A comment period has been extended for the management of the coal ash that has been dumped at the Town of Chapel Hill’s Police Station property located at 828 Martin Luther King Boulevard. Tens of thousands of tons of coal ash were dumped in a 4.5 acre area of the property in the 1960s and 1970s. The town first reported the coal ash to the public in 2013.
Numerous tests of the groundwater and soil at the coal ash dump site have found high levels of dangerous pollutants, including arsenic, lead, and chromium. The site also includes a steep, eroding slope of coal ash 40 feet high just above the public greenway along Bolin Creek. Contaminated groundwater and surface runoff flow to Bolin Creek.
Much of the coal ash was removed in 2020, but many tons still remain. The town had proposed plans for the site to build low income apartments and hold back the remaining coal ash on the slope by a retaining wall. The clean up efforts to date are not protective enough for community members to live on this site.
The town spent $900,000 since 2013 in order to sell the property under a Brownfields Agreement, but to remove all of the coal ash from the Chapel Hill site would run upward of an additional $11 million. Though the proposal for housing on the site has been revoked, the current proposal is redevelopment for a municipal service center.
Thanks to the work of Friends of Bolin Creek, DEQ’s public comment period was extended until July 30th. Please consider commenting! Documents about the proposal and how to comment are linked here. Some residents and environmental lawyers argue that the draft cleanup plan is insufficient to protect public health. See talking points from Friends of Bolin Creek.
Decision Memorandum & Notice of Intent to Redevelop a Brownfields Property