EPD permit request denied to PCAA for Phase 1 of TAEP

Last week ‘the Paulding six’ challenged the Airport Authority’s Notice of Intent to begin construction of Phase 1 of the Terminal Area Expansion Project (TAEP). Residents opposing the move claimed that this action was illegal under Georgia law. The project is currently on the Paulding County Airport Authority’s short list of projects.
In a May 4 letter to the FAA Office of Regional Council’s Michael Fineman, Attorney Peter Steenland contended that the PCAA want to begin TAEP construction this month in order to avoid the June 30, 2017 expiration of its existing Clean Water Act permit and that PCAA Acting Director Terry Tibbitts is seeking approval outside of an FAA Environmental Assessment as a special written approval that allows work to begin.
And Steenland asserted in his letter to Fineman that the approval would be premature and unjustified prior to FAA final approval. “We understood that the PCAA would be barred from conducting any work on the TAEP unless and until a final EA was issued and a finding of ‘No Significant Impact’ was approved.”
This concern, then, was echoed in a May 9 letter to the Director of the Environmental Protection Division (EPD) Richard Dunn and further stressed that the work was not justified by the level of activity of operations currently existing at Silver Comet Field.
And Steenland reiterated in his letter that the current request did not fit guidelines for the PCAA project. “The TAE project, some iteration of which the PCAA is ostensibly planning to construct at some point in the future, is not an exempt Roadway Drainage Structure....”The letter further contends that “...the TAE Project...as recently as October 2015, involves clearing and grading approximately 70 acres of land to yield 50 acres of developable land for new buildings, approximately 345,000 square feet of aircraft hangars, expansive automobile parking, aircraft aprons and tie-down spaces, all atop 2,830 linear feet of trout stream and 6.5 acres of protected buffers.”
On May 11th, the EPD’s Dunn agreed and ruled that the Authority is not entitled to a permit, effectively delaying the work from beginning. In his response to the letter from Tibbitts, EPD Director Richard E. Dunn said, “...the plan does not provide any details regarding the actual construction proposed for the site prohibiting EPD from determining if the project qualifies as an infrastructure project and if the roadway Drainage Structure exemption in the General Storm Water Permit applies.”
Dunn requested in his letter that “additional details demonstrating the project as proposed meets the Permit definition of an Infrastructure ‘Roadway Project’ (Part I.B.36) and qualifies as a ‘Roadway Drainage Structure’ (O.C.G.A. 12-7- 3(13)).”
A response from the PCAA to the ruling was forthcoming. Acting Director Terry Tibbitts could not be reached by press time for this article.
Just prior to this the PCAA met last week regarding the TAEP Bid review and voted on the construction contract for the TAE piping project with local contractor Thompson Grading in an amount not to exceed $900,000 with initial funding not to exceed $450,000. The project is being done in conjunction with the Georgia Department of Transportation.
Thompson’s is the only bid and remains valid for ninety days. Tibbitts said the bid would next enter a negotiation stage “...to try to negotiate a price that fits our budget....” That amount would be presented later to the full board to vote on, he added.