DEVELOPMENT OF AN ENVIRONMENTAL SAMPLING AND MONITORING PROGRAM AS A MITIGATION TOOL TO ADDRESS INDIRECT AND CUMULATIVE IMPACTS

摘要

In 2006, the City of Raleigh had four major water infrastructure projects in the environmentalrnpermitting phase: a major regional wastewater pump station, a major expansion of the City’srnonly wastewater treatment plant, a greenfield water treatment plant, and a major sewerrninterceptor. North Carolina regulations, specifically the State Environmental Policy Act (SEPA),rnrequires that direct, indirect, and cumulative impacts be evaluated in the environmentalrnpermitting process. Several agencies within the North Carolina Department of Environment andrnNatural Resources (DENR) rejected these four projects for approval over mitigation for indirectrnand cumulative impacts (ICI). A comprehensive Sampling and Monitoring Program wasrnestablished to meet the regulatory requirements for ICI mitigation and is currently in the fifthrnyear of a five year Division of Water Quality (DWQ) basinwide planning cycle. This paperrnprovides a detailed assessment of the indirect and cumulative impacts of urbanization, if any, onrnthe City’s service area watersheds and neighboring downstream watersheds as delineated in thernSampling and Monitoring Program.