ENB Region 8 Completed Applications 01/26/2005

The applicants propose a +/-785 sq. ft. addition to an existing two-story residential dwelling.  A +/-190 sq. ft. addition to an existing deck is also proposed.  Construction will be traditional wood framing on a concrete block foundation.  The project site is the applicants property at 4929 Culver Road.

    The Applicant proposes to modify the current mining permit for the Knight Settlement Sand & Gravel mine.  The modification would add +/- 38.7 acres of mineable sand and gravel reserves to the existing 179.5 acre life-of-mine (LOM) area.  The mine operation will continue as a traditional surface excavation of the Howard gravelly loam series, which is the predominate soil type on the site.  Excavation will be by mechanical equipment, standard for sand and gravel mining operations.  Final reclamation will restore the site to graded, stabilized and re-vegetated open land.  The mine site is located west of Longwell Lane, at the Co. Rt. 15 intersection.

The proposed project involves the addition of fill materials to 79 square meters (850 sq.ft.) of NYS Freshwater Wetland CN-2 (Class 2) and to 1,245 square meters ( 13,400 sq.ft.) of this wetland’s regulated 100 foot wide adjacent area. The area of Wetland CN-2 to be affected is located in the northeast quadrant of the intersection of Robert Dann Drive and the access road for the Wal-Mart plaza. NYS Freshwater Wetland CN-2 is associated with Gang Mills Creek  The fill material is required to be added to Wetland CN-2  for the purpose of extending the existing road embankment of Robert Dann Drive approximately 2 meters (6.6 feet) to accommodate the widening of Robert Dann Drive as part of the much larger project to  reconstruct the existing I-86 / Route 15 Interchange. The widening of the existing road is for an additional road lane which will be an exit ramp for Hamilton Street to Robert Dann Drive, as well as a turn lane to existing Wal-Mart plaza from Robert Dann Drive. Given the locations of the existing plaza access road and required proposed Hamilton Street exit ramp, there is no practicable alternative for widening of Robert Dann Drive, which would avoid impacts to Wetland CN-2. To minimize the extent of encroachment into the wetland area, NYS DOT proposes a 2 on 1 (50%) road side slope protected by a guard rail.  A 2 on 1 side slope is the steepest allowable side-slope per NYS DOT highway construction specifications. The widening of Robert Dann Drive will result in permanent disturbances to 0.32 acres of wetland and wetland adjacent area. Mitigation for these disturbances is being provided within a 3.9 acre  wetland mitigation area which has been approved by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and DEC to compensate for proposed wetland impacts for the entire I-86 / Rt 15 Interchange reconstruction project. The proposed mitigation area will also be within the Gang Mills Creek drainage area.

The Department has made a tentative determination to approve an application for a modification of an existing permit to discharge service water from service water pumps with circulating cooling water from outfall 001, and with retention tank water from outfall 002A, to Lake Ontario.  The modification involves an increase in the outfall 001 flow limit from 490 million gallons per day (mgd) to 520 mgd maximum because the facility identified an error in the calculation of flow rates.  The contributory flows from the service water pumps were not included in the initial calculations.  To reflect this new information, the applicant requested a change in the permit limit to reflect current operation. The facility does not plan to actually increase flows.  The application file is available for review and comment at the NYSDEC Region 8 office.