Despite UNC administrators’ stated commitment to notify neighbors and PRO of all communications with DENR and to post public documents on UNC’s Bingham Facility web page, neither neighbors nor PRO were notified when UNC submitted a permit modification application to DWQ on August 16, 2011, to rebuild and expand failed wastewater systems at the UNC Research Facility in Bingham Township .
UNC's Bingham web page has not been updated since 2010. To make this information publicly available, PRO will scan and post UNC's application documents on the PRO website- hundreds of pages of designs, specifications and maps- we'll notify PRO subscribers as soon they are online.
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News Update - February 6, 2010
UNC wastewater system status revoked
Earlier
this week Preserve Rural Orange sent a request to Dee Freeman,
Secretary of the North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural
Resources (DENR), co-signed by the Haw River Assembly, Clean Water
for North Carolina and the Sewage Sludge Action Network chapter of the
Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League. Haw River Assembly Executive
Director and River Keeper Elaine Chiosso also sent a separate letter
supporting our request.
We asked for an investigation of the illegal wastewater discharge
and series of equipment malfunctions at the UNC Research Resource
Facility in 2009 and 2010, and asked DENR to revoke the animal wastewater system’s “deemed permitted” status, requiring UNC to apply for a permit.
We
heard back from Secretary Freeman that an investigation and inspection
of the site are under way, and that the deemed permitted status has
been revoked [5.3 MB file]. UNC has 30 days to apply for a permit. Coleen
Sullins, Director of DENR’s Division of Water Quality (DWQ) also sent a notice of intent to UNC at the end of the week to alert university officials that
the state is considering an enforcement action because of the nearly
two-month delay in addressing and reporting the wastewater leak that
flowed into Collins Creek.
Recent news articles:
State looks into leak from UNC pond,
Mark Schultz, News & Observer, February 6, 2010
Group asks UNC to fix animal waste lagoons,
Tristan Long, The Herald-Sun, January 31, 2010
PRO: More Oversight of UNC's Research Farm, Elizabeth Friend, WCHL 1360 AM, January 27, 2010
Waste
leak went unfixed, Mark Schultz, Chapel Hill News, January 27, 2010
UNC
must come clean: Pollution from University research facility must stop;
transparency and accountability are necessary, DTH Editorial Board, Daily Tar Heel, January 24, 2010
_____________________________
News Update--January 23, 2010
UNC Research Facility
Wastewater Spill in Collins Creek
Over the past week we have learned increasingly alarming details about
animal wastewater spilling into Collins Creek from a 1.6 million gallon
storage lagoon at the UNC Research Resource Facility in Bingham
Township. Despite community members’ requests over the past several
years for meetings, public records and proactive communication about
facility safety and expansion plans, UNC representatives have responded
with delayed communications, misrepresentations and only partial
information long after incidents occurred.
Since October 2009, equipment at the facility has repeatedly failed:
there was an incinerator fire and malfunction, an ongoing animal
wastewater lagoon liner leak reported in December that spilled into
Collins Creek in unknown volumes, a 630-gallon wastewater leak in
November from pipes that were never bolted together, and a leak last
week due to cracked valves (see DENR documents and photos of leaking wastewater).
We
are concerned about UNC’s lack of transparency and accountability,
delay in reporting an illegal discharge to state authorities (see UNC correspondence), failure
to alert neighbors who have repeatedly expressed concern precisely
about these hazards, and construction and use of faulty equipment
without a permit. These actions endanger public health and the
watershed, and result in costly repairs.
Earlier this week Preserve Rural Orange sent a Proposal to UNC
administrators, with copies to Orange County commissioners and staff,
outlining a series of steps to improve communications, transparency and
protection of environmental and human health with regard to current
operations and the $27 million expansion underway at the site.
This
week the animal wastewater system was shut down to drain about 400,000
gallons from the lagoon and haul it offsite to OWASA, in order to find
and repair the liner leak. UNC will pay OWASA more than $2,000 for
handling the wastewater, and according to NC Department of Environment
and Natural Resources (DENR) estimates, hauling more than fifty
truckloads of wastewater could cost UNC up to $30,000.
Click here for the full update on the UNC wastewater spill
What you can do:
Please join us in contacting UNC-CH Chancellor Holden Thorp,
asking university leaders to engage in the public process suggested in our Proposal to UNC, and to take the following additional measures:
- Cease
animal wastewater lagoon operations at the UNC Research Resource
Facility until DENR concludes its investigation of the illegal
discharge into Collins Creek, determines the system’s compliance and permit status, and confirms the safety of continued use
- Apply for a permit for the animal wastewater treatment and disposal system to ensure oversight and safeguards at the facility
- Provide neighbors, PRO and county officials with timely copies of communications and reports about this and future incidents
News articles:
UNC's wastewater worries Lisa Sorg, Independent Weekly, January 20, 2010
UNC warned after leak Mark Schultz, News and Observer, January 21, 2010
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UNC Research Facility Expansion in the News
The November 11, 2009 Independent Weekly features an article, "UNC research facility flies under the radar: What are they building in there?"--
following an investigation by editor Lisa Sorg into UNC-Chapel Hill's
plans for a $27 million expansion of the UNC Research Resource Facility
in Bingham Township. The article raises questions about the lab animal facility's
operations, its impacts on neighbors and the environment and
the status of our public records request which is largely unfulfilled five months after it was submitted to the university.
In June 2009 we submitted a public records request about the facility to UNC to learn more about expansion plans and past, present and future activities. We also asked for the same records on UNC's Francis Owen Blood Research Lab which is planned to move from its current location in the University Lake watershed to the Bingham Township facility in the Haw River watershed, along a tributary of Collins Creek.
Five months later, there are still more questions than answers. After nearly three months of delays, the response to our request from UNC's Office of General Counsel was that we would need to pay $1,000 in advance and sign an agreement to pay up to $5,000 in additional costs to receive copies of records going back only five years (note: expansion plans were developed at least seven years ago). When we modified the request and asked to look at records first before copying, the response was that we would have to pay the same $1000 and sign the same agreement, just to inspect the records.
While we do not plan to pay to inspect state university records that belong to the public, we are pursuing our request for access to these records on issues of concern to immediate neighbors and the surrounding community. We hold UNC accountable for providing records before construction is complete and new operations begin.
Neighbors have legitimate concerns about environmental and human health impacts of air and water-borne toxins, pathogens and pharmaceuticals resulting from incineration and wastewater spraying, and impacts on wells, the aquifer and the regional water supply. Instead of creating obstacles for citizens seeking answers while moving ahead with construction, we believe the university should share our concerns, communicate with Orange County officials and citizens, and immediately provide records of its activities. Only with full, ongoing and timely disclosure of relevant information will we be assured that every possible precaution will be taken to protect the community from irreparable harm.
We will keep you informed as we learn more, and continue to post documents from the state, county
and university in the right hand column of this page.
________________________________
UNC LAB ANIMAL FACILITY
RESEARCH RESOURCE FACILITY
in Bingham Township
Community
members, along with Preserve Rural Orange researchers are gathering information on the $27 million
expansion of UNC’s animal research facility, the Research Resource
Facility (also called “The Farm”) at 1907 Orange Chapel Clover Garden
Road.
Phase III funding of $8.6 million for the facility was approved in the
same July 2008 NC Senate Bill 1925 that created the airport authority.
The approximately 50 acre property sits directly adjacent to the
southwest end of the Site H airport map. The university has owned and run the
facility for decades to raise lab animals for research. There are
already dogs on site and there will be pigs and rodents as well in the new
buildings.
There is a new animal waste lagoon, with plans to treat up
to 10,000 gallons of waste per day and spray with 800 spray heads into
the woods above a tributary which runs into Collins Creek. There is
also a human waste lagoon which has been expanded and an incinerator
with a record of emissions including mercury and propylene oxide. The
facility is planning to use 1000 gallons per day of well water.
We are contacting federal, state, county and university officials as well as
environmental groups to learn more about the facility, and to raise
awareness of its current and potential impact which most of us were
unaware of until now. If you have any additional information or would
like to join in our efforts, contact us at:
info@preserveruralorange.org
(from FPC UNC web page listed below)
"The University
has a master plan for the development of the Research Resource
Facility, which will accommodate several species of animals in multiple
buildings. The site for the facility is located in Orange County and
site plan approval from the county has been obtained. The University
now wants to implement the master plan in phases. Coordinate the
development of site infrastructure elements such as water supply and
sewage disposal, fencing, security and roads, as well as roughly a
dozen buildings planned to be constructed in a number of phases."
(From UNC Facilities Planning and Construction on the Research Resource Facility Waste and Waste Water)
