[Green] Barge Offload Facility LRH 2020 293 OHR

[roger kalter]

Dear George, Thank you for your incredible work. I forwarded to Becca Pollard with Sierra Club. Roger


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On Monday, June 8, 2020, 11:13 AM, gbanz42--- via Green <green at fuusm.org> wrote:

Green Sanctuary Colleagues:

    I just had an extended conversation with Ms. Kayla Adkins of the US Army Corps of Engineers about the proposed barge offload facility. Below is her summary of the conversation. I shall be contacting her supervisor, Teresa Spagna, urging her to convince Mr. Mike Hatten, Chief Regulatory  Officer of USACE, to arrange a public meeting about this project. I'll also make the request through the Freedom of Information Act to get the responses to our comments/concerns that Deep Rock Disposal gave to the USACE--apparently we cannot get those responses in any other way. Deep Rock is not responding to our requests for a reply nor to requests form the press. USACE suggested to Deep Rock that they contact the public--has not happened yet.

    Ms. Adkins did tell me that the method of transport of the fracking waste materials would be through an existing pipeline (originally installed by Mobil). Where it would go from there I do not know--that is not something that the USACE has any jurisdiction over since it is beyond the waters of the Ohio River.

      The USACE has "pre-decisional information,"  about this project which is not available to the public. 

      I'll be doing three things regarding this issue:
        1. Contacting Ms. Teresa Spagna (teresa.d.spagan at usace.army.mil), urging her to press Mr. Hatten to arrange a public meeting.

        2. Requesting the responses of Deep Rock Disposal  to all the expressed comments & concerns through the Freedom of Information Act.

          3. Contacting Deep Rock Disposal to press them to tell us directly the responses they have to our concerns about the project.

      I told Ms. Adkins that we will be persistent a d are relentless in pursuing answers to our questions.

      I would ask Green Sanctuary folks to contact Ms. Spagna about a public meeting and to call Deep Rock Disposal asking them to tell us their responses that they gave to the USACE about our concerns. 

    Shari Ballantyne has also been working on this issue.

    Mr. Banzinger, 
 
This is a summary from our phone conversation this morning. You requested 
information on DeepRock Disposal's answers to the public notice comments we have 
received. This information can be obtained through the Freedom of Information 
Act (FOIA). Below is the link to the FOIA page on our public website. You can 
indicate in the FOIA request either the applicant's responses to your questions 
or the applicant's response to all the public notice comments. Please note our 
Corps project number in the FOIA request to ensure it gets assigned to me as 
quickly as possible for response (LRH-2020-293-OHR). 
https://www.lrh.usace.army.mil/Business-With-Us/Freedom-of-Information-Act/ 
 
The FOIA request is submitted to our Office of Counsel and routed through the 
Regulatory Division for response. Additionally, you indicated you were 
interested in obtaining our draft decision on having a public hearing. 
Pre-decisional information is exempt from FOIA. Please let me know if you have 
any questions on the FOIA and I will get you in contact with our legal office. 
 
We also discussed the public notice. The Corps' Regulatory Division public 
notice is the primary method of advising all interested parties of the proposed 
activity for which a permit is sought and of soliciting comments and information 
necessary to evaluate the probable impact on the public interest; 33 CFR 325.3 
outlines the public notice procedures. 
 
Additionally, you requested an update on the public hearing determination. A 
decision has not been made on whether or not to hold a public hearing or public 
meeting. This decision is made by the Chief of the Regulatory Division, Mike 
Hatten. You also requested his email address. I recommended first contacting the 
Chief of the North Branch, Teresa Spagna, so that she may respond to your 
inquiry or elevate the inquiry for response to Mike. I'm including Teresa's 
email again since they are so long, Teresa.d.spagna at usace.army.mil. 
 
Please let me know if there is any other information I can provide. 
 
Thank you, 
 
Kayla N. Adkins 
Regulatory Project Manager 
North Branch 
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers 
Huntington District 
502 8th Street 
Huntington, WV 25701 
304-399-5850 
304-399-5085 (fax) 
Kayla.N.Adkins at usace.army.mil 

    ,
--
George Banziger
202 Lawton Road
Marietta, OH 45750-1111
740-434-5685
cell: 740-434-3354

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