NCCD COVID-19 Protocol: last updated on 5/20/20
The County of Northampton has made a declaration of emergency
Public access to the Greystone Building is restricted, the Greystone Bulding lobby will be open during the hours of 8AM to 4PM Monday-Friday starting on 5/4/20.
Paper applications for permits/reviews not reccommended until further notice, electronic submission is highly reccommended (please see protocol below).
Check back here for updates to NCCD - Greystone Building procedures
DEP COVID-19 Update:
The Department of Environmental Protection is suspending the timeframes for providing permit decisions established in the Policy for Implementing the Department of Environmental Protection Permit Review Process and Permit Decision Guarantee due to the office closures related to Coronavirus (COVID-19). Please note that DEP staff will continue to process received permit applications. However; due to operational conditions, applicants may experience delays receiving decisions. Applicants may also experience delays in receiving permit decisions where the applications are processed by County Conservation Districts. DEP will provide emergency authorizations for projects that are critical to public health and safety.
Check here for DEP updates: https://www.dep.pa.gov/Pages/AlertDetails.aspx
DEP COVID FAQ: Please review this document before contacting District staff
NCCD Operation Plan
Based guidance received from PADEP, to reduce in the spread of the COVID-19 virus,
If you have a submission or resubmission, please email the District Manager a PDF of your completed NCCD application (required for all initial applications and whenever info. is revised) and a picture of your applicable fee checks, based on availability and in the order received, NCCD will verify that the checks are completed correctly per application instructions and the NCCD fee schedule;
send email to: spletchan@northamptoncounty.org.
Once application and fees are deemed correct by Management, NCCD will respond to your email and provide you the contact information to which you will need to email your documents (perferred option #1 below). At that time, you should place your fee check(s) in the mail to: NCCD, 14 Gracedale Ave., Greystone Bldg., Nazareth, PA 18064. NCCD will process your application in order received.
You have 3 options for submittal (NOTE: some options will affect date received):
1. Use a file management tool to provide us a link to the documents NOTE: Due to County email security, we do not have access to all file management tools, so please work with the staff if they are not able to open your documents, they will notify you based on availability and order received. Use of a file management tool is preferred, but if this is not possible, please keep your email attachments under 10 MB total or your email may not be received due to size restrictions. If your submission is not accessible, ledgible or scaled accordingly; it cannot be accepted.
2. Put your submission on a thumb drive and mail it with your fee check(s). NOTE: date received will be considered the date an NCCD staff member is able to access the office and retrieve and view your thumb drive.
3. Submit paper copies per past procedures, NOTE: the processing of your application will be delayed, the date received will be considered 14 days after the date an NCCD staff member is able to access the office and retrieve the documents, they will then be placed in quarantine for at least 14 days before staff is able to take your application home to review (this will also vary on the assigned staff members ability to access the office).
NOTE: Complete documents should be provided with ANY submission, substitutions are not acceptable at this time.
Paper copies of the permit documents and plans will be requested once "normal" operations are able to occur.
-Pre-application meetings: Electronic request form for electronic pre-application meetings should be sent to District Clerk, Wendy McRoberts, via email (wmcroberts@northamptoncounty.org); all proposed meeting attendees should be included in the initial email request. Meeting will be scheduled by Manager through Zoom, Outlook invite will be sent to associated NCCD staff and municipalties as well as the parties included in the orignal email request. The meeting will be considered tentative until a link to the documents to be discussed has been provided to Wendy via email; the deadline for this link is 48 hrs prior to your tentatively scheduled meeting.
If the link is not received by the deadline, your meeting will be cancelled and you will need to submit a new request.
If your firm would rather use a different electronic media to hold the call, please inform Manager of this upon your initial request.
- Pre-construction meetings are to be held via conference call and scheduled directly with assigned 102 staff (re: About Us page for contacts); staff will require a shared screen with the plans and permit during the call or a link to the documents 48 hrs. prior to the call if we do not already have the documents electronically to be able to hold the meeting; if documents are not presented or provided, the meeting will be cancelled until appropriate documents can be presented.
- Inspections/Field Work - staff will be performing inspections based on a priorty list governed by PADEP and the District Manager. At this time, all field work must be pre-approved by the District Manager prior to exceution. If you would like to request an inspection, including submission of Notice of Terminiation to initiate a final inspection, please contact the assigned regional staff member for NPDES/Chapter 102 construction sites; Jim Clauser should be contacted for Agricultural field assistance and Nate Pritchard should be contacted for Watershed management assistance (re: About Us page for contacts). NOTE: Field time for staff is limited due to social distancing requirements. It is required that a maximum of only ONE person be present to accompany the District staff member during the inspection. Please make District staff aware of any additional safety protocols required on-site and practice social distancing and wear a mask in compliance with the Governor's order.
Complaints related to NCCD Programs
NCCD will continue to receive and process complaints; please email complaint information to wmcroberts@northamptoncounty.org.
Do not call 102 technical staff directly.
Under direction of PADEP, issues critical to public health and safety will be prioritized for first response. The District Manager will prioritze and assign complaints accordingly. District staff are limited in the field, and will do their best to respond to complaints in a timely manner (pictures are welcome).
UPDATE to NCCD Inspection Operation - Released 3/27/20 by PADEP
Thank you for your understanding; the safety of our staff is our priority.
Check back here for regular updates to NCCD procedures (last updated 5/1/20)
Board of Directors Committee and Board Meetings are scheduled for June 9th and are open to the public however due to stay at home order, the Committee & Board meetings will be held remotely -
Resource Technical Committee Zoom webinar starts at 6:30PM:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86181152499
Meeting ID: 861 8115 2499
Dial-in #: (646) 876-9923
Administrative Operations Committee Skype webinar starts at 6:30PM:
CLICK to Join Skype Meeting
Trouble Joining? Try Skype Web App
Join by phone: (610) 829-6605
Conference ID: 865694
NCCD Board Meeting Zoom webinar starts at 7:30PM:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82801321322
Meeting ID: 828 0132 1322
Dial-in #: (646) 876-9923
Please check back here for more updates.
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Chapter 102 Training Workshop POSTPONED - to be rescheduled
3/24/20 at Lehigh Valley Hotel Conference Center, Bethlehem 8:00AM-3:30PM
A Message from Lehigh and Northampton County Conservation Districts: Hello All, For health and safety reasons the Chapter 102 Workshop is going to be postponed. We will follow up when more information is available but hope to have a rescheduled date in late spring or early summer. All event tickets will be transferred to the rescheduled date and refunds will be available upon request. Refunds are available through the Eventbrite website up until March 17th, but we will be able to process these requests past that date if you contact us directly, until 7 days prior to the rescheduled event date. Please note that the Eventbrite fee is non-refundable. For additional information or refund requests please contact Holly Kaplan at hkaplan@lehighconservation.org or 610-391-9583 x10. Thank you for your understanding and we look forward to resuming normal operations! Stay well, LCCD + NCCD |
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- NEW NPDES Permit FAQ released by PA DEP - please review this document prior to contacting NCCD with questions on the new NPDES permitting process, as we are experiencing a high number of calls; we appreciate your understanding.