlson explained, converting this land to a meadow would be a suitable repair according to the EPA. The supervisors, however, pointed out that the Department of Agriculture would not approve that plan, as they have their own requirements for the township regarding land designated to agriculture.<\/p>\n

The supervisors expressed their frustration, saying that these government agencies don\u2019t even talk to each other, yet they each demand too much from the municipalities.<\/p>\n

Kirkpatrick again pointed out that there has been \u201cno tests and no data\u201d to prove these repairs are necessary.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just working out my rage for a letter [to the DEP],\u201d he said. Although a letter may make him feel better, he also recognized that the DEP really doesn\u2019t care. It will continue to demand changes. \u201cTheir only reasoning is that it is \u2018better for the environment,\u2019 or it\u2019s \u2018green,\u2019\u201d he continued.<\/p>\n

The supervisor must decided what repairs they can make and how much money they are willing to spend by September, as Hatfield and Carlson need to produce a narrative for the renewal of the NPDES permit to be approved by the DEP.<\/p>\n

Conklin and Kirkpatrick asked what would happen if they do not comply with the DEP\u2019s requirements. Hatfield said they might not approve the permit, the township would probably receive a violation, and they would eventually find another way to achieve their goals, which according to Kirkpatrick are \u201ccompletely arbitrary.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Supervisors unhappy with DEP’s call for some $322,000 in stormwater management projects By Nicole Brown, Staff Writer, The Times BIRMINGHAM \u2014 Reports from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and possible adjustments to the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) upset the townhip’s supervisors at the board meeting on Monday night. Representatives from VanDeMark & \u2028Lynch, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11173,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,7],"tags":[15,103,51,102,1723],"class_list":["post-11170","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-featured","tag-birmingham","tag-brandywine","tag-dep","tag-epa","tag-sediment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11170","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11170"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11170\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11173"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}